1. EXTREME IRONING

Some sports get all the publicity. Why are baseball and soccer so popular when things like extreme ironing exist? Why are millions of people captivated by athletes

A surprising number of bizarre sports originally sprang up in England. Perhaps you read my article last issue about the hilarious and highly dangerous Cheese Rolling. A similarly obscure sport is extreme ironing, which started in Leicester, England, in 1997. Unfortunately, there is much controversy over whether extreme ironing is really a sport. See for yourself. Competitors iron their shirts in unusual and often dangerous situations. People have ironed on the side of a cliff, while surfing or snowboarding, on the top of a car, underwater, on a highway, on a roof, or (my personal favorite) while skydiving. In the last example, two skydivers held the ironing board steady so a third could iron away. According to the Extreme Ironing Bureau, extreme ironing “combines the thrill of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a wellpressed shirt.” If this sounds interesting to you, consider becoming an extreme ironist!

2. LAWN MOWER RACING

With over seven billion people on this planet just right now, someone was bound to dream this up at some point. The first known lawn mower race was at an Independence Day event in 1963 in Plank Hill, Indiana. However, this race was far more “low-tech” than modern lawn mower races. In 1963, all they did was remove the blades (for safety reasons). Today, any serious US competitor will be customizing their lawn mower to make it faster and stronger. Most modified lawn mowers these days still will not exceed 40 mph, but a few can reach a mind-boggling 85 mph, which wears away quickly at even the most stable lawn mowers. Obviously, such high-speed lawn mowers are not suitable for normal use.

Final thought: perhaps lawn mower racing is the pickleball of vehicle racing sports. It’s a little offbeat, but more casual and sometimes easier to participate in.

kicking a soccer ball, and nobody watches athletes kicking each other? These obscure, little-known sports deserve a shout out.

It’s in the name. Two competitors grab each other’s shoulders and try to kick each other to the ground. Luckily, steel-toed shoes are now illegal, and athletes pad their legs with thick straw. The World Shin Kicking Championships are the most popular event at the Cotswold Olimpick Games, held every year in (you guessed it!) England. Adam Miller, a local farmhand, was the reigning champion for several years straight until he retired so that someone else could win.

The Daily Mail, the UK’s largest newspaper, called shin kicking “Britain’s stupidest sport.” Personally, I think it has a few contenders. Many strange sports have arisen over the years, and these are only three of them.

Words Will Crews Design

Sophia Baldwin

Graphic

Sophia Baldwin