Pull for Gold: For twenty years, tug of war bathed in Olympic glory. It’s time for a revitalization.
For twenty years, tug of war bathed in Olympic glory. But since 1920, the sport has drifted into obscurity. It’s time for a revitalization.
“Tug of war wants to be an Olympic sport?” This question is often accompanied by a shake of the head - despite the fact that tug of war was part of the Olympic calendar from 1900 until 1920. During the “Intercalated Games” of 1906, a team comprised of weightlifters and gymnasts won the gold medal. Indeed, the sport is one of the world’s oldest. It originated from the rites of many tribes and countries: some used a rope to stage contests between good and evil, others tried to forecast the weather or plant growth. We know of competitions in China and Korea as early as the year 1000, when whole villages competed against one another to resolve disputes.
When tug of war became an Olympic sport, it was grouped as an “athletic event” alongside track and field, since it was held inside the Olympic stadium. Things went well until the inauguration of the International Association of Athletic Federations in 1912. It questioned why one of its sports required the weight of the athletes to be recorded before the competition. When the number of sports and athletes was reduced after the 1920 Olympics (as a consequence of World War I and the Great Depression) to keep the Games attractive to potential host cities, tug of war caught the short end of the rope and was cut. It completely disappeared from the international stage and was relegated to obscurity in many countries.
One of the few countries that continued to cultivate tug of war as an athletic event was Germany.
In 1974, Germany was admitted to the Tug of War International Federation (TWIF), which had been founded in 1960.