More Unusual Sports
There are so many weird and unusual sports played around the world that I cannot keep up with them. In addition to the hundreds of unusual sports I have already featured, there is information about many more coming in. Below are some of the suggestions that have been made, and others that I have come across but do not yet have time to make an individual page about them. Do you know of an unusual sport that you think should be featured on these pages? If so, use the comment section below.
To be Added Soon?
- Trobriand Cricket - a version of cricket played on the Trobriand Islands
- Walking Rugby - a version of rugby for the less athletic population
- Onbashira - Japanese log rolling held every 6 years in Nagano, Japan
- Knife Ladder Climbing Competition - a tradition of the Miao minority of China. They do it as a celebration, not punishment!
- Underwater Bike Race
- Phonebooth boxing
- indoor kite flying
- Bottle kicking, Leicestershire
- Potato Racing - seems like there are a few different variations of this sport?
- Shovel Racing - participants sit on a metal shovel and race down a snowy mountainside. The sport began in the 1970s when ski-lift operators used shovels to quickly make it to the bottom of the slopes. Now there are snow shovel world championships held every February in New Mexico.
- Tapati Rapa Nui Festival on Easter Island includes ancient Polynesian sports such as sliding down a hill on a banana leaf, rowing across a lake on a reed raft, and racing around the lake carrying a bunch of bananas.
- Jelly Wrestling (entertainment, not sport)
- Giant Pumpkin Kayaking
- Tank biathlon
- Tram Bowling
- Catch the Girl - Kazakhstan game called catch the girl, in which the two riders (male and female) take off on horseback and the male tries to catch the female. The female rider whips the male until she is caught. If the male catches the female he is then rewarded with a kiss.
- Wok racing - developed by the German TV host Stefan Raab: Modified woks are used to make timed runs down an Olympic bobsled track.
- Pelota purépecha - Mexican folk sport, hockey with flaming ball?
- Deer Calling - like the German deer calling championship, which determines who can best imitate the mating call of a stag.
- Aunt Sally - players throw sticks or battens at a model of an old woman's head.
- Baby Jumping Festival - in Spanish Village Castillo de Murcia.
- Rat Olympics (Xtreme Rat Challenge) - an annual sporting rat challenge at Nebraska Wesleyan University.
- Egg and spoon race
- Pumpkin Chucking (punkin chunkin)
- Human Chess
- Dog Surfing
- Desk chair racing
- air guitar
- Waiters' race (Course de garçons de café)
- Pea Shooting
Related Pages
- suggest another unusual sport
- 'new' unusual sports
- complete list of unusual sports
- suggested sports to the complete sports list
- suggested extinct sports
- suggested new sports
Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.
Old Comments
Commenting is closed on this page, though you can read some previous comments below which may answer some of your questions.
- LOVE your site mate! Sport is becoming an increasingly fascinating and universal preoccupation of most societies - the behavior of some people during the World Cup, Tour de France etc is just amazing! So are some of the sports you have listed. There is an omission I should tell you of though - several years ago I did a holiday trip that took me from Melbourne up into Northern Queensland and in several places around Cairns and Proserpine the pubs regularly held toad races. These were full on race meets with bookies, form guides, stewards and race callers! Check it out, I reckon it's still thriving! (from Geoff, Aug 2012)
- There use to be this "sport" carried on abc's wide world of sports in the 70's. It involved lowering a person from the back of a speeding truck and seeing how far they could slide on their butts on the blacktop. Do you know where I could find any footage? (from Dan, Jan 2012)
