When people think of sports, they will usually conjure an image of traditionally popular sports such as football, rugby, cricket, tennis, athletics and boxing. But those kinds of sports aren’t the only game in town; many people prefer to play and/or participate in lesser-known sports that aren’t as well known to the general public.
These sports would generally be unknown to many people and are not generally covered by the mainstream media. These sports can also seem highly unusual to traditional sports enthusiasts, as they often involve painful or even violent activities.
Check out our list below of some of the most unusual sports:
Cheese Rolling
Yes, this sport is exactly as it sounds – competitors roll a big block of cheese to the bottom of a hill, racing to see whose cheese can reach the bottom first. The Cooper’s Hill cheese rolling race near Gloucester in England is often hilarious for spectators and painful for participants as they chase a round of Double Gloucester cheese weighing 3 kilograms and travelling some 113 kilometres per hour,180 metres down a near vertical slope.
A little bit of chaos reigns during this event, with participants leaping and tumbling down the hill at considerable speeds as they struggle to stay on their feet. At the bottom of the hill, rugby players are waiting to stop the participants’ momentum, but the race often results in a significant amount of injuries. For many, it’s doubtful whether this 200-year-old English tradition is worth the “cheese”.
Regball
Imagine a sport that combines basketball, wrestling, and rugby. If you can picture this scene, then you can conjure up images of the brutal Russian sport Regball or rugball. This game features 7 opponents taking on each other as they try to shoot the ball through a hoop, much like in basketball. However, unlike basketball, this sport does not involve dribbling or free throws. Wrestling and takedowns play a big part in the sport as players attempt to wrestle the ball from each other. An indication of the brutal nature of the sport is the fact that former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov enjoys playing regball.
Underwater Hockey
While you probably know of field hockey and ice hockey, its unlikely you’ve heard of underwater hockey. This gravity-defying sport takes place Ina pool and features 6 on 6 competitors without goaltenders. A weighted puck remains at the bottom of the pool. As this is a variation on hockey, players use a small one-handed stick to push a wighted puck at the bottom of the pool towards the goal.
Players wear fins for mobility, masks to see underwater, and thick latex gloves to protect the hands from the pool bottom. Remarkably, they don’t wear oxygen tanks to breathe underwater, and rather have to hold their breath underwater and periodically return to the surface to breathe. This means that players players have to anticipate when a teammate or opposing puck-carrier will return to the surface and leave the puck behind.
Canal Jumping
Also known as fierljeppen, this risky sport originated and is popular in the Netherlands. It takes place at a location with a muddy canal, as players attempt to jump as far as possible from one side of the canal to the other without getting wet and muddy. A pole that is typically 12.5 metres long with a flat round bottom that can swing when weight is applied is inserted into the canal.
The contestants take a running start and jump onto the pole as it swings towards the other side of the canal (depending on the weight applied or momentum), trying to climb as high as they can on the pole before dismounting safely to the other side. Contestants who fail will get wet and muddy.
Ear Pull
This traditional Inuit game is focused entirely on pain endurance, as competitors’ ears are pushed to their limits. Both contestants have a string about 0.6 metres looped around their ears (left to right or right to left), and then have to pull until one contestant gives in to the pain and the string becomes separated from their ear. Ear pull is quite a dangerous sport as it can cause damage to the ear, with bleeding quite a common occurrence. It’s definitely a sport that only the brave (some might say foolish) should try!
Death Diving
Also known as “Dødsin", death diving is a Norwegian diving sport where people purposefully try to execute “belly flops” into bodies of water and often land on their backs. This sport is designed for pure entertainment and is not for the fainthearted. Contestants jump from a board about 10 meters high and try to hold a pose for as long as possible before entering the water in a tucked position. As they undertake this risky dive, they tend to be creative with this as they perform various flips and other tricks.
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