WHAT EVENTS ARE PLAYED AT THE SUMMER OLYMPICS?

• ARCHERY There are both individual and team events in which archers battle in a seeded knockout tournament, firing arrows at a target from 70 metres.
 

• AQUATICS Aquatics consists of a range of sports including swimming, diving, synchronized swimming and water polo. Open water swimming is included for the first time this year.
 

• ATHLETICS There are 47 different athletics events at the Olympics, 24 for men and 23 for women. There is no 50km road walk for women, who also compete in the heptathlon rather than the decathlon, but otherwise the men's and women's events mirror each other.
 

• BADMINTON There are five Olympic tournaments in the world's fastest racquet sport: men's singles and doubles, women's singles and doubles, as well as mixed doubles. All are straight elimination events.

• BASEBALL Two teams take turns batting and fielding and the object is to score the most runs in nine innings. Baseball will disappear from the Olympics in 2012.
 

• BASKETBALL Each game consists of four periods of 10 minutes with five minutes overtime allowed if a match is tied. Olympic basketball gold medals have ended up in American hands more often than not.
 

• BOXING There are 11 weight categories contested in Olympic boxing - from light-flyweight (under 48kg) to super heavyweight (over 91kg). Only amateur boxers between the ages of 17 and 34 are allowed to enter.
 

• CANOE/KAYAK Men race in both canoes and kayaks, while women compete only in the kayaks.
Flatwater canoe and kayak racing was first seen at the Olympics with a demonstration competition in 1924, before it gained full medal status in 1936.
 

• CYCLING Men and women compete in all forms of cycling at the Olympics, although a handful of track events are only open to men. Road races take place in two forms - straight races and time trials.
 

• EQUESTRIAN The three equestrian disciplines - show jumping, dressage and three-day eventing, which have been part of the Olympic Games since 1912, are the only Games which allow men and women to compete on the same terms.

• FENCING Fencing is split into three disciplines defined by the type of weapon used. Epee events use a heavier blade, foil events use a lighter blade in which only the torso is a target, while the sabre is a light blade used to cut and thrust.

• FOOTBALL The Olympic football competition is effectively an under-23 World Cup with 16 teams competing in the men's tournament and 12 in the women's. Professionals are allowed to participate, but in the men's tournament each nation is restricted to only three players over 23 years of age.
 

• GYMNASTICS Olympic gymnastics consists of three disciplines; artistic, rhythmic and trampoline. Both men and women compete in gymnastics, although each discipline differs greatly with individual and team medals also competed for.
 

• HANDBALL Two teams of seven compete on indoor courts to score more goals than the other by throwing the ball into the opposing net. Halves last 30 minutes, with a 10-minute break in between.

• HOCKEY Field hockey is a 70-minute game split into two 35-minute halves, while extra time and a penalty stroke competition may be played in the event of a tie. Both sides field 10 outfield players and a goalkeeper.
 

• JUDO Judo is a traditional Japanese wrestling sport that dates back to the 1880s and means "the gentle way". Men and women compete in all seven weight classes, with men contesting bouts of five minutes and women four.
 

• MODERN PENTATHLON Modern pentathlon contains five sports - shooting, fencing, swimming, equestrian and running - which competitors undertake in the course of a day. It is the only event which was created specifically for the modern Olympic Games.
 

• ROWING There are 14 medal events in the Olympics with women competing in six of these.The competition is made up of heats with the winner progressing to a semi final or sometimes straight to a six-boat final.
 

• SAILING All 11 classes are sailed in a fleet racing format, whereby contestants will race in a group around a course of buoys. Each boat earns a score equal to its finishing position, with the eventual winner having the lowest score.
 

• SHOOTING The Olympics have 15 shooting events, six for women and nine for men. For the rifle and pistol categories competitors shoot at targets on the shooting range. The shotgun category sees competitors shoot at clay targets.

• SOFTBALL Softball is the sole women-only sport in the Olympics. The game is similar to baseball, with some key differences. Women's fast-pitch, the variation used is played over seven innings rather than nine, with a larger ball and pitching is underarm.
 

• TABLE TENNIS Table tennis lays claim to the title of the world's largest participation sport - a fact attributed to its immense popularity in the Far East. There are four Olympic table tennis tournaments - singles and doubles for both men and women.
 

• TAEKWONDO Taekwondo is one of many Korean martial art forms dating back to the early 20th century. Men and women each compete in four different weight classes ranging From 80kg and above in men to below 49kg in women.
 

• TENNIS All Olympic tennis competitions are decided on a knockout basis. Each nation may enter a maximum of six singles players and four doubles teams, who are put in different sections of the draw. For the singles competition 16 players are seeded, while the doubles draw includes eight seeded teams.
 

• TRIATHLON The Olympic triathlon, a continuous distance race consisting of swimming, cycling and running, is contested by men and women in individual races. The event is made up of a 1.5km swim followed by a 40km cycle and ending in a 10km run.
 

• VOLLEYBALL Indoor volleyball is played by teams of six over a maximum of five sets, with the first four won by the team who reaches 25 and the fifth by the team who reaches 15, though they must have a two-point advantage. The beach variety takes place on a smaller court with teams of two players.
 

• WEIGHTLIFTING There are two techniques in Olympic weightlifting - the snatch and the clean and jerk - both performed by each athlete. There are eight weight categories in the men's event, ranging from 56kg to over 105kg. In the women's there are seven, starting at 48kg and going through to the over 75kg category.
 

• WRESTLING Men's wrestling is contested in seven weight categories from bantamweight to super heavyweight. All seven are contested in both Greco-Roman and freestyle. For the women there is no Greco-Roman .

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