Extinct Olympic sport sees re-evaluation

A now-extinct Olympic sport described as the weirdest, least strenuous, and “eye-glazingly dull,” deserves a little more respect, a BBC journalist argued. The distance plunge, which debuted at the 1904 Olympics only to be canceled four years later, involved the competitor doing a casual 18-inch dive, and then slowly, without moving a muscle, gliding along the water.

The winner was whoever could glide the farthest without lifting their face or achieve the longest distance within a minute. The sport was excoriated in the press, but advocates said spectators were just unable to see the “subtle finessing” it required.