Summer sports include archery, basketball, boxing, canoeing, cycling, equestrian events (horseback riding), fencing, field hockey, gymnastics, handball, judo, rowing, shooting, soccer, swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball, water polo, weight lifting, wrestling, and yachting. Winter events include skating, skiing, bobsledding, luge, tobogganing, ice hockey, and the biathlon (skiing-shooting).
The most exacting track and field event is the decathlon (from the Greek words deka, meaning "ten," and athlon, "contest"). Contestants compete in ten different running, jumping, and throwing events. The athlete scoring the greatest total number of points is the winner. The pentathlon, consisting of five such events, was discontinued after 1924. It was restored in the 1948 games as the modern pentathlon, based upon five military skills--fencing, riding, running, shooting, and swimming. The marathon race, covering 26 miles 385 yards, honors the ancient Greek runner Pheidippides, who ran from Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory against the Persians.
Women take part in separate summer and winter events. Ten new women's summer competitions added in 1984 included the marathon and a 49-mile cycling event. The pentathlon, introduced in 1964, was replaced by the heptathlon, which consists of 100-meter hurdles, shot put, high jump, long jump, javelin throw, and 200- and 800-meter races. Additional events for women in the 1992 Winter and Summer Games included the biathlon, 10-kilometer walk, baseball, and judo.
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