12 Sports Too Bizarre to Be Real

Are you tired of the same sports and looking for something out of the ordinary? How about ironing a shirt at more than 5,000 meters of altitude or enchanting worms to leave the earth with a time limit? Interestingly, every year, hundreds of people all over the world come together to compete and enjoy the joy of these sports in various championships. However, this is not the end of the story: there are many other sporting events that are mixed with the well-known games and are really fun.

At the awesome.club we’ve prepared a list of 12 very strange and unusual sporting events that will challenge your perception of a traditional sport.

Each year a cheese Double Gloucester weighing between 7 and 9 pounds (about four kilograms) is dropped onto Cooper’s Hill near Gloucester, England, and competitors begin chasing him. However, the cheese can reach speeds of up to 112 kilometers per hour and the chances of catching it are very slim. So, the person who crosses the finish line first wins the cheese. If you decide to participate in this competition, you must be very careful as the uneven surface of Cooper’s Hill can cause serious injury.

Initially, people believed that chess boxing, invented by Dutch artist Iepe Rubingh, was an artistic spectacle and not a sport. Today, the game consists of 11 rounds, 6 being chess and 5 boxing. The contestant can win by knockout in the ring or checkmate on the board. In fact, it’s a good opportunity to test the competitors’ physical and mental abilities.

Enchant earthworms is a sport in which competitors are distributed on plots of approximately 3 m², where they try to extract the maximum amount of earthworms from the soil in just 30 minutes. Whoever gets the most worms wins! The world record belongs to 10-year-old Sophie Smith, who Wormworld World Championships 2009 managed to remove 567 earthworms.

Bubble football can be a lot of fun, not only for the players, but also for the spectators. Players are enveloped in inflatable bubbles that cover their upper body and head. The game was invented in Norway in 2011. A match is played by 2 teams, each with a maximum of 5 players. According to the rules, each team must have at least one girl as a participant on the field during the game.

The sport of wife-carrying was born in the small town of Sonkajarvi, Finland. Competitors run carrying their women on their backs through an obstacle course. The birth story of this game has its origins in the legend of Ronkainen the thief. According to one version, he and his band members stole food and women from neighboring villages and carried them on their shoulders as they fled. The Wife Carrying World Championship is held annually in Finland and the winner receives the equivalent of their partner’s weight in beer.

Swamp diving is probably one of the strangest sports on our planet. Every year in August, hundreds of swimmers from around the world gather in the small town of Llanwrtyd Wells in Wales, UK, to compete in the Swamp Diving World Championships. Competitors are required to wear a diving snorkel and fins, and complete two sections of a 55 meter trench without using traditional swimming styles.

Individual bamboo pole races are a traditional sport in southwest China’s Guizhou province. Competitors stand on a bamboo pole about 7 meters long and use a thinner pole as a paddle. Initially, bamboo pole running was not a sport but a means of transport in China. Today, bamboo is often replaced with similar-looking green fiberglass boards, but much more durable and stable.

The practice of radical passage, or Extreme Ironing, is the latest trend in “dangerous sports that combine the thrill of extreme outdoor activities with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt”. The contestants call themselves “Iromannes” and go to dangerous or remote places with an ironing board. Currently, there have been several forays into this sport, including in different activities such as going under water, on top of a mountain, in moving vehicles, in a canoe, in the middle of a busy street or when skiing, skydiving or snowboard.

This unusual sport involves 2 contestants who must try to dominate the opponent’s fingers and hold them for at least three seconds to win the round. Rounds are played first with the right foot and then with the left. This strange sport dates back to 1976, when a group of people from Staffordshire were looking for a sport that the British could win.

Two contestants try to stand on a floating log, causing the opponent to lose balance and fall into the water. Participants can use a variety of techniques to take down the opponent, such as kicking the torso, changing direction, etc. However, they cannot touch or cross the center line. This sport requires strength in the legs and a high level of balance and concentration.

It may sound quite strange, but water boxing is a great option for people who want to practice boxing but don’t want to receive hard blows to their face and body. Boxers have to hold their breath underwater for one minute, for 3 rounds, and come up to the surface to breathe a little between each round.

Sheep counting competitions have become quite popular in Australia in recent years. Unlike the mental exercise of counting sheep to sleep, this sport requires a lot of attention. Approximately 400 sheep are released from a pen and passed through 10 competitors who try to count them as accurately as possible. The person who says the exact number of them is the winner of the competition.

Have you ever thought about participating in any of these strange sports? Do you know any other sport that is stranger? Share your opinions with us in the comments!