Juggling's Olympic (non-) history

Now, you can think what you like about this aim. Personally, after a
whole lot of thought, I've decided I'm pretty ambivalent about the
idea. But I found the story that juggling was once an Olympic sport
interesting enough to do a bit of digging on the Internet and this is
what I found.

Fact 1. Juggling was never an Olympic medal or demonstration event in
any form. Confirmed by an exhaustive search of [1] (references
below).

Fact 2. Club swinging was definitely an Olympic medal event in two
Olympic games. In the 1904 games (St. Louis, USA) there were
three medals awarded in club swinging, all to Americans [1,
3]. In the 1932 games (Los Angeles, USA) there were four
competitors: three from the USA and one from Mexico. The
Americans swept the medals that year as well [1, 4].

Fact 3. Club swinging was not a medal event in the games of 1896,
1900, 1908, 1912, 1924, 1928 or 1936 [1, 5-11].

Fact 4. Club swinging of a sort has been back in the Olympics for some
years, as a discipline of rhythmic gymnastics. Rhythmic
gymnastics with clubs bears almost no resemblance to the club
swinging of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century:
it's much more of an artistic, gymnastic dance event and
involves "mills, rolls, twists, throws and... asymmetric
figures"[12]. So: "... throws..."; does that make it juggling?

I also came across a couple of unsubstantiated rumours that I couldn't
prove or disprove.

Rumour 1. In the club swinging event the competitors could optionally
juggle the clubs (reported at [13], apparently based on
information provided by the ISJF). This is not shown in any
of the Olympic games reports, some of which include event
rules [3-11]. It also seems unlikely to me since club
swinging as a gymnastic exercise was practised with two
clubs, not three and required a relatively stiff, upright
stance [14, 15].

Rumour 2. Club swinging was in the Olympics as late as 1948 (reported
at [14]). This seems unlikely to me given that [1] shows no
medals for dates other than 1904 and 1932. Club swinging
might have been part of the group gymnastic displays that
were Olympic events in some years; I couldn't find
confirmation.

If anyone out there has access to a really good sports library and can
prove or disprove these rumours, or add any other verifiable
information, I'd sure love to hear it.

Greg

REFERENCES

[1] Olympic Games Medalists http://www.gbrathletics.com/olympic/,
especially the Gymnastics section at
http://www.gbrathletics.com/olympic/gym.htm

[2] Olympic Games Official Reports available from
http://www.aafla.org/6oic/report_frmst.htm (warning: some of these
files are over 70 MB!)

[3] Spalding Almanac of the 1904 Olympic Summer Games from [2]

[4] Official Report of the 1932 Olympic Summer Games from [2]

[5-11] Official Reports of the Olympic Summer Games of 1896, 1900,
1908, 1912, 1924, 1928 and 1936 from [2]

[12] Rhythmic Gymnastics (Clubs) at
http://www.rsg.net/cgi-bin/show?information/clubs.html

[13] Scott Kurland on rec.juggling, archived at
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=u5uj15memud6fb%40corp.supernews.com

[14] Juggler's World: Vol. 43, No. 3 "Phineas Indritz: IJA Honors Its
'Attorney Juggler' in St. Louis. by Shelley Harris. Available at
http://www.juggling.org/jw/91/3/phineas.html

[15] "From Milo to Milo: A History of Barbells, Dumbells, and Indian
Clubs" Jan Todd, Iron Game History, 1995, No. 6, p. 4-16.
Available at
http://www.aafla.org/SportsLibrary/IGH/IGH0306/IGH0306c.pdf

I don´t think I want juggling to be in the olympics. It wouldent be as
special as it is today... But then again, it would be nice to se all those
great jugglers on the tele...

Would You like to se juggling in the olympics???

Sorry about my english

/Elias

----== posted via www.jugglingdb.com ==----

Sorry to revive an old post, but an unanswered question shouldn't go
unanswered.

Personnally i would like to see juggling in the olympics. It would help
juggling be more understood i think. It would make it a little bit more
mainstream, which i dont think would harm it.

I can only guess (if he would enter) anthony gatto would get gold, each
and everytime. If not, then my guess would be Thomas Dietz.

On the type of juggling, mmm...
my guess would be something like the WJF system
and numbers would be included i guess, so peter bone could be medelist for
england.

but this is all make belive right now, but maybe in a couple of decades...

who knows...

--

You're totally wrong about that - an unanswered question *should* go
unanswered, otherwise it wouldn't
be unanswered.

Tom

And if everyone thought that, the world would be a different place...
and the world would still be flat...

Unfortunately (fortunately?) you've got it exactly backwards --- an event
can't even be considered for addition to the Olympics until it's *already*
mainstream (i.e., practised competitively under a common set of rules in
at least 75 countries).

Greg

Oh Poo!

You mean the world isn't flat anymore ?
When did this happen?
Who changed it and why weren't we told ?
What shape is it now ?
Honestly you'd think we'd be consulted on such things.

Dave

Not that it's ever likely to happen, but if it did I'd like to see the
judging done on a similar basis to ice dancing.
i.e. one set of scores for technical skill added to another for artistic
interpretation, then perhaps the endless argument of sport versus art would
stop and people would finally acknowledge that juggling can be and is both.

Dave

Contrary to what you may think, the world isn't round (a sphere) either.
It's oblate.

~ Marden

I corrected one of my teachers on this point once. She argued with me,
then put me in detention for a week.

I was 8.

-Paul

A teacher at school (a rather weird one may i add) swore that the truth is
that the world is round, but we are on the inside. So, fly up, and we
would maybe be in australia. He said that this explained gravity, much
like being in a ball spun at a high speed, you are pushed onto the walls.

His brother was a famous scientist, and he was the oddball.
Incedently, his name was Mr Dawkins, and he liked his trousers up by his
armpits, and sported a fantastic comb-over, and enjoyed being an arse to
everyone he met.

He could not juggle, coincedence?
I think not!!!
;)

Or did you post your detention slip on Digg and whine about it 20 years
later?

Like this guy... http://www.digg.com/offbeat_news/Why_I_got_Detention

--
Andrew Gradisher

Looks like we are an awful long way from having it in the olympics
then, eh.

By the way, you know what's awesome? How you cited a Scott Kurland
post.

-andy

Dave Law <dave...@btinternet.com> wrote:

Like we say in Italy: holy words!!

Daniele
--
----== posted via Forté Agent 4.2 ==----

Exactly. I agree.