The Olympics were halted in 394 a.d. by the Christian emperor Theodosius, who said they were a “pagan celebration” (Zeus favored the hammer throw). They were revived in 1892 by a Frenchman who wanted the French to become more fit in case they had another war with Germany – gee, what were the odds of that?
Judging from history, I don’t think being able to win a fencing medal helped much in either world war, and they didn’t have an Olympic “grenade toss” or “dodge the bullets” event, although the biathlon made sense: ski your butt off then shoot holes through the enemy!
In 1904, they removed the human targets from the javelin toss, and in 1912, after several accidents, they dropped the “shoot the apple off the judge’s head” event in archery.
The Russians tried to get the “Molotov Cocktail Toss” into the 1908 Olympics in Moscow but no one saw the value before the invention of tanks. In 1984, the Afghanis tried to implement the “Stinger Missile Skeet Shoot” to no avail. In 1994, the Olympic Committee rejected the US entry: "Drive-by Roller Derby".
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