Sports

Played in short bursts with a stopped clock, so an hour of game takes three to watch. Every play is planned in advance.

Shooting at a target seventy meters away, where breathing and heart rate move the arrow as much as aim does.

The shuttlecock decelerates faster than any ball, so rallies mix the quickest smashes in sport with delicate net play.

Parachuting from a fixed object rather than an aircraft, with seconds instead of minutes to sort out a problem.

No clock at all: the game ends when the innings do, so it can last four hours or finish early.

Five a side, a hoop ten feet up, and a shot clock that makes stalling impossible.

Small bikes used for racing on dirt tracks or for tricks, depending on which discipline you mean.

Ten pins, two rolls a frame, and lane oil patterns you cannot see that decide how the ball curves.

Twelve rounds at most, scored round by round, and decided by judges unless somebody ends it early.

Competition climbing splits into speed, bouldering and lead, and asks three fairly different things of the same athlete.

Bat and ball on an oval field. The long form runs five days and can still end in a draw, which outsiders find hard to accept.

Competitive dance is scored like gymnastics, which is why its place on a sports list is a recurring fight.

Throwing at a board where the scoring rewards precision over power, in a room that treats it as entertainment.

One of the few sports where an animal is half the team, and the only Olympic sport where men and women compete together.

Competitive video gaming with leagues, transfers and salaries. Whether it belongs here is the argument itself.

Foil, epee and sabre, each with its own target area and right-of-way rules that decide who scores in a double hit.

Single-seater racing where much of the result is decided by the car, which is why the constructors have their own title.

Routines scored on difficulty and execution, judged by people, which is where most of the arguing comes from.

Seven a side, indoors, throwing at a goal. Fast, physical, and far bigger in Europe than anywhere else.

Six a side on skates, with substitutions made while play continues and a puck that moves faster than most people can track.

Throws and holds, with a match endable in a second by a clean throw. Grip fighting is most of the work.

A raider crosses into the other half, tags opponents, and has to get back — traditionally while holding a single breath.

Strikes scored on control rather than damage, so hitting too hard loses points.

Small chassis, no suspension, and where most professional racing drivers start.

Sticks with a net on the end, used to carry, pass and shoot. It comes from Indigenous North American games.

Striking and grappling in one ruleset, so a fighter has to be dangerous standing up and on the ground.

Motorcycle racing where riders lean far enough for a knee and an elbow to touch the track.

Off-road riding split between climbing-heavy cross-country and downhill runs that use lifts to get back up.

Stock car racing on ovals, where cars run close enough that aerodynamics make drafting a tactic.

Seven a side, no dribbling, no backboard, and each player restricted to part of the court by position.

Raced against the clock on closed public roads, one car at a time, with a co-driver reading the corners out loud.

Everyone faces backward, so nobody except the coxswain can see where the boat is going.

Thirteen a side, with a set number of tackles before possession changes. Faster and more structured than the union code.

Fifteen a side, and the ball can only be passed backward. Forward progress has to be carried or kicked.

The simplest sport to start and the hardest to stop arguing about, from park routes to marathons.

Street and park, judged on tricks landed. It arrived at the Olympics with its own culture already fully formed.

Alpine, cross-country, freestyle and jumping share a name and almost nothing about how they are trained.

Twenty-two balls on a table bigger than a pool table, played in near silence and scored in breaks.

One board, both feet strapped in, and disciplines that split between racing gates and being judged on tricks.

Baseball's cousin with a bigger ball, a smaller field and underarm pitching.

Both players share the same side of the court, which makes getting out of the way part of the rules.

Push the opponent out of the ring or make anything but their feet touch the ground. Most bouts are over in seconds.

Scored on the waves you catch, so the ocean decides how much material each competitor gets.

Four strokes, and races decided by hundredths. Turns and underwater phases matter as much as the swimming.

Spin does more work than speed, and the rubber on each side of the bat can behave completely differently.

Kicking-heavy, with scoring vests that register hits electronically to take the judges out of it.

Scored in a system that goes fifteen, thirty, forty, and a match has no time limit.