Olympic sport wheel

What is on the wheel

Paris 2024 had 32 sports. Some of those are umbrella sports: aquatics covers swimming, diving, artistic swimming, water polo and marathon swimming, and cycling covers road, track, BMX and mountain biking. Splitting them gives 45 summer slices, which makes a better quiz than “Aquatics” would. The 16 winter slices are the disciplines of Milano Cortina 2026, where ski mountaineering made its Olympic debut.

The program changes for every Games. Breaking (breakdancing) debuted in Paris but is not on the Los Angeles 2028 program, which adds baseball and softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash. Edit the list to match the Games you are following.

A classroom mini Olympics

Spin for the next event, then play a safe gym or playground version. Some that work for ages 6–11:

• Curling: slide beanbags along the floor toward a hoop target; closest to the center scores.
• Archery or shooting: toss soft balls or beanbags into hoops at 3, 5 and 7 meters for 1, 2 and 3 points.
• Athletics: a 20-meter relay with a baton, or a standing long jump measured with a tape.
• Weightlifting: hold a light ball overhead with straight arms while the class counts to 20. No real weights.
• Bobsleigh: teams of four line up, hands on shoulders, and walk quickly around a cone course without letting go.

Turn on Remove the winner after each spin so every event is new, and put the wheel in full screen on the projector so the whole class sees the draw.

Quiz and research ideas

• Summer or winter: a quick round for younger players.
• Name an athlete: one point for anyone who has competed in the sport at the Olympics.
• Research card: each student spins a sport and finds when it joined the Games, how scoring works and which countries tend to win medals.