The standing jumps

The standing long jump was an Olympic event from 1900 to 1912. The standing triple jump was an event in 1900 and 1904. The USA's Ray Ewry (below) won eight gold medals in the two events, making him the all-time king of those events. He overcame childhood polio in order to become an international champion.

It seems that each year we see new obscure and contrived events being added to the Olympic program. I mean, even beach volleyball is an Olympic event, for crying out loud! It is curious to me why some of these far-fetched items should be added and the standing jumps should have been removed. Norway is the only country today in which the standing long jump is awarded a national championship.