Yakov Zheleznyak, an Ukrainian Jew, won an Olympic gold medal for shooting a pig. Well, a boar, to be exact.

No, this did not come at those famed 1900 Paris Olympics that included cannon shooting and pigeon racing (but not cannon racing or pigeon shooting...) Zheleznyak's medal came in much more recent 1972. In fact, it was the first time the event was contested at the Olympics. Previously, athletes (these shooters are athletes, right?) shot a deer.

Call us as confused as you are. Surely, as a Soviet Jew, Zhelznyak didn't exactly keep kosher, but... shooting a pig? For an Olympic medal?

To drop the ruse: no, it wasn't an actual pig. It was a moving target painted like a pig (well, a boar). And so was the original deer... but why make the switch from a fake deer to a fake pig? Did it really make a difference?

In any case, at some later point the boar was in turn replaced, this time by a simple circular target. By 2008, the event was removed from the Olympics altogether...

Good luck getting another Jewish Olympic shooting champion!