Five little-known sports at the Paris Olympics

Handball

While popular in Europe, handball does not get much attention in the United States — likely because Team USA hasn't qualified in the event since 1996.

But the tournament itself is fascinating to watch. The rules are similar to soccer except, you guessed it, you can use your hands.

The games are played on hardwood floors and feature acrobatic goals like those from the Tokyo Games.

Surfing

Olympic surfing made its debut during the Tokyo Games in 2021 and will return this summer — just not physically in Paris.

The surfing events will instead be held in Tahiti — the main island of the Pacific nation of French Polynesia.

Some fans may have caught professional surfing competitions on television but newbies rest assured, the rules are simple. The bigger the wave and the more intricate the tricks are, the higher one's score is from the judges.

Ahead of the Paris Games, environmental activists protested the plan to hold the surfing events in Tahiti because organizers built the judges' watch tower on top of a coral reef just offshore.

Trampoline

While it's a separate sport, trampoline is technically part of the gymnastics program.

Like other gymnastics events, judges score an athlete's routine based on difficulty and execution.

The U.S. is sending two trampoline athletes, Alexi Shostak and Jessica Stevens, looking to earn America's first medal in the event since its introduction in 2000.

Sport Climbing

Another event to make its debut in Tokyo, sport climbing is split by gender and features two categories — Boulder & Lead and Speed Climbing.

The Boulder & Lead competition is where athletes have a set time period to navigate obstacles on an uneven wall and tally points per obstacle cleared.

Speed Climbing is just as it sounds, the fastest athlete to climb to the top of the wall wins.

The Paris Games will have plenty of unique sports to watch, leaving fans no shortage of action to enjoy and learn from.