98 Fun Facts About Unusual Sports

The Wife Carrying World Championships are held in the village of Sonkajärvi in which country?

Finland's village of Sonkajärvi first staged the race in 1992; local tales trace it to a 19th-century forest robber whose gang was said to carry off women from nearby villages.

Which hip-hop group released 'Da Mystery of Chessboxin'' in 1993, a decade before chess boxing became a real sport?

Wu-Tang Clan took the title from a 1979 kung fu film, The Mystery of Chess Boxing; the real sport arrived in 2003, when performance artist Iepe Rubingh staged the first bouts of alternating chess and boxing rounds.

Which team sport, known as Octopush in the UK, is played on the bottom of a swimming pool?

Underwater Hockey was first called Octopush because its original rules had eight players a side, the 'octo', pushing a lead puck along the pool floor with a small bat known as a pusher.

Which Southeast Asian sport has players use feet, knees, chest and head to send a rattan ball over a net?

Sepak Takraw got its name by committee: officials from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Myanmar met in 1960 to standardise the game, joining Malay 'sepak', kick, to Thai 'takraw', the woven ball.

What Central Asian equestrian sport has horse-mounted players dragging a headless goat carcass to a scoring area?

Buzkashi is Afghanistan's national sport; the Taliban banned it as immoral during their first spell in power, and matches resumed once they were ousted in 2001.

Which sport did Phil Shaw invent in his Leicester garden in 1997 by taking a household chore to wild places?

Extreme Ironing began when Shaw came home from a hard day at a knitwear factory to a pile of ironing; he would rather have gone rock climbing, so he combined the two.

Zorbing, rolling downhill inside a giant inflatable ball, was first commercialised in the 1990s in which country?

New Zealand's ZORB company was set up in 1994 to build balls big enough for people and opened the first zorbing site at Rotorua, where riders still slosh downhill with water inside the ball.

Which company's trademark on the word 'quidditch' helped push the real-life sport to rename itself quadball in 2022?

Warner Bros. owns the name, so the leagues chose 'quadball', after the game's four balls, both to avoid a trademark dispute and to step away from J.K. Rowling.

What do racers chase down Cooper's Hill in Gloucestershire each spring?

A wheel of cheese, a 7 to 9 lb Double Gloucester given a one-second head start, is never actually caught: the first runner to the foot of the steep hill wins it.

Which sport, played on an inflatable court with trampolines, combines volleyball, soccer and gymnastics?

Bossaball took shape in Spain in 2004; its name borrows from bossa nova because the game sets out to blend sport with music.

In the Frisian sport of fierljeppen, athletes use a long pole to vault across what?

A canal is the obstacle: the name is Frisian for 'far leaping', and jumpers sprint to a tall pole, climb it as it tips across the water and drop onto a sand bed on the far bank.

Which horseback game, once played with a live duck in a basket, is Argentina's official national sport?

Pato was banned several times for its violence, which killed riders as well as ducks, before President Juan Perón declared it Argentina's national game in 1953; today a ball with handles replaces the bird.

What sport combines basketball with trampolines on a spring-loaded court?

SlamBall was sketched on a napkin by Mason Gordon, who wanted a real sport that played like a video game; four trampolines in front of each hoop launch players into mid-air collisions.

The 2016 World Drone Prix, a drone race with a record $1 million prize fund, was flown in which city?

Dubai staged what was then the biggest and richest drone race; pilots steer wearing goggles that show a live feed from the craft's camera, so they see only what the drone sees.

American stone-skipping records count bounces; what do Scotland's World Stone Skimming Championships measure instead?

Distance decides it on Easdale Island, whose abandoned slate quarries left both a flooded arena and millions of flat stones; the best throws reach the quarry's back wall.

In what contact sport do teams of skaters on an oval track score by having a 'jammer' lap opponents?

Roller Derby began in 1935 as Leo Seltzer's skating marathon, a simulated cross-country race; sportswriter Damon Runyon then urged him to play up the collisions, and a contact sport was born.

Calcio storico, a brawling early form of football with 27 players a side, is played each June in which Italian city?

Florence stages the matches in Piazza Santa Croce, with the final on 24 June, its patron saint's day; in 1530 the city famously played a match in defiance of the imperial army besieging it.

In wife-carrying, what is the 'Estonian style' hold?

Passenger upside-down on the back, legs over the carrier's neck and shoulders; piggyback and fireman's carry are the alternatives, and there are generally no rules about gender or marital status.

Which sport's world championship is raced along a water-filled trench at Llanwrtyd Wells in Wales?

Bog Snorkelling racers must cover two 60-yard lengths of a trench cut through peat on flipper power alone: masks and snorkels are compulsory, and conventional swimming strokes are banned.

Chess boxing was inspired by Froid Équateur, Enki Bilal's 1992 work in which medium?

Graphic novel pages by the Belgrade-born French artist showed a chess boxing world championship; they inspired performance artist Iepe Rubingh, who staged his first real competition in 2003.

At Turkey's Kırkpınar festival near Edirne, wrestlers grapple covered in what?

Olive oil makes skin too slippery to grip, so wrestlers work for a hold inside each other's kispet, heavy leather trousers; the winner takes a golden belt and the title of chief pehlivan.

Why must a kabaddi raider keep chanting 'kabaddi'?

To prove it is done on a single breath: the chant, known as the cant, shows officials that the raider is not inhaling, and a raider who breaks it hands a point to the other side.

Which South Asian country, where kabaddi is known as ha-du-du, designated it the national sport in 1972?

Bangladesh designated kabaddi its national sport in 1972, the year after independence; in India, where the modern game took shape, it is the official game only of individual states.

Why was Octopush invented in 1954?

To keep sub-aqua club members active in winter was Alan Blake's aim: open-water diving lost its appeal in the cold, so his Southsea club took to a Portsmouth pool, and by early 1955 Bournemouth and Brighton had joined a tournament.

Ashbourne's Shrovetide footballers are Up'ards or Down'ards depending on which side of what they were born?

The brook, the Henmore, splits the sides: those born north of it are Up'ards, those to the south Down'ards, and a goal means tapping the ball three times on a millstone three miles from the other goal.

Ferret-legging, keeping live ferrets inside one's trousers, is said to have been popular among which workers?

Yorkshire coal miners are said to have made it a pastime; Barnsley's Reg Mellor set a record of 5 hours 26 minutes in 1981 that stood until 2010, though his bid for six hours ended when the bored crowd drifted off.

Oina, a bat-and-ball game said to date back to 14th-century Wallachia, is a traditional sport of which country?

Romania's education minister Spiru Haret put oina on the school timetable in 1899 and organised the first annual competitions, turning a village pastime into an organised sport.

Shin-kicking is a star event of which English games, first held around 1612 and revived for 1951's Festival of Britain?

The Cotswold Olimpicks, begun by lawyer Robert Dover near Chipping Campden, have softened since: iron-capped boots are banned, and today's shin-kickers pad their trousers with straw.

Remote-controlled robot jockeys replaced child riders in the 2000s in the racing of which animal?

Camels now carry small robots that work the whip and reins, steered by operators driven alongside the track; Gulf states brought them in after banning the child jockeys whose treatment had drawn international condemnation.

Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest is traditionally held each Fourth of July at which location?

Coney Island's original Nathan's Famous stand is the contest's home; its promoter admitted in 2010 that the tale of a first contest in 1916 had been made up in the 1970s as a publicity stunt.

The first World Poohsticks Championships were held in 1984 at Day's Lock on which river?

The Thames at Day's Lock hosted the event from 1984, when lock keeper Lynn David started it to raise money for the lifeboat charity, the RNLI; it has since moved to the River Windrush at Witney.

The World Championship Punkin Chunkin, a pumpkin-hurling contest, was long held in which US state?

Delaware's contest saw an air cannon hurl a pumpkin 4,694 feet in 2013, its record; lawsuits and insurance trouble then cancelled several editions, and the championship has been sporadic since.

Rabbit show jumping, known as kaninhoppning in its homeland, began in the 1970s in which country?

Sweden's first rabbit clubs borrowed their rules from horse show jumping in the 1970s, then rewrote them to suit rabbits; Norway took up the sport in the 1990s, and a national federation followed in 1994.

In pesäpallo, a Nordic cousin of baseball, how is the ball pitched?

The pitcher throws the ball vertically, straight up, from a plate beside the batter, which makes hitting and directing the ball far easier than in baseball and shifts the contest to fielding.

In the Basque sport of jai alai, what is the wicker basket-like glove used to hurl the ball called?

The cesta accelerates the ball to high speeds against the walls; the name of the sport itself means 'merry festival' in Basque.

Which country's military cadets play bo-taoshi, a pole-toppling melee of 150 a side?

Japan's defence cadets play it as a mass brawl: each side sends 75 attackers to swarm the rival pole, guarded by 75 defenders, and wins by dragging it down to a 30-degree angle.

Elephant polo originated at Meghauli, beside Chitwan National Park, in which country?

Nepal's Meghauli is where the game began, with a mahout steering each elephant while a player swings the mallet; Sri Lanka dropped its own tournament in 2007 after a runaway elephant damaged several cars.

Which playground game, first recorded in 1821 with snail shells, has held its world championships in Northamptonshire since 1965?

Conkers was first described by the poet Robert Southey as a game of snail shells or hazelnuts; horse chestnuts are not recorded in play until 1848, on the Isle of Wight.

Lelo burti, a folk ball game that gave a national rugby team its nickname 'the Lelos', comes from which country?

Georgia's villages once fought over a heavy ball, each side trying to carry it across a stream into the other's half, in the belief that the winners would have the better harvest; 'lelo' is still the Georgian rugby word for a try.

Ultimate frisbee, born at a New Jersey high school in 1968, is traditionally played without what?

Referees are shunned under the sport's 'spirit of the game' code: players call their own fouls, although the professional league now employs officials.

Hornussen, whose puck leaves its ramp at up to 300 km/h, is a traditional sport of which country?

Switzerland has played it since at least the 17th century; the puck is the Hornuss, 'hornet', named for the buzz it makes in flight, and fielders try to swat it down with wooden boards.

What makes Colombia's traditional throwing sport tejo explosive?

Targets containing gunpowder, small packets called mechas, are fixed to a metal ring at the centre of the board; when a thrown metal disc strikes one it explodes, and the bang scores points for the thrower.

Which sport, invented in Quebec in 1986, is played by three teams at once?

Kin-Ball was devised by PE teacher Mario Demers: before striking the ball, the hitting team must shout 'Omnikin' and the colour of the rival team that has to catch it before it lands.

Czechoslovakia's Pospíšil brothers won 20 world titles between 1965 and 1988 in which indoor cycling sport?

Cycle ball is football played with the wheels; American trick cyclist Nick Kaufmann, who first played it in 1883, said the idea came when a small dog ran in front of his bike and he nudged it gently aside with the front wheel.

Which sport began in a Cologne diving club in 1961 with a saltwater-filled ball made to sink?

Underwater Rugby grew out of fitness training at the club, where Ludwig von Bersuda had teams carry his sinking ball to a bucket at the far end; the goals are still baskets on the pool floor.

In kubb, a Nordic lawn game of toppling wooden blocks, what is the large block in mid-pitch called?

The king stands in the centre; players toss batons to topple the opponents' kubbs first and then knock over the king, and toppling it too early loses the game outright.

Korfball, played by mixed teams of four men and four women, originated in which country?

Netherlands schoolteacher Nico Broekhuysen devised korfball in Amsterdam in 1902 after meeting the game ringboll on a gymnastics course abroad; he swapped its ring for a basket so that goals were easier to see.

Which late-1980s science-fiction film's fictional game became a real sport with its own leagues?

The Salute of the Jugger, released in the US as The Blood of Heroes, has teams fight to plant a dog skull on the rivals' goal stake; fans in Germany and Australia rebuilt the game with padded weapons and a foam skull.

Fans of which NHL team have thrown octopuses onto the ice since a 1952 playoff run?

Detroit Red Wings fans took up the ritual after two brothers hurled an octopus onto the rink in 1952. Its eight arms stood for the eight playoff wins then needed to lift the Stanley Cup.

Which Apollo 14 commander hit two golf balls on the Moon in 1971 with a makeshift six-iron?

Alan Shepard fixed a six-iron head to the handle of a lunar sample scoop to make his club. In a stiff space suit he could only swing one-handed, and he joked that the second ball went for miles.

Which city's 1900 Olympics held a live pigeon shoot, the only time animals were killed on purpose?

Paris ran the shoot alongside its 1900 world's fair, and contestants simply had to kill as many birds as they could. Clay discs soon replaced live birds in the sport.

Which school sports-day staple was a team medal event at every Summer Olympics from 1900 to 1920?

Tug of war was dropped after 1920, when the IOC streamlined the Olympic programme. Team sizes kept changing, from six pullers in 1900 to five in 1904 and eight from 1908.

Jamaica's bobsledders, who inspired Cool Runnings, made their debut at which city's 1988 Winter Olympics?

Calgary greeted the four-man crew as underdogs from a tropical nation in a cold-weather sport. Disney's loosely based film followed in 1993.

Which Ethiopian runner won the 1960 Olympic marathon in Rome barefoot, then defended the title in shoes?

Abebe Bikila ran barefoot because the new shoes he bought in Rome did not fit and gave him blisters. Four years later he won again, this time wearing Pumas.

What do sumo wrestlers toss into the ring before a bout as a Shinto-derived act of purification?

Salt is thrown to cleanse the ring symbolically, a ritual borrowed from Shinto. Wrestlers also rinse their mouths with 'power water' before a bout, much as worshippers do at a shrine.

Olympic gold medals must be made of at least 92.5 percent of which other metal?

Silver makes up the bulk of every Olympic gold medal, which needs to carry only six grams of real gold on top.

Pickleball was invented in 1965 as a backyard children's game on Bainbridge Island in which US state?

Washington was home to Joel Pritchard, at whose summer cabin the game was improvised. He went on to sit in Congress and serve as the state's lieutenant governor.

Which sport with medieval roots is the official state sport of Maryland?

Jousting reached Maryland in the form of ring tournaments, a gentler descendant of the knightly charge that began as heavy-cavalry training.

John Isner beat Nicolas Mahut 70–68 in the final set of an 11-hour match at which 2010 tournament?

Wimbledon's first-round match ran for 11 hours and 5 minutes spread over three days and took 183 games to settle. The final set alone lasted longer than any previous match in tennis history.

Which unlikely vehicles have been raced in England since 1973, when a pub chat turned to motorsport's costs?

Lawnmowers race with their blades removed for safety, an idea hatched over pints at a West Sussex pub. Stirling Moss shared victory in the sport's first 12-hour endurance race.

David Ayres, who won an NHL game in 2020 as an emergency goaltender aged 42, was known for driving what?

A Zamboni was among the machines he ran as a building operator at the home rink of the Toronto Maple Leafs' farm team. Pressed into goal for Carolina, he beat the Maple Leafs themselves.

Eddie 'the Eagle' Edwards, the ski jumper who finished last twice at the 1988 Olympics, worked in which trade?

Plasterer was his day job when word of his Olympic place arrived, and he was so hard up that he was lodging in a hospital. The IOC later tightened its entry rules because of him.

In noodling, a pursuit of the southern United States, what do fishers catch with only their bare hands?

Catfish are caught by reaching into the submerged holes where they shelter, and some noodlers use their feet. Safety fears have led several states to ban the practice.

Footvolley, a blend of beach volleyball and football, was created in 1965 on a beach in which country?

Brazil's Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro was the birthplace, thanks to Octavio de Moraes. Stars such as Romário and Ronaldinho have been keen players.

The Jumping Frog Jubilee in Calaveras County, California, honours an 1865 story by which author?

Mark Twain said he heard the tale of a gambler's champion frog at a hotel in Angels Camp, which is why the town is sometimes called Frogtown.

Yukigassen, a seven-a-side sport with a flag to capture, is an organised version of which winter pastime?

Snowball fights became a formal sport in 1989, when a northern town wanted to revive its winter tourism. Each team begins with just 90 ready-made snowballs.

Fred Lorz crossed the line first in the 1904 Olympic marathon after covering eleven miles of it how?

By car, courtesy of his manager, Lorz skipped eleven miles until the vehicle broke down, then ran into the stadium and was greeted as the winner. Thomas Hicks took the real gold.

Segway polo's world championship cup is named after which Apple co-founder, who has played the sport himself?

Steve Wozniak lent his nickname to the Woz Challenge Cup, first contested in 2006. The game caught on after a group of Bay Area Segway enthusiasts took it up in 2004.

From 1912 to 1948, Olympic medals went to architecture, literature, music, painting and which other art?

Sculpture completed the five categories, each open only to works inspired by sport. The contests ended once the IOC decided that entrants, mostly professional artists, broke its amateur ideal.

In which Italian city do bareback riders race around the Piazza del Campo twice each summer in the Palio?

Siena's race is over in about 90 seconds: three laps of a piazza specially covered in dirt. Ten of the city's seventeen wards, the contrade, enter a horse each time.

Mongolia's Naadam festival, the 'three games of men', features wrestling, horse racing and which other sport?

Archery completes the trio, and despite the festival's nickname women shoot too, from 65 metres against the men's 75.

Padel was invented in 1969 when Enrique Corcuera adapted the squash court at his home in which country?

Mexico was where Corcuera rebuilt his court in Acapulco, at first calling the game Padel Corcuera. Early guests who tried it included Frank Sinatra and Henry Kissinger.

The Frisbee is named after a Connecticut company whose empty tins Yale students tossed; what did it bake?

Pies from the Frisbie company came in tins stamped with its name, and tossing them became a campus craze. Wham-O borrowed the word in 1957 for a disc it had been selling as the Pluto Platter.

Which savoury dish is hurled as far as possible in a sport whose inventor later admitted it began as a joke?

Haggis must land unburst and fit to eat, so a gentle touchdown beats brute force. Robin Dunseath said in 2004 that he made the sport up as a prank for the 1977 Gathering of the Clans in Edinburgh.

In 1968 NBC cut away from a tense Jets–Raiders game, missing a late Raiders comeback, to air which film?

Heidi began on schedule because jammed switchboards stopped NBC executives from ordering the game to stay on air. The network's president formally apologised.

Which MLB team forfeited a game in 1979 after its Disco Demolition Night promotion ended in an on-field riot?

The Chicago White Sox let a radio DJ blow up a crate of disco records between the games of a doubleheader, and thousands of fans stormed the field. The damage forced the club to forfeit the second game.

After more than a century, modern pentathlon dropped show jumping from 2025 in favour of which discipline?

Obstacle racing took the place of the horses, a swap the IOC accepted when it voted the sport's new format onto the Los Angeles 2028 programme.

Which insects have been raced at Brisbane's Story Bridge Hotel since two drinkers traded boasts in 1982?

Cockroaches got their own race meeting after two regulars argued over whose suburb bred the fastest ones. The first winner went by the name Soft Cocky.

Which winter team sport is played on skates with a ball, on ice about the size of a football pitch?

Bandy is played eleven-a-side, another echo of football, with players using sticks to drive the ball into the opposing goal.

The granite for Olympic curling stones is quarried on which uninhabited Scottish islet in the Firth of Clyde?

Ailsa Craig yields a rare microgranite that is hard enough to survive years of collisions. The stones used at the Winter Olympics are all made from it by one firm, Kays.

In the Highland games sheaf toss, which farm tool is used to hurl a straw-stuffed bag over a high bar?

A pitchfork flings the bag, which typically weighs 16 or 20 pounds. Competitors usually share the same one so that nobody gains an edge from custom kit.

Since 1967, Nanaimo in Canada has hosted a world championship sea race for motorised craft built from what?

Bathtubs first raced from Nanaimo across to Vancouver as a stunt to put the town on the map. Its mayor, Frank Ney, used to turn up dressed as a pirate.

The Henley-on-Todd Regatta, held in Alice Springs since 1962, sees crews race their 'boats' along what?

A dry riverbed is the course, so crews carry frame boats and sprint through the hot sand. In 1993 the event had to be cancelled because the river had water in it.

In a sport devised by German TV host Stefan Raab, racers slide down Olympic bobsleigh runs sitting in what?

A wok makes a fast if wobbly sled, so riders strap ladles under their feet to cut friction and injuries. The first world championship was televised from Winterberg in 2003.

Land diving from wooden towers with vines tied to the ankles is a ritual on Pentecost Island in which nation?

Vanuatu's divers jump to bless the yam harvest, and the higher the leap the better the crop is said to be. Islanders later sought royalties from bungee firms for borrowing the idea.

Teqball, football played over a curved table, was devised in the 2010s by football enthusiasts from which country?

Hungary's founders included a former professional player and a computer scientist. Players may use any part of the body except arms and hands, and never the same part twice in a row.

Eric 'the Eel' Moussambani swam the slowest 100 m freestyle in Olympic history in 2000 for which country?

Equatorial Guinea entered him through a wildcard scheme for developing nations. He had taken up swimming eight months earlier and trained in a 12-metre hotel pool.

Steven Bradbury won 2002 Olympic gold in which skating discipline after every rival crashed on the last bend?

Short track made him the first Winter Olympic champion from the Southern Hemisphere: he was cruising at the back on purpose, hoping the leaders would collide.

AS Adema won a 2002 football match 149–0 thanks to protesting opponents' own goals in which country?

Madagascar's SO l'Emyrne were furious at refereeing that had cost them the title, so they put the ball in their own net about every 36 seconds. Four of their players were banned for a season.

At the World Gurning Championship, held at a Cumbrian fair dating to 1267, entrants are judged on what?

Ugly faces are pulled through a horse collar, and the best gurners often have no teeth, which lets the jaw travel further up.

In South Asian kite fighting, the cutting line known as manja is traditionally coated with crushed what?

Glass, finely crushed and mixed with rice glue, turns cotton line into a blade for slicing a rival's string. Flyers hold plain string at the ground end to protect their hands.

Volcano boarding down ash slopes on a plywood board was commercialised at Cerro Negro in which country?

Nicaragua's Cerro Negro is a young active volcano that first appeared in 1850, and riders hike up it before sliding down seated or standing. An Australian hostel owner launched the first tours.

Which freestyle skiing discipline, performed to music, was an Olympic demonstration event in 1988 and 1992?

Ski ballet mixed spins, jumps and flips in a choreographed routine scored by judges, much as on an ice rink. It has since vanished from competitive freestyle skiing.

In kiiking, invented in 1993, athletes with their feet strapped in try to rotate a full 360 degrees on what?

A swing with rigid steel arms makes the full circle possible, and the winner is whoever gets over the top with the longest arms. The sport's name comes from the Estonian word for it.

What is the cork-cored, leather-covered ball used in the Gaelic games of hurling and camogie called?

Sliotar colour switched to bright yellow at the top level in 2020, a change made so that players, crowds and TV viewers could follow the ball more easily.

In tiddlywinks, revived as a serious game at Cambridge in 1955, what is the disc used to flick winks called?

Squidger shots send a wink into the air by pressing across its edge, and top players may carry up to twenty of the discs for different strokes.

Vinkensport, in which caged finches compete to sing the most calls in an hour, comes from which country?

Belgium's Flemish finch-keepers trace the contest to merchants in 1596, and each completed call is chalked on a wooden stick. One record-breaking bird's owner was accused of doping it.

Fingerhakeln, hauling a rival across a table by one hooked finger, is a tradition of which German state?

Bavaria holds annual championships by weight and age class, with rivals usually hooking their middle fingers through a leather strap. Thumbs are not allowed.