Croquet was an Olympic sport.

Arts & Culture

A s the sport of breaking taught many viewers in 2024, some events only make it to the Olympics once. Among the more surprising athletic endeavors to receive that honor is croquet, which made its Olympic debut — and, it turned out, only appearance — at the 1900 Summer Games in Paris. A lot of unusual and short-lived events were held that year, including ballooning, water motorsports, and live pigeon shooting. Though usually associated with wealth and leisure today, croquet is believed to have originated with French peasants in the 13th century; the current form of the game traces back to England and Ireland in the 1830s.

As for why croquet appeared at the Olympics just once, well, only one spectator bought a ticket, and an official report from the 1900 Olympics claimed that the game had "hardly any pretensions to athleticism." All 10 of the sport's Olympians hailed from France, making it the only country to have medaled in croquet. Gaston Aumoitte won in both the singles (one ball) and doubles categories, with Georges Johin as his partner in the latter, and Chrétien Waydelich took home the gold in the singles (two balls) category.

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By the Numbers

Medals awarded at the 2024 Summer Olympics

1,039

Total Olympic medals won by the U.S., the most of any country

3,105

Did you know?

The Olympics went on hiatus for 1,500 years.

The first Olympic Games took place in — you guessed it — Olympia, Greece, in 776 BCE. The Games were contested every four years for a full 12 centuries, but that came to an end in 393 CE, when Roman Emperor Theodosius I forbade all pagan activities. It took a millennia and a half for the games to be revived in 1896 in Athens, following a conference featuring 79 delegates from nine countries that formed the International Olympic Committee (IOC). A total of 241 athletes representing 14 countries competed in 43 events, though the modern Olympics weren't immediately successful. World's fairs were far more popular at the time, and it wasn't until the 1924 Games in Paris that the endeavor truly found its footing due to increased media exposure and better funding. More than 1,000 journalists were present to cover those Games, including live radio coverage for the first time, and the number of countries competing increased from 29 to 44.