14 Backyard Water Olympics Games
Ready, Set, Splash! Dive into a splash-tacular summer with our Ultimate Guide to a Water Olympics showdown! Whether you’re looking to beat the heat or battle for bragging rights, these games promise to bring the competition—and the laughs. So, grab your swimsuits and competitive spirit—it’s time to make a big splash and find out which team will be the ultimate Backyard Water Olympics champion!
We’ve even created a Backyard Water Olympics Scorecard 🗒️ to get you started!
1. Water Balloon Relay
Supplies: water balloons 🎈 and 2 laundry baskets 🗑️
Prep:
- Place a laundry basket on one side of the yard for each team.
- Fill a bin or cooler with water balloons and set it on the opposite side of the yard.
How to Play: For this relay, one player from each team will stand across the yard holding a laundry basket on top of their head. One player at a time takes turns tossing water balloons across the yard, aiming for the basket. Players holding the basket may move around, but the basket must remain on their heads. After time is called, count how many balloons landed (and stayed) in the basket!
How to Win: 🏅 Team with the most water balloons in their basket wins! Add points to your Water Olympics Scorecard.
2. Sponge Run
Supplies: 2 large sponges 🧽 and 4 buckets 🪣
Prep:
- Set up two stations for each team.
- On one side of the yard, fill a bucket with water and place a sponge inside.
- Directly across the yard, place an empty bucket for each team.
- Use tape or a marker to draw a “fill line” on each empty bucket. That’s the finish line!
How to Play: This game is played relay-style. The object of this game is to be the first team to fill a bucket with water! Simple enough, right? One player at a time will soak the sponge, balance it on their head, and race to the empty bucket to wring it out. Then they run back and tag their next teammate. Continue the relay until one team fills their bucket to the marked “fill line”.
How to Win: 🏅 The first team to fill their bucket to the “fill line” is the winner! Award points to the winning team and add them to your Water Olympics Scorecard!
3. Water Bottle Relay
Supplies: 2 empty water bottles, 4 buckets 🪣
Prep:
- Set up 2 stations for each team.
- Fill up 1 bucket of water per team. Then place an empty water bottle inside the bucket of water.
- Directly across the yard place an empty bucket for each team. Use tape or a marker to draw a “fill line” on each empty bucket. That’s the finish line!
How to Play: Ready, set, TOSS! Player 1 will dunk their water bottle into a full bucket of water, filling it and tossing it to their teammate across the yard. Player 2 then catches the water bottle and empties it into their empty bucket. Then, players run across the yard and switch roles.
How to Win: 🏅 Continue this relay until one team fills their bucket to the “fill line”, noted by a piece of tape or a marker. The first team to fill up their bucket wins! Award points to the winning team and add them to your Water Olympics Scorecard!
4. Water Pipeline Challenge
Supplies: 2 plastic cups 🥤 and 2 buckets 🪣
Prep:
- Each team will form a line.
- Place a full bucket of water at the front of each line and an empty bucket in the back.
- Place a plastic cup inside each of the buckets at the front of the line.
How to Play: For this game, each team should get in a single file line between their two buckets. Players pass a cup of water from front to back, alternating over their heads and under their legs. The last player dumps the remaining water into the empty bucket and runs to the front to continue the relay.
How to Win:🏅 Set a time limit. The cycle continues until time is called. The Team with the most water in their bucket when time’s up wins! Add designated amount of points to your Water Olympics Scorecard.
5. Dizzy Waiter
Supplies: 2 trays, 2 pool noodles, plastic cups🥤, 4 buckets 🪣
Prep:
- Fill two buckets with water and place them at one end of the lawn – one at each team’s station.
- Set a tray and pool noodle next to each bucket.
- On the opposite side of the lawn, place an empty bucket directly across from each team’s station.
- Use tape or a marker to create a fill line on each empty bucket. That’s the finish line!
How to Play: This relay-style Water Olympics game will put your balance to the test! One player from each team starts by spinning around a pool noodle seven times. Then, they carefully place several cups of water on their tray and carry it across the lawn to their team’s empty bucket. Once they reach the bucket, they pour any remaining water into it, then carry the tray and cups back to their team and tag the next player. Continue taking turns until one team reaches the fill line or every player has completed the relay.
Pro Tip: While your teammates are spinning around the pool noodle, the rest of the team can help by refilling their water cups.
How to Win: 🏅 The first team to reach the fill line wins! If neither team reaches the line after all players have gone, the team with the most water in their bucket is the winner. Add designated points to your Water Olympics Scorecard!
6. Water Gun Relay 🔫
Supplies: 2 water guns 🔫 and 4 buckets 🪣
Prep:
- On opposite ends of the yard, place an empty bucket for each team.
- Create a boundary line around each team’s bucket using cones or other objects that players may not cross.
- Fill one bucket with water for each team (for refilling) and place them in a separate part of the yard.
How to Play: This Water Olympics game is all about defense! The goal is to keep your team’s bucket as EMPTY as possible while trying to fill your opponents’ bucket using only water guns. Players can refill their water guns from their full water bucket and spray water toward the opposing team’s bucket from behind the boundary line. Each team may choose one “goalkeeper” to stand inside of their boundary line and use their body to block incoming streams of water. Goalkeepers may not touch or move the bucket.
How to Win: 🏅 Team with the least amount of water in their bucket at the end wins! Add points to your Water Olympics Scorecard!
7. Drip, Drip, Drench (a twist on Duck, Duck, Goose)
Supplies: 1 sponge 🧽 , 1 bucket of water 🪣
Prep: Fill a bucket with water and soak the sponge. Have players sit in a circle on the grass.
How to Play: One player starts as “it” and walks around the outside of the circle, gently squeezing a few drops of water onto each player’s head while saying, “Drip, drip, drip…” At any moment, they can choose a player, shout “Drench!” and squeeze the entire sponge over that player’s head. The drenched player jumps up and chases “it” around the circle. Meanwhile, “it” tries to race around the circle and sit in the drenched player’s spot before being tagged.
If “it” is caught before sitting down, they remain “it” for another round. If they make it safely to the open spot, the drenched player becomes the new “it.”
How to Win: 🏅 Play just for laughs or give points to the team with the most successful “catches”! Add them to your Water Olympics Scorecard.
8. Sponge Dodgeball
Supplies: 8–10 soaked sponges 🧽
Prep: Place soaked sponges in a line down the center of the lawn. Each team will then line up on and stand on opposite sides of the lawn.
How to Play: Each team will line up on opposite sides of the lawn. On “GO!” players run to grab sponges and try to hit players on the opposing team. (Dodgeball-style) If you’re hit, you’re out. If you catch a sponge thrown by the opposing team, the thrower of the sponge is out.
How to Win:🏅 The team with the last man standing wins! Add designated points to your Water Olympics Scorecard.
9. Shaving Cream Water War
Supplies: 2-4 cans of shaving cream, swimming goggles 🤿 , and water guns 🔫
Prep: Each player covers themselves in shaving cream – from head to toe – avoiding the eyes and mouth. (1-2 cans of shaving cream should be allotted per team.) Players should wear swimming goggles for eye safety.
How to Play: Players try to wash shaving cream off of their opponents using water guns, while keeping as much on theirselves as possible.
How to Win: 🏅 Team with the most shaving cream left after time runs out wins! (This may be subjective, so recruit unbiased judges!) Add points to your Water Olympics Scorecard.
10. Pool Noodle Joust
Supplies: 2 pool noodles, sprinklers
Prep: The key to an epic pool noodle joust in the heat of summer is to simply… turn on the sprinklers! Have each team choose one jouster.
How to Play: For this Water Olympics game, each team nominates one representative to participate in a pool noodle joust against the other team. The two chosen players face off with pool noodles. First player to land 3 light taps (“jousts”) on their opponent wins the round.
How to Win: 🏅 Team with the winning jouster earns the points! Add them to your Water Olympics Scorecard.
11. Water Balloon Pop
Supplies: Water balloons 🎈, plastic forks 🍴, blindfolds, twine or string
Prep:
- Hang about 20 water balloons for each team (in different colors) on a clothesline or tree at random.
- Designate a specific color for each team’s water balloons.
- Teams will designate one player to be blindfolded and handed a plastic fork.
How to Play: The goal of this Water Olympics game is to be the first team to pop all of your own balloons! One blindfolded player from each team enters the play area at a time, armed with a plastic fork. Teammates stand at a distance, giving verbal directions to guide their blindfolded player toward their team’s balloons.
Here’s the twist: both teams will be playing at the same time, which means two sets of instructions are being shouted at once! With all the noise, blindfolded players can easily get turned around—and might even pop a balloon for the wrong team. No physical guiding is allowed, so communication is key!
How to Win: 🏅 First team to pop all of their own balloons wins! Add points to your Water Olympics Scorecard.
12. Frozen T-shirt Race
Supplies: 2 frozen t-shirts 👕🧊
Prep: Soak t-shirts in water, wring them out, and freeze them overnight.
How to Play: On “GO!” each team races to thaw out their frozen t-shirt using only their hands and body heat. The first team to have a player wearing the frozen t-shirt wins!
How to Win:🏅Winning team scores the points! Add them to your Water Olympics Scorecard.
13. Slip-n-Slide Bowling
Supplies: Slip ’n slide, 6 empty plastic liter bottles (bowling pins), 1 inflatable beach ball 🏖️
Prep: Set up a slip ’n slide on a gentle downhill slope or grassy area. Line up 6 empty liter bottles like bowling pins at the end.
How to Play: One player at a time runs and slides down the slip ’n slide, trying to knock over as many “pins” as possible using their body or by launching the beach ball ahead of them.
How to Win: 🏅 Team with the highest total number of pins knocked down after all players go wins! Add them to your Water Olympics Scorecard.
14. Wet-n-Wild Kickball
Supplies: 1 Kickball ⚽, 4 bases, Slip ’n slide 🛝, 2 Plastic Kiddie Pools, 1 Bucket 🪣
Prep:
- Set up a standard kickball field with four bases.
- Fill a bucket and place it at 1st base.
- Fill one kiddie pool with water and place it at 2nd base.
- Fill the second kiddie pool with water and place it at 3rd base.
- Place the slip ‘n slide between 3rd base and home plate, so players can slide into home.
How to Play: Divide players into two teams for this Water Olympics game. One team kicks while the other team plays the field. The pitcher rolls the ball toward home plate, and the kicker attempts to kick it into play. After kicking, players run the bases just like traditional kickball – but with a splash-filled twist!
Here’s the twist: Players do not have to stop at every base. However, when a runner decides to stop at a base and claim it as “safe,” they must complete that base’s water challenge. (see below)
- At 1st base, runners must dunk their head in the bucket of water.
- At 2nd base, runners must sit down in the kiddie pool.
- At 3rd base, runners must sit down in the kiddie pool.
- To score a run, players must slide down the Slip ‘n Slide and touch home plate.
Fielders work together to retrieve the ball and get runners out by tagging them with the ball or by catching the ball after it is kicked.
How to Win: 🏅 Play for a set number of innings or a set amount of time. The team with the most runs at the end of this Water Olympics game wins! Add them to the Scorecard.
🏁 Ready to Compete?
With the games set, the water balloons filled, and the scorecard printed, you’re officially ready to host your very own Backyard Water Olympics! Whether you’re playing with neighbors, cousins, or your crew of campers, these games are guaranteed to bring out the laughs.
Don’t forget to [download our Backyard Water Olympics Scorecard🗒️] to track points and declare your champions!
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