2008 Beijing Olympics Sports Events

The program for the Beijing 2008 Games is quite similar to that of the Athens Games held in 2004. The 2008 Olympics will see the return of 28 sports, and will hold 302 events 165 men’s events, 127 women’s events, and 10 mixed events, one event more in total than in Athens.

Overall nine new events will be held, which include two from the new cycling discipline of BMX. Women will compete in the 3000 m steeplechase for the first time. In addition, marathon swimming events for men and women, over the distance of 10 kilometres, will be added to the swimming discipline. Team events men and women in table tennis will replace the doubles events. In fencing, women's team foil and women's team sabre will replace men's team foil and women's team epee.

The Beijing Organizing Committee have released pictograms of the 35 Olympic disciplines. This set of sport icons is named the beauty of seal characters, due to each pictogram's likeness to Chinese seal script.

The following are the sports to be contested at these Games. The number of events to be contested in each sport is indicated in parentheses.

* Aquatics
- Diving (8)
- Swimming (34)
- Synchronized swimming (2)
- Water polo (2)
* Archery (4)
* Athletics (47)
* Badminton (5)
* Baseball (1)
* Basketball (2)
* Boxing (11)
* Canoeing (16)
* Cycling (18)
* Equestrian (6)
* Fencing (10)
* Field hockey (2)
* Football (2)
* Gymnastics (18)
* Handball (2)
* Judo (14)
* Modern pentathlon (2)
* Rowing (14)
* Sailing (11)
* Shooting (15)
* Softball (1)
* Table tennis (4)
* Taekwondo (8)
* Tennis (4)
* Triathlon (2)
* Volleyball (4)
* Weightlifting (15)
* Wrestling (18)

FYI - 2008 Beijing Olympic Sports