25 Craziest Competitions And Sport Events In The World

Posted by , Updated on January 22, 2024

People are competitive, no doubt about it. More and more sports are invented every year and new disciplines are added to the Olympics. But since there are so many people involved in the regular sports and games, the competition is very tough, making it extremely hard to be successful in any of the established sports. This may be the reason why people keep coming up with some of the craziest, most outrageous, ridiculous and sometimes just purely insane competitions and sport disciplines. You have probably heard of some of them but this list is going to show you how crazy can people really be when it comes to bizarre competitions. From Hemp Olympics to cricket spitting, check out these 25 craziest competitions and sport events in the world.

Video
play-rounded-fill

25

Wife carrying

darkroom.baltimoresun.com 00526701_H32877405darkroom.baltimoresun.com

Held annually in Finland since 1992, the Wife Carrying World Championship is a sport in which male competitors race while each carrying a female teammate. The objective is for the male to carry the female through a special obstacle track in the fastest time. Several types of carry can be practiced: piggyback, fireman’s carry, or Estonian-style (the wife hangs upside-down with her legs around the husband’s shoulders, holding onto his waist).

24

Bog snorkeling

www.roughguides.com 81835110-1680x1050www.roughguides.com

Started in Wales in 1976, bog snorkeling is a sporting event that consists of competitors completing two consecutive lengths of a water filled trench cut through a peat bog, in the shortest time possible. Competitors must wear snorkels and flippers, and complete the course without using conventional swimming strokes, relying on flipper power alone.

23

Bobbing for pig´s feet

www.wrestlingwithretirement.com rnowww.wrestlingwithretirement.com

Bobbing for pig´s feet is one of the crazy disciplines of the Redneck Games held annually in East Dublin, Georgia. Started in 1996 as a charity and a spoof of the Summer Olympics, the first games attracted about 5000 people which was over the twice the population of East Dublin.

22

Sex doll rafting

www.amusingplanet.com sex-doll-rafting16[2]www.amusingplanet.com

Officially known as the “Bubble Baba Challenge”, this bizarre sport event was dreamed up by a Russian Dmitry Bulawinov. He said the idea of floating down the river in the embraces of a rubber woman was conceived as a joke at a party where the men got drunk. Not a surprising explanation.

21

Toe wrestling

www.derbytelegraph.co.uk 6169210-largewww.derbytelegraph.co.uk

Invented by four drinkers in a pub in Wetton, U.K. in 1974, toe wrestling is a sport in which the players must link toes and each player’s foot must touch flat on the other person’s foot. The opponents proceed to attempt to pin (capture or trap) the other’s foot for three seconds while avoiding the same. There are 3 rounds played on a best 2 out of 3 basis.

20

High heel race

www.professionalmuscle.com 1293_3354174750www.professionalmuscle.com

Held in cities such as Sydney, Paris, Moscow or Amsterdam, the High heel race is a running event in which the participants must overcome a distance of 80 meters (around 260 feet) running on high heels that have to be at least 7 cm (2.8 inches)high.

19

Pig grunting imitation

www.huffingtonpost.com slide_343120_3557572_freewww.huffingtonpost.com

As ridiculous as it sounds, there is not just one but several competitions in pig grunting imitation. The Pig Grunting World Championship and Agricultural show held annually in Paris are among the most popular ones.

18

Headstand beer drinking

opavsky.denik.cz ftg-op-tyden-divu0804-04_denik-380opavsky.denik.cz

Headstand drinking is just one of several crazy disciplines of an annual fun sport event called “Wonder Week” held in Opava, Czech Republic. Other disciplines include olive spitting, beer relay or egg throw and catch. In 2014, the 41st year of the event was held.

17

Tuna throwing

www.adelaidenow.com.au 317559-tuna-tosswww.adelaidenow.com.au

Held each January in Port Lincoln, Australia, the Tunarama Festival is a competition to see how far someone can throw a frozen tuna. Fortunately, the 2007 festival was the last one with real tunas (whose populations are drastically dwindling) used for the throws, since then artificially made fake tunas have been used.

16

Chess boxing

www.echecspourtous.com chessboxing1www.echecspourtous.com

As the name suggests, chess boxing alternates between rounds spent playing chess and boxing. What was initially only thought to be an art performance quickly turned into a fully developed and established competitive sport which is particularly popular in Great Britain, India, Germany and Russia.

15

Air guitar championship

stcommunities.straitstimes.com airchamps4estcommunities.straitstimes.com

Held annually in Oulu, Finland since 1996, the Air Guitar Championship is a contest in which participants pretend to play electric guitar solos. There are two rounds in this contest. In the first round, the participant chooses his or her favorite song and plays that song in the edited 60-second format. In the second round, the contestant has to play a song chosen by the organizers.

14

World sauna championship

sports.espn.go.com 0518reilly_576x324sports.espn.go.com

The World sauna championship is another bizarre event that was held in Finland every year until one of the finalists died in 2010. This contest of endurance tested participants to see who could sit in a sauna the longest. The starting temperature in the men’s competition was a burning 110 °C (230 °F).

13

Chili pepper eating contest

www.facebook.com 614697_361564497250751_1400809871_owww.facebook.com

Held in North Carolina, the Annual NC Hot Sauce and Hot Chili Pepper Eating Contest is one of the so called “competitive eating“ events. The contest consists of 5 rounds in which the participants have to eat increasingly hot chilies. The hotness of chilies is based on Scoville Heat Units. In the first round, each contestant starts out with a Large Cayenne Pepper (Long Hots) (500-2,500 SU) and those who make it all the way to the last fifth round have to deal with The Orange Habenero (100,000-300,000 SU).

12

Hemp Olympics

themeaningoflarf.com hemp-olympics-paradethemeaningoflarf.com

Following in the footsteps of the legendary Cannabis Cup in the Netherlands, the Hemp Olympics held in Nimbin, New South Wales, Australia is a cannabis championship that includes events such as bong throwing, joint rolling and “a growers’ Ironperson competition“, which requires participants to crawl through lantana tunnels dragging large bags of fertilizer.

11

Pea shooting

www.telegraph.co.uk peashooting_1888800iwww.telegraph.co.uk

The World Pea Shooting championship has been held annually since 1971 in the village of Witcham in Cambridgeshire, England. Conceived as a fund-raising idea, the competition is usually dominated by local entrants, though a small number travel from around the world, notably the USA.

10

Shin kicking

slappedham.com shin-kickingslappedham.com

Also known as hacking or purring, shin kicking is a combat sport that involves two contestants attempting to kick each other on the shin in an attempt to force their opponent to the ground. Originating in England in the early 17th century, the event now draws crowds of thousands of spectators. Legend has it that some shin-kickers tried to build pain tolerance by hitting their shins with hammers.

9

Underwater hockey

uwrugby.wordpress.com underwater-hockey1uwrugby.wordpress.com

Those who failed to succeed in regular ice hockey can try this crazy version of the popular sport. In underwater hockey, two teams compete to get a puck across the bottom of a swimming pool into the opposing team’s goal. Similarly to many other competitions from this list, underwater hockey also originated in England (in 1954).

8

Red Bull Flight Day

a group of people with the craziest competitions and sports eventsstorify.com

Held in many cities all over the world, Red Bull Flight Day is an event organized by Red Bull in which competitors attempt to fly home-made, size- and weight-limited, human-powered flying machines. The machines are usually launched off a pier into the sea, lake or river. Most competitors enter for the entertainment value, and the flying machines rarely fly at all. The record for the longest flight is 258 feet (78.64 m), set in 2013, at Long Beach, California.

7

Vodka drinking

zpravy.idnes.cz SKR464661_vodkazpravy.idnes.cz

Along with competitive eating, drinking contests are also very popular all over the world. One of the most common but at the same time most dangerous is the vodka drinking contest. No wonder most of these competitions are held in Russia which has by far the highest vodka consumption. Unfortunately, these hazardous competitions have already claimed several victims. In 2003, for example, a Russian died just 20 minutes after he downed 3 half-a-liter bottles (over 3 pints in total) of vodka.

6

Cricket spitting

abcnews.go.com ap_cricket_spitting_nt_120702_wmainabcnews.go.com

Although this bizarre sport doesn’t seem to be very “green”, it was entomologist Tom Turpin at Purdue University in Indiana who developed it as competition for their annual Bug Bowl event. The world record for cricket-spitting is 32 feet and 5 inches (9.766 m) and is held by Dan Capps, from Madison, Wisconsin.

5

Belly flopping in mud

www.ilpiffe.com user1680_1163644965www.ilpiffe.com

Belly flopping into mud pits is another original discipline of the annual Summer Redneck games, held in East Dublin, Georgia. The competition about who the best redneck is simply wouldn´t be complete without this important event.

4

Battle of the Oranges

khadijahshakbodin5c.blogspot.com Februarykhadijahshakbodin5c.blogspot.com

Held in the Northern Italian city of Ivrea, the Battle of the Oranges is a tradition of throwing of oranges between organized teams. The festival’s origins are somewhat unclear but the event is believed to have originated in the 12th or 13th century. Every year, hundreds of thousands kilograms of oranges are brought to the city for the battle.

3

Baby jumping

metro.co.uk article-1337870541868-133703ba000005dc-746020_636x436metro.co.uk

Held every year in a small Spanish village Castrillo de Murcia, baby jumping seems to be one of the most deviant sport events of the list. During the act, known as „El Salto del Colacho“ (the devil’s jump), men dressed as the devil jump over newborn babies lined up on mattresses in the middle of the street. The origins of the tradition are unknown but it is said to cleanse the babies of original sin.

2

Gurning contest

benrussell.photoshelter.com The-World-Gurning-Championship-Egremont-Crab-Fair-10-of-46benrussell.photoshelter.com

The World Gurning Championship takes place annually at a crab fair in Egremont, Cumbria, England. The contestants traditionally frame their faces through a horse collar — known as “gurning through a braffin.” Those with the greatest gurn capabilities are often those with no teeth, as this provides greater room to move the jaw further up.

1

Air sex

l7world.com Air-Sex-World-Championshipsl7world.com

If the air guitar was not weird enough for you, you can try to compete in the Air Sex World Championship. Invented in 2006 by a group of Japanese men without girlfriends, the air sex is a performance activity in which men and women simulate sexual activity with an invisible partner.