#13: Underwater Swimming — Paris 1900
Another one-off Paris experiment asked athletes to travel as far as possible completely underwater. Competitors scored points based both on distance and on the amount of time they remained submerged, creating an event that rewarded slow, efficient breath-holding rather than ordinary racing speed. Charles de Vendeville of France won. Spectators, however, faced one obvious design flaw: once the athletes went underwater, there was very little visible action. An Olympic sport that disappears from view during competition probably always had limited television potential.
