Unusual Sports from all over the world
Translated by Elisavet Kechagia
Based on the original article in Greek by Βαγγέλης Ρουσοχατζάκης
Sports and athletics in general take up a huge part of everyday life. Be it as a hobby or simply reading about the fate of your favourite football team, we have all come in contact with one or more sports at some point in our lives.
In Greece, the spot for the most famous sport has forever been occupied by football, second to which comes basketball especially after the successful performance of the Greek National Team in the 1987 FIBA Basketball World Cup. Naturally, during the last years there has been success in other areas as well, such as still rings and pole vault to name a few, which puts them on the widely-known sports map alongside football and basketball.
Quidditch
Throughout the world there exist sports that seem bizarre and foreign, with Quidditch rightfully deserving to be at the top of the list. If you are a Harry Potter enthusiast, either by having watched the film ore read the book, you will definitely know what we are talking about! Two teams comprised of 7 people each, with a ratio of 4 to 3 or 3 to 4 if we are talking about mixed groups, run with a broomstick between their legs with one team trying to pass a deflated ball through ring targets of various heights, and the opposing team throwing balls in order to make it hard for them to score a goal for their team. What is really intriguing to see, is how they managed to bring in the game the golden snitch which, according to Potter lore, flies at incredible speed and brings immediate victory to anyone that catches it.
Cheese Rolling
The next sport on our list is not inspired by a magic wizarding community, but by something… edible. While for the rest of the world cheese is but a side dish or an appetizer, the British beg to differ. In Cheese Rolling, people gather at the slope of a steep hill, let a cheese wheel roll from the top and procceed to “roll”
down the slope with it. The winner of this annual sport is whoever gets to it first.
Chessboxing
Last but not least is chessboxing, another sports-curiosity that is a combination of two completely different sports; that of chess, a mentally demanding sport that requires tranquility and concentration, and boxing which requires strength and intensity. Created in 2003 and inspired by a comic book, it consists of 11 consecutive rounds where box and chess are interchanged. Each round lasts three minutes and the winner is declared either by a knockout, a checkmate or by the referee. In case the time limit is exceeded by a competitor, the other is automatically victorious.
The above listed sports are but some of the most bizzare sports worldwide. Despite their unusual character, they don’t seize to contribute to the bodily exercise of the participants, as well as to their personality development, as usually happens with sports as a whole.
