Cancelling Olympics an option if Covid situation worsens Mankind's love for guns has ensured that shooting sport has been part of every single Games -- barring 1904 and 1928 -- since the birth of the modern Olympic movement in 1896 in Athens. The sport, which started with military pistols and rifles, is today one of the most technical games on the Olympic curriculum with specialised, highly-sophisticated pistols, rifles and shotguns being used to assert superiority at ranges across the world. Despite having royal patrons such as Maharaja Karni Singh of Bikaner -- who earned world fame with his exploits in shotgun shooting -- and former Indian Olympic Association secretary-general Randhir Singh of Patiala, India came to the party late.