10 crazy Olympics rules you didn't know about including facial hair bans and blood rags

The 2024 Paris Olympics consists of 32 sports, some of which are not often seen apart from the quadrennial global competition.

With over 17,000 athletes taking part in the French capital across 16 days of action-packed events, hundreds of medals have already been handed out.

But not every athlete stays on the right side of the rules, with disqualifications and punishments common due to the strict rules in place in some events.

Express Sport looks at 11 of the strangest and most bizarre rules at the Olympics, from cosmetic hygiene to staying completely silent during an event.

Basketball

You won't see a basketball player hanging from the hoop after completing a slam dunk at the Olympics, at least not legally.

The rulebook prohibits players from holding onto the rim after shooting due to the injury risk involved or potential damage to the equipment. However, dunking is allowed - as we saw with Joel Embiid during the USA's victory over France on Friday.

Beach volleyball

Coin tosses are used in several sports such as football to make objective decisions. Beach volleyball is another where it is utilised, but only to determine which team should change their uniform if they turn up wearing the same colour.

BMX

When you're hopping on the bike, don't forget to tuck in your shirt. Apparently BMX athletes are required to tuck in their clothing, even if it matches their bottoms, to prevent loose clothing from getting caught in the bike's machinery.

It's safe to say there may be more dangerous ways to get injured when participating in a BMX event than getting your clothes entangled, though.

Boxing

Competitors in the boxing event must be clean-shaven or have very limited facial hair. The rule was implemented to ensure cuts and injuries are easily visible to determine whether a fight should be stopped or if medical attention is required.

While a beard is not permitted, a pencil moustache is allowed.

Cycling

Another fashion-based rule means that cyclists can only wear their socks midway up their calf and they are measured by Olympic officials.

That's because longer socks can provide an aerodynamic advantage by reducing drag, and regulating sock length ensures all cyclists compete under the same conditions.

Equestrian

It's all about training and staying quiet in the equestrian event as a Swedish athlete found out at the 1932 Olympics. They clicked their tongue, which was deemed as a way of guiding the horse. And despite their protests, claiming it was due to the saddle, they were penalised.

Gymnastics

While gymnasts are allowed to wear colourful makeup to match their sparkling outfits, nail polish is not permitted.

But there is a good reason for this, as judges need to be able to determine the gymnast is of good health and maintaining healthy circulation in their body to participate.

Nail colour is one of several indicators to pass the check, so if athletes do want to apply nail varnish, it must be a neutral colour.

Swimming

Did you know that swimmers have to manually submit their world record times to be approved by the sport's governing body? That's right. World Aquatics, formerly known as FINA, manually receive the time and only accept submissions by fax.

That's unlikely to be much of an issue in Paris, though. Only one new world record has been set in the swimming, with La Defense Arena's shallow pool - which is 0.85m shorter than the ones at Tokyo and Rio - blamed for the slower swimming times.

Let's hope somebody told China's Pan Zhanle, who set the new 100m freestyle world record with a time of 46.40, to dust off his fax machine.

Water polo

Get the clippers out. According to rules in the lesser-seen water polo event, players are not allowed to have long nails as they can cause painful injuries underwater.

Last year, an Australian player Tilly Kearns posted her battle scars from a match where an opponent's nails went unchecked, leaving her with a sore chest and several scratchmarks.

And, if it wasn't already painstakingly obvious, players are strictly banned from grabbing other players in the groin area. But we shouldn't have to tell you that...

Wrestling

Olympic wrestlers must carry a handkerchief, known as a "bloodrag", somewhere in their uniform when wrestling.

This is used to clear up any residual blood during a bout. While that's quite uncommon as it isn't the same as boxing, the physical nature of wrestling can result in some blood being spilled.

In the event of bleeding, the wrestler will remove the cloth from their singlet and attempt to stop the bleeding or clean up any bodily fluids that may have gotten onto the mat.