Sports, disciplines, events

For purposes of Olympic competition, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) makes a distinction between sports and disciplines. A sport, in Olympic terms, is a single or group of disciplines as represented by an international governing body, namely an International Federation.[2] For example, aquatics, represented at the Olympic level by the International Swimming Federation, is a sport at the Summer Olympics that includes the swimming, diving, synchronized swimming and water polo disciplines.[3] Skating, represented by the International Skating Union, is a sport at the Winter Olympics that includes both the figure skating and speed skating disciplines.[4]
Medals are awarded on a per-event basis; there can be one or more events per sport or discipline.[2]
For most of the 20th century, demonstration sports have been included in many Olympic Games, usually to promote a non-Olympic sport popular in the host country, or to gauge interest and support for the sport.[5] Some such sports, like curling, were subsequently added to the official Olympic program. This changed when the International Olympic Committee decided in 1989 to eliminate demonstration sports from Olympics Games after 1992.[6] Although no demonstration sports have been included since then, as an alternative, the Beijing Organizing Committee received permission to organize a wushu tournament for the 2008 Summer Olympics.[7][8]

Sport (disambiguation).

Sports is an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determiner of the outcome (winning or losing), but the term is also used to include activities such as mind sports (a common name for some card games and board games with little to no element of chance) and motor sports where mental acuity or equipment quality are major factors.