I’ve not had the time to post much recently, so this is a bit of a catch up post that I’ve been meaning to write for sometime. Of course, there’ll never be any sport that can get into my top ten spectator sports (Football, football (soccer), basketball, baseball, hockey, boxing, motocycle racing, F1, NASCAR, horse racing), but I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting sporting events. Even darts can have its attractions.
In my quest, I’ve come across a slew of unusual sports that I thought deserved a mention. Beleive it or not, they are real, genuine sports.
Wife Carrying
Wife carrying originated as a joke in Finland. It dates back to an old Finnish courting ritual which involved a man running to a woman’s village, picking her up, and carrying her off. The sport has since greatly grown in popularity and is practiced all around the world. More info here.
Bog Snorkelling
Like many other unusual sports bog snorkelling also evolved from a bar conversation, this time in Wales, UK. Bog snorkelling is a sporting event that consists of competitors completing two consecutive lengths of a 60-yard (55 m) water filled trench cut through a peat bog, in the shortest time possible.
Competitors must wear snorkels and flippers, and complete the course on flipper power alone. Wet suits are not compulsory, but are usually worn. I can see why.
Cheese Rolling
Competitors chase a round of cheese (traditionally Double Gloucester) down a hill in an attempt to see which is faster – human or cheese.
Extreme Ironing
Combining the thrill of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt, “competitors” travel the earth finding new and extreme places to iron a shirt. The official site extremeironing.com seems to be down at the moment, which is a shame because it’s a lot of fun.
Toe Wrestling
The rules are simple. With shoes off, the competitors face other toe-to-toe across the ‘toedium’, where they interlock their big toes and try to force each other off the toedium. The organizers applied for its inclusion in the Olympics in 1997, but it was rejected. Can’t think why.
To be honest, although Toe wrestling sounds ridiculous, it’s actually a lot of fun to watch, as are all these sports. Even if it’s just the once.
