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10 weirdest sports in the world

Pulse Sports brings you a compilation of ten of the weirdest sports in the world.

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But what many people do not know is that, some sports – irrespective of how weird they might come across – have been carved in certain countries. And the participators enjoy them!

Football is undoubtedly the most popular sport in the world; however, there are others lesser known sports that are being enjoyed by people on other parts of the globe.

Pulse Sports brings you a list of ten of the weirdest sports in the world.

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Wife carrying

Wife carrying is a sport where males carry their female counterparts while competing in a race. Competitors are allowed to carry their female teammates in different ways ranging from the pigback style, over the shoulder style etc.

Wife carrying is a very popular sport in Finland, Hong Kong, USA and Estonia. The minimum weight of a wife (female competitor) carried must be 49 kilograms.

The husbands (male competitors) are expected to carry their wives and run as fast as they can to the finish line. The winner of the race is awarded with a prize of beer depending on the weight of his wife.

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Since its inception, wife carrying has evolved and the Wife Carrying World Championships are held every year in Finland.Dimitriy Sagal and Anastasia Loginova from Russia are the current champions, having won the competition in 2016.

Chess boxing

As the name suggests, chess boxing is a sport that combines both boxing and chess. Competitors of this sport engage in alternating rounds of chess and boxing. To emerge winner of such a sport, one has to be strong in both fist and brain.

Chess boxing starts with a four-minute round of chess, before a two-minute boxing round follows, as opponents try to unsettle each other.

To record a win, one has to either win the chess round, or knock out the opponent in the boxing round. The sport can travel eleven rounds if no winner emerges from both the chess and boxing rounds.

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In this case, the decision of who emerges winner is left to the judges to decide, just like in a normal boxing bout. The first ever chess boxing competition was held in 2003 in Berlin. Surprisingly, the sport has now spread to certain parts of England and Netherlands, with a World Chess Boxing Organizatio (WCBO) being subsequently formed.

The first European Chess Boxing Championships were held in Berlin in 2005, with Tihomir Atanassov Dovramadjiev becoming the first European champion.

Man vs horse marathon

One of the weirdest sports that the world is yet to buy into is the man versus horse marathon. In this sport, you have an athlete (a runner) competing with a rider on the back of a horse. How unfair.

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Both competitors race over 35km (22 miles) with the aim to finish the distance in the quickest time. Formerly, the sport used to be between cyclists and horse runners; however, it has now evolved with humans trying to outwit horses in terms of speed.

The sport started in 1980, but the first time a man managed to win the race over a horse as in 2004 when Huw Lobb completed the race in 2 hours, 5 minutes and 19 seconds.

In 2007, Florian Holzinger repeated the feat after finishing the race in 2 hours, 20 minutes and 30 seconds.

Mud wrestling

Mud wrestling is sport which is dominated by female competitors. Although men sometimes engage in it, it is usually a sport where females wrestle each other in swampy grounds.

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Fighters are required to wear bikinis as they try to take down their opponents. Just like in any other form of wrestling, a contestant can either win the fight by taking down her opponent or by the fact that the opponent herself gives up.

In the unlikely situation that no one emerges winner; the fight will stretch on until one of the competitors eventually gives up.

A small square hole with about 20ft sides is filled with mud, and the fighters slug it out in there to get a winner.

Underwater Hockey

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Underwater Hockey is a sport with many similarities to the normal hockey game. However, here, the hockey is played underneath a pool – precisely the floor of the pool.

With their hockey sticks, players try to outscore their opponents. Interestingly, beacuse players cannot stay underneath the water for longer periods, they occasionally swim to the surface in order to grasp some air.

The first Underwater Hockey World Championship was held in Canada in 1980, and since then the sport has gained worldwide acclaim, spreading to the likes of England.

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