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The 10 Craziest Competitive Sports (You Never Heard Of)

ByJohn P.

Horse race on grassy track with spectators in the background. Humans have been taking part in sporting events for thousands of years, and now we’ve got ESPN to broadcast them 24 hours a day! However, you aren’t going to see these gems on TV even if you’re watching at 2am.

We’ve got a little of everything here from Camel Wrestling to Bog Snorkelling and Cheese Rolling to Ladder Racing. And if anyone knows of other insane sports to add please drop a comment below. Now, on with the madness!

Ladder Racing:

Screw the ladder truck. I want THESE guys as firemen!

4WD Sand Dune Climbing:

Ok. That’s just not possible.

holy shit

Chess Boxing

I’ve got an idea… let’s take something extremely cerebral like chess and combine it with skull cracking boxing!

Wife Carrying

Hey, I’m 6’1″ and my wife is 4′ 10″. We’ve actually got a shot at this one!

Cheese Rolling

It’s not what you think! Drunken idiots throwing themselves down a hill! I can hear the bones crunching now.

Camel Wrestling

All right. I guess if you live in the desert with nothing better to do…

CycloCross

I hope these guys are wearing a cup. That metal bar is way too close to the family jewels to be doing these things on bikes.

Tow-in Surfing

I’ve seen surfing before, but never on waves so big you need a jet ski to pull you up to speed for. These guys are insane, and the guy in this video got caught in a real live Tsunami.

Free Soloing

People partaking of this sport are truly insane. As proof Dan Osman, the guy in this video, later lost his life doing this.

Bog Snorkelling

Even the dog didn’t want to swim in this crap.

When you’re done with these, mosey on over to WebUrbanist and check out the Extreme Urban Sports Videos! More insanity awaits.

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John P.

John P. is a former CEO, former TV Show Host, and the Founder and Wizard behind Texas Metal Works. You can find him on X, Facebook and LinkedIn. Feel free to send shoutouts, insults, and praise.

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33 Comments

  3. Cheese Rolling – Its been happening for as far back as i can remember. I took part in it one year, never again… one of the chaps who ran the hill with me broke his neck…! and that was just one of the injuries for the day….! Its a laugh, but OMG…. just to be crowned king of cheese…! Loll…

  5. It’s clear you are a twat, I am English and guess what i refer to a toilet as… a TOILET, and so do my friends family and have only met one person who called it a bog, and he was Scottish. Oh, and most of the people speaking are Wlesh not English.

  6. I saw a video on cheese rolling on yomansports.com. Talk about the potential of seriously getting hurt and wife carrying? I saw it on the german channel on tv last week. This guy dragged his wife through a puddle of water with her head under water.

  7. Wife Carrying is one of the best one – Guys start becoming choosy when getting married now, who knows you need to particite in the Wife Carrying game.

  8. Free soloing is absolutely insane. He truly is a real life spiderman, even has the red and blue outfit. I can’t imagine how firm this guys handshake must be. I am a bit of an adrenaline junkie but I wouldn’t even dream of attempting it on even a small cliff.

  9. Hi Annie, could you give us some examples of crazy World Championships held in India?

    Also, does anyone know any more about the ladder climbing race please?

    Cheers

  10. When I first saw the title “Bog snorkelling” my first thought was that in English slang (and when I say English I am referring to a small nation where every citizen is either thoroughly retarded or wants a good beating by a stout rugby player wielding a large stick. This country is located on an island just north of mainland Europe on the island of Britain which is also where the great, wonderful, utopian land of Scotland is located, as well as Wales, which nobody outside of Wales cares a tinker’s cuss about. But at least they aren’t French.) a bog is a toilet. Also, you can tell by the retarded manner in which they are speaking that they are in England. So, how interesting would that be, snorkelling in a toilet?

  11. You can tell that it’s skewed by the shape of the truck, but it’s still tough obviously – and that driver could have been easily killed if that truck rolled down the hill instead of righting itself first… props to the driver for getting lucky.

  12. If you’re really that good, it’s not bragging, it’s just called “explaning”!!!

    If you DON’T self-promote, someone else has to do it for you…. so what!?! I’d rather hear it from YOU!!!

  14. Free Soloing is SCARY.

    How can he just jump from a small ledge hoping to catch the next, he must be equally good on high rises I guess. I’m speechless…

    Kim:)

  18. I am from India and I can tell you that there are so many sports here that would seem more “odd” than the ones you have listed. Yet locals find them a way of life.

  20. The cheese-rolling is a dutch thing, and a big event, I had the change to see it once when I was touring throgh europe, it is a great event there with some good concerts in the evening and a lot of alcoholic beverages…
    cheers

    Rhoody

  21. I think I’d seen 8 out of ten, Free Soloing stands out, I thought only Spiderman could climb like that.

    I thought your CycloCross was disappointing but that might be because I was a unicyclist as a youth and find Extreme Unicycling to be much more impressive, almost on the order of parkour

  22. Well cyclocross is a fairly common game in Belgium and the rest of Europe.
    We Belgium have the best cyclocrossers (allmost every year the worldchampion is from Belgium).
    And its not a small sport. Oh and the video you see is not a good discription of the sport.

  23. About the sand dune climbing: look at the aspect ratio of the video. It seems a 16:9 stretched to 4:3. The dune looks steeper than it is for real.

  25. re: the tow-in surfing. that’s not a tsunami, it’s just a big wave. tsunamis are generally are not that large vertically, and rarely crest and break like wind or ground swell. the typical tsunami is 16 miles long and only 1 meter high, and can moves hundreds of miles per hour.
    my $0.02

  27. i also would have love to seen the drivers face – however – the CAR didn’t decide how to get down the hill, the DRIVER did. That person was obviously very experienced – and understands physics and vehicles well. notice in the video – kept plenty of gas on it to help prevent engine from cutting out, THEN he turned his wheels downhill before the vehicle rolled back onto wheels, furthermore he gunned vehicle at precise moment necessary to get it pointed down hill. excellent maneuvering skills caught on tape. i have prevented rolling a few vehicles using same understanding and techniques as this drive. creative driving is my favorite sport o fall time (this definitely does not include nascar, or many other circle track racing)

  28. Dan O. Did not lose his life free-soloing. He died executing a “rope jump”. This is like bungie jumping, but with less elastic climbing rope.

  29. Tow-in Surfing is the opening scean of Billabong Odyssey movie a great film to watch of some crazy surff locations.

  30. Chessboxing.. I just don’t get.. amazing the things you never thought there’d be a need for lol..

    And the dune climbing… the caption wasn’t lying, that’s INCREDIBLE. I wish I had in in-car cam to see the driver’s face as the car decides whether it wants to sit and roll all the way down or if it wants to go upright and drive down..

  31. Rodeo promoters often claim that rodeo was the first ‘extreme’ sport, but there is a particular event – held only in a few rodeos around North America – called the Wild Horse Race. Basically, teams compete to see which can be the first to saddle and ride a wild horse. I could link to an article, but don’t want to be guilty of self-promotion, so I’ll just post a link to a pic.

  32. The climbing guy, Dan Osman didn’t die during free soloing. From your Wiki link:

    He died on November 23, 1998 at the age of 35 after his rope failed while performing a “controlled” free-fall jump from the Leaning Tower rock formation in Yosemite National Park. The failure was investigated by the National Park Service with assistance from Chris Harmston, Quality Assurance Manager at Black Diamond Equipment. A change in jump site angle probably caused the ropes to cross and entangle, leading to the rope cut by melting.[2]

    The guy can basically run up a mountain without a rope, but dies while doing a seemingly safer stunt (well, he was using a rope)…can you say death wish?

    Watch the “Video of many safety rope jumps and free-soloing5.12b (11 min)” under External Links on the Wiki site to see him perform a successful free fall jump.

  33. One of the better posts I’ve read today. Didn’t quite get the cheese rolling, never saw any cheese, but, I did love the bog snorkling. Great post, keep up the good work and I think you deserve the pr08 no matter what google says.

    vandamonium

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