Fireworks explode above the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

© Buda Mendes/Getty Images

Fireworks explode above the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The world’s greatest athletes competing for Olympic gold in Brazil - that’s something worth fireworks and loud cheering. As years of preparation culminate in this time-honoured sporting spectacle, we wonder what the Olympians of old would make of its newer sporting disciplines: trampolining, kitesurfing, skateboarding… we think they’d want to have a go themselves!