Thursday, June 5, 2014

Wide world of weird sports

There’s no shortage of oddball sports trying to attract fans.
In October 2010, I wrote about 10 such sports. They included women’s lingerie football (Legends Football League), competitive eating (Major League Eating), professional video game playing (Major League Gaming) and beer pong (World Series of Beer Pong).
Other websites have compiled their own lists of goofy sports. Here are a few notable ones. Let’s see how they stack up. Warning: there’s a good deal of overlap.

10 Quirky Sporting Events (Neatorama; Nov. 24, 2009)

1. Toe Wrestling
2. Cheese Rolling
3. Poohsticks
4. Extreme Ironing
5. Buzkashi
6. Cell Phone Throwing
7. International Regatta of Bathtubs
8. Chess Boxing
9. Unicycle Hockey
10. Rock Paper Scissors League

17 Sports You Didn’t Know Existed – videos (Huffington Post; June 28, 2011)

1. Beard championships
2. Gurning (competition to make the ugliest facial expression)
3. Canine freestyle dancing
4. Beer pong championships
5. Cheese rolling
6. Cup stacking
7. Blo-Ball
8. Wife carrying
9. Extreme ironing
10. Rock paper scissors
11. Shin-kicking
12. Toe wrestling
13. Pig-n-Ford Racing
14. Segway Polo
15. Chess boxing
16. Joggling
17. Competitive eating

The 10 Most Insane “Sports” in the World (Cracked; Sept. 26, 2007)

1. Royal Shrovetide Football
2. Kabaddi
3. World Mountain Bike Bog Snorkeling Championships
4. Chess Boxing
5. Jai-Alai
6. The Eton Wall Game
7. Buzkashi
8. Eukonkanto (Wife carrying)
9. Hurling
10. The Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling and Wake

The 10 Absolute Craziest Sports on the Planet (Bleacher Report; Sept. 20, 2011)

1. Mokomoko Boxing
2. Lingerie Football
3. Limbo Skating
4. Quidditch
5. Sumo Wrestling
6. Shin Kicking
7. Worm Charming
8. Wife Carrying
9. Bird Song Competition
10. Sepak Takraw

10 of Weirdest World Championships Around (Neatorama; Oct. 3, 2012)

1. Rock, paper, scissors
2. Four square
3. Stone skipping
4. Sauna endurance
5. Mobile phone throwing
6. Toe wrestling
7. Air sex
8. Swamp football
9. Bog snorkeling
10. Sumo suit athletics

6 Insane Sports That Could Be in the Next Olympics (Cracked; Aug. 20, 2008)

1. Dueling pistols
2. Tug of war
3. LeCanne (Canne De Combat)
4. Speed skiing
5. Wushu
6. Rotorsports

10 Odd Discontinued Olympic Sports (Listverse; Sept. 24, 2008)

1. Live pigeon shooting
2. Solo synchronized swimming
3. Dueling pistols
4. Rope climb
5. Standing triple jump
6. Tug of war
7. Roque
8. Jeu de paume (Game of palm)
9. Distance plunging
10. Swimming obstacle race

There’s even a book on the subject of weird sports: “No Dribbling the Squid: Octopush, Shin Kicking, Elephant Polo, and Other Oddball Sports” (2009) by Michael J. Rosen. It’s available from Amazon.com.

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