Rugby

Rugby (rugby union, to be specific, to differentiate it from professional sport of rugby league) has been contested at the Olympics in 1900, 1908, 1920, and 1924. Amazingly, the defending Olympic champions are the United States – not known for their outstanding rugby teams – who won the gold medals in both 1920 and 1924. Six players have won two gold medals at the Olympics, all representing the United States, with the exception of Dan Carroll, who won a gold medal as part of the American team in 1920 but had already won a gold in 1908 representing Australasia.

World Rugby (WR) governs the sport worldwide and is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Founded in 1886 as the International Rugby Football Board, it was renamed to the International Rugby Board in 1996, and to its current name of World Rugby in 2020. It has 110 full member nations, with 19 associate unions as of 2022.

Rugby sevens, or seven-a-side rugby football with shorter periods, was approved for inclusion to the Olympic Program by the IOC Executive Board in 2001. This proposal was tabled by the IOC session, and dismissed at the 2005 IOC session, but it was again brought up in 2009, when the IOC approved it for inclusion in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and the discipline featured again at the program of Tokyo 2020.