I know dressage has the freestyle and so do some other sports, but are there any other international sports that change the competition every single time? Jumpers face a new course every round, and eventers face new courses in jumping and xc.
I suppose it depends on how you want to look at it.
Gymnastic routines are all custom to that gymnast. Ditto figure skating.
There are plenty of events where the course varies at least by location, which means people would be competing on different courses as they move between competitions: downhill skiing/snowboarding stuff, cross-country skiing, marathons, boating, etc.
And there are plenty of sports where the general “arena” might be the same/pretty standard, but because you are competing against another person the competition never goes the same way twice/you have to come up with strategies for dealing with it even faster/for much longer than with a horse on a new course (e.g. tennis, volleyball, basketball, etc etc etc).
I bet the sports that involve some sort of dynamic competitive element far outnumber the ones where conditions are precisely and exactly controlled from one match and one competition to the next.
[QUOTE=Halt Near X;8770611]
I suppose it depends on how you want to look at it.
Gymnastic routines are all custom to that gymnast. Ditto figure skating.
There are plenty of events where the course varies at least by location, which means people would be competing on different courses as they move between competitions: downhill skiing/snowboarding stuff, cross-country skiing, marathons, boating, etc.
And there are plenty of sports where the general “arena” might be the same/pretty standard, but because you are competing against another person the competition never goes the same way twice/you have to come up with strategies for dealing with it even faster/for much longer than with a horse on a new course (e.g. tennis, volleyball, basketball, etc etc etc).
I bet the sports that involve some sort of dynamic competitive element far outnumber the ones where conditions are precisely and exactly controlled from one match and one competition to the next.[/QUOTE]
Sports where people directly compete against other people are different because one can never control for other people. A gymnast or figure skater or dressage rider doesn’t change their routine every competition while the physical elements are identical in every venue. In fact, identical physical elements are very much the rule in most sports. In sports like human cross country, different venues will be different, but if you run at that venue more than once, the track will most likely not deliberately change much from competition to competition. The weather conditions will change the course, but that would be common to all outdoor sports.
I compete in orienteering (not on an international level, but I know others who do) which is not in the Olympics but is recognized by the IOC . Not only do we have a different course every time we run, we are often going out onto a new map/terrain we have never before seen or trained on. If we do go back to the same location, there will be new courses. Since a large part of the sport is route choice between controls (checkpoints), different competitors will go many various ways as well even if they’re on the same course.
Eventually you may get some level of “home field advantage” if you spend a TON of time training, setting courses, or competing on one particular map. But then any map used for national or international competition is embargoed for several months to a year ahead of time so nobody can go there. (At times I’ve been embargoed from Fair Hill!)
Everything that takes place over an outdoor course has a lot of variability from one course to the next (i.e. hills, visability of competitors, turns): road biking, distance running, canoe, sailing. I think that mountain biking is somewhat similar to XC in that it depends on the natural terrain and on human-designed challenges. In the winter Olympics, there are a lot of variables that depend on the mountain/terrain in most of the downhill ski events. Also bobsled/luge courses have a lot of variation between courses. But I do think you have a point. There is a HUGE element of human course design in XC and stadium, that isn’t present in most sports. But then some other sports (like sailing, downhill ski) depend much more on weather and the elements of nature which can change unpredictably.
Pentathalon,…
For most outdoor sports there are also variables that change within the competition such as weather (wind, precip, etc) which can result in changing footing.
Things like skiing and snowboarding are changing. Even though it’s still a hill or a half pipe each one is different at each venue and each is different at different times of day, snowfall, etc.
Bobsled, luge, skeleton run on basic tracks but they’re different per venue.
Yachting 
speed and goal events are different each time, because doing something faster or more ardous is the whole point…a football game is not choreographed, ski runs take place over different terrain each time etc.
Events that are judged on an ideal standard, the point is that they are choreographed against a known ideal standard, dressage, figure skating, diving etc. Diving competitions they do the same old dive over and over and over and each diver does the same few variations of dives, but each dive is scored judged against the goal of perfection ( how close can they come to a perfect 10)
[QUOTE=kmwines01;8771247]
Things like skiing and snowboarding are changing. Even though it’s still a hill or a half pipe each one is different at each venue and each is different at different times of day, snowfall, etc.
Bobsled, luge, skeleton run on basic tracks but they’re different per venue.[/QUOTE]
Heck, order you go on the course in those can change the run from temperature changes and getting packed down.
