*(CNN) — Nearly 50 summer sports — including long-discontinued ones like motorboating and tug-of-war — have made appearances at the Olympic Games since its start in 1896. This year, athletes are competing across 32 sports and 329 events at the Paris Olympics. That’s more than three times the number of sports featured at the very first modern Games held in Athens 128 years ago, according to a CNN analysis of Olympic Studies Centre data.
Breaking, or elite breakdancing, is the newest addition to the summer lineup. The sport was proposed by the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games along with skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing — which made their debut at the last summer Olympics in Tokyo — in an effort to attract a new, younger audience.
Only five sports — aquatics, athletics, cycling, fencing, and gymnastics — have appeared in each of the 30 iterations of the Olympic Games. Others, such as croquet and karate, have had much shorter Olympic runs and were discontinued immediately after their debut.
Sports that have made strong comebacks over the years include archery, golf, rugby, and tennis. These four were introduced in the early years of the Games, then were left out for more than five decades before being reintroduced. All four have made the 2024 program.
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