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Ruleset

31 Olympic editions · 87 sources cited

Every sport is a set of rules that someone changed, for a reason, on a date.

Wikipedia will tell you that badminton switched to 21-point rally scoring in 2006. It will not tell you that the switch belongs to a wave of scoring rewrites driven by broadcast scheduling, or that it severed every match statistic before it from every one after.

Open the boardWhat a break is
break
A comparability break. The line stops, steps, and resumes on a different baseline. Nothing is ever drawn across the gap — here or anywhere else on this site.
350
rule changes

since 1867

75
sports researched

every family covered

102
comparability breaks

6 kinds

79
sports on a programme

Olympic, Asian, World

The spine

One time axis, every sport at once

350 rule changes across 75 researched sports. One lane per family under the classification lens you pick; cause is carried by the shape of the mark, never by a second colour. A step in a lane is a comparability break — the point at which a number series stops being continuous. There are 102 of them here.

Classification lens

How the winner is determined. This is the lens that answers the question the timeline exists to ask: do judged sports change their rules for different reasons than measured ones?

Date range

18612034350 of 350 on the board

Cause — carried by shape, never by colour
18801900192019401960198020002020Measured106 changes4 breaks 1905–19126 breaks 1946–197618 breaks 1980–201011 breaks 2011–20281905190719101911193719461946195219581961196919721976198019851988199219951999200020052005201220132018202020282028Judged35 changes8 breaks 1990–20192 breaks 2024–20281898192419521957199019901997199720042004201320132018201920242028Decided by score148 changesbreak 18683 breaks 1884–18882 breaks 1929–194010 breaks 1958–198720 breaks 1992–2021break 202318671868187418771884188718941894190219021923192419331935194019481950195819581965196519731974198019811987198819941995200020002004200820112015201820222025Combat57 changesbreak 1936break 19577 breaks 1976–20056 breaks 2009–20221925192519361957195819761976198419841992199220012003200820102011201520182022Self-officiated4 changes19681975198520141865–1869: 3 rule changes1870–1874: 1 rule change1875–1879: 1 rule change1880–1884: 1 rule change1885–1889: 2 rule changes1890–1894: 2 rule changes1895–1899: 1 rule change1900–1904: 6 rule changes1905–1909: 5 rule changes1910–1914: 3 rule changes1920–1924: 4 rule changes1925–1929: 6 rule changes1930–1934: 1 rule change1935–1939: 3 rule changes1940–1944: 1 rule change1945–1949: 3 rule changes1950–1954: 6 rule changes1955–1959: 9 rule changes1960–1964: 6 rule changes1965–1969: 7 rule changes1970–1974: 10 rule changes1975–1979: 12 rule changes1980–1984: 9 rule changes1985–1989: 13 rule changes1990–1994: 32 rule changes1995–1999: 26 rule changes2000–2004: 28 rule changes2005–2009: 21 rule changes2010–2014: 36 rule changes2015–2019: 48 rule changes2020–2024: 36 rule changes2025–2029: 8 rule changesHow thickly they fall, in five-year buckets

The deep layer

75 sports, one rulebook at a time

Each with its rule changes, a cause and a citation apiece, its laws in force, and the breaks those changes left in its numbers. These are the ones whose rules broke the most.

Browse all 75

The consequence

Four federations, four different answers

A rule change that severs a quantitative series leaves every governing body the same choice and gets a different answer each time. This site takes no position on which is right; it insists only that the distinction is recorded.

  1. 1986Record book resetThe marks were annulled and the list restarted.Athletics →
  2. 1991Rule changed, marks retainedThe rule changed; the old marks were allowed to stand.Bowling →
  3. 2011Measurement scale changedThe measurement scale itself was replaced.Archery →
  4. 1905Scoped to one competitionNo series exists for the sport, only for one competition.Air sports →

Read-only, static, and deliberately incomplete. Most citations name the right edition without a confirmed article number, and every one of those renders as incomplete rather than being quietly finished.

How far each citation has been checkedWhat this site refuses to do