Olympic Sport (3 photos)

In 1900, at the Summer Olympics in Paris, this sport caused, on the one hand, excitement among spectators, and on the other, no less a surge of criticism.

For this reason, no more competitions in this discipline were held at the Olympic Games.





In 1900, at the Summer Olympics in Paris, Pigeon Shooting was included in the list of disciplines.

The birds were released from the cage, after which the athletes took turns shooting at them with a rifle. Anyone who missed twice in a row was eliminated from the race.

A total of 166 shooters shot about 400 birds.



The champion in this sport was Belgian Leon de Lunden (pictured), who shot 21 pigeons and received a prize of 5,000 francs.

In 1902, after protests from animal rights activists, live birds were replaced by clay models thrown into the air.