Olympigs and other animal sports

Just like famous athletes, animals take part in traditional sports such as horse, hound or trail sled dog racing, as well as in more controversial activities such as, bull fighting and cockfighting. And then there’s the completely utterly bonkers yet genius (as some would say) animal sports such as snail racing and Pig Olympics. Funny or cruel, I’ll let you be the judge of that as I present to you the top 10 of the most unusual animal sports.

10. Camel Racing

Think the Grand National but with camels and robot jockeys. That’s right camel racing is a very popular sport in the Middle East as well as, Australia and Mongolia. Just like horse racing, camel racing is a sport for betting and tourist attraction.

9. Elephant Polo

This sport is played in Nepal, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. Unlike traditional polo, elephant polo is played whilst riding elephants with two riders on each elephant, one used for steering and the other for directing and hitting the ball. Elephant polo is no longer an active sport due to the funding being withdrawn due to allegations of animal cruelty.

8. Cow Fighting

A popular Swiss event where unlike bullfighting (where a human fights with a bull), cow fighting involves one cow fighting another cow until death. This extremely popular sport, running since the 1920s, attracts around 50,000 spectators every year. 

7. Camel Wrestling

A Turkish sport where two male camels wrestle, typically to a response of a female camel in heat led before them. Camels are usually named after politicians and world leaders and a successful camel wrestler can be sold for over $20,000!!

6. Cricket Spitting

Cricket spitting is exactly what it says on the tin. Place a dead cricket into your mouth and spit as far as you can. The person to spit farthest, wins! Sounds simple, right?

5. Rabbit Show Jumping

An obstacle course for domestic rabbits that have been trained to jump over different sized hurdles. So a bit like equestrian show jumping or dog agility course but with rabbits. Pretty impressive in my opinion.

 4. Snail Racing

This sport is what some people refer to as humorous entertainment. Set the snails loose and watch them run to the finish line. Except they won’t run but slither very, very, very slowly.  

3. Turkey Bowl

Turkey Bowl is based on the traditional game of bowling except a frozen turkey is used instead of a bowling ball to knock down 10 plastic bottles. This annual event usually takes place around Thanksgiving. What a waste of food, you might say. Participants claim that the turkeys used were inconsumable and would have been disposed off, so it’s a win-win situation either way and it’s fun!   

2. Ferret Legging

This sport is simple. Get a ferret, set it lose in your trousers and see who can keep it in the pants the longest. Just a few rules to bear in mind. Male participants only, must tie their trousers at the ankles and must go commando. The winner is the brave man that bears the longest. Cruel or funny? Well believe it or not, but ferrets enjoy confined spaces so there’s more chance of the contestant getting hurt rather than the ferret. Can’t promise the ferret wouldn’t be mentality affected though…

    

1. Pig Olympics

The best animal sport! Ok I am being a bit biased but this sport is pretty impressive. Just like the traditional Olympics, countries take it in turns to host the annual Pig Olympics or Olympigs, as I like to call it, where over 100 specially bred and trained piglets take part in a variety of well known sports such as football, swimming and running.