History
Tug-of-war, in some form, has been a sport in many countries through the course of history. An illustration from an Egyptian tomb dating to about 2000 B. C. shows a version of tug of war without a rope.
After that, we have to go well into the Christian Era to find further documentary evidence of the sport. In 13th-century China, teams practiced for competition at the emperor's court. About the same time, the Sun Temple of Konark, which has a bas-relief showing a tug-of-war contest, was being built in India.
A couple of hundred years later, Viking warriors had developed a sport called skin-pulling, in which an animal skin was used instead of a rope. To make it even more interesting, the teams were stationed on opposite sides of a firepit.
Korean tug-of-war is first mentioned in a geography book published between 1469 and 1494. The sport has been used in Korea as a way of settling disputes between neighboring villages. It's also an important part of communal rites designed to propitiate village gods. The world's largest tug-of-war contest is held every three years in a small town called Kijisi-ri Songak-myeon. More than 5,000 people pull at a rope that's 200 meters long and weighs 40 tons.
Tug-of-war has also existed, as a ritual or a sport, in the Congo, Indonesia, Myanmar (Burma), New Guinea, and New Zealand.
In England, the first tug-of-war contest was recorded in the 16th century, between two Norfolk villages. It's generally believed, though, that the modern competitive sport originated on the sea, specifically with the famous Cutty Sark. Richard Woodget, her captain from 1885 to 1895, used the tug-of-war to keep his crew fit and, probably, to sharpen their competitive instincts.
Reportedly, a British Army officer en route to India aboard a troop transport saw Cutty Sark crew members in a tug-of-war contest while in an Australian port. When he returned to his ship, he began using tug-of-war to keep his troops in shape. The sport quickly caught on among other military units in India and then elsewhere in the British Empire. Then it spread to quasi-military outfits such as police and fire departments.
Tug-of-war was governed by Great Britain's Amateur Athletic Association, the supervisory body for track and field. In other countries, too, it usually fell under the jurisdiction of the track and field governing body (the Amateur Athletic Union in the United States) and it was added to the Olympics in 1900 as a track and field discipline.
After 1920, though, tug-of-war was dropped from the Olympics. Most of the national bodies then lost interest in it, so tug-of-war enthusiasts began to put together their own organizations, beginning with Sweden in 1933. The Tug-of-War International Federation was founded in 1960 and conducted the first world championships in 1975. Women's competition was added in 1986.
The U. S. Amateur Tug of War Association (USATOWA) was founded in 1978.