Bizarre Competitions: 101 Ways to Become a World Champion

by Richard Happer

You don't have to be Usain Bolt to be a champion of the world. This book describes 101 bizarre and eccentric events that call themselves "World Championships". They are open to anyone who dares to try but it also takes skill, a lot of passion and even more madness to become crowned champion of the world in these events. Swamp snorkeling, extreme ironing, coal carrying and pantomime horse racing are just a few of the weird ways to gain ultimate glory. The book provides details on prizes, entry criteria, locations, who the current champions are, the rules of the game and the techniques a challenger has to master to become a weird "sports" world-beater. For those who want to stay close to home, there are many championship events in North America. Try With the inside knowledge found here, a lot of inspiration and perhaps even some practice, this book has what a challenger needs to become champion of the world. And who doesn't want that.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sports

256 pages, Paperback

Published October 4, 2016

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very quick but very entertaining read. The book highlights 101 competitions held around the world. They range from super silly to very interesting. Some of the competitions highlighted include nettle eating, extreme ironing, speed knitting and a beer mile where you have to drink a beer then run a lap. The book is fun to read and the entries range from a page to a page and a half. I read this in about 45 minutes, skipping over a few of the less interesting entries to me.

[Jbussen · Rating 5 out of 5]

101 insane, ridiculous, intense, unusual, fun competitions from around the world (mostly England for some reason.) a quick entertaining read (1/2 to 1 hr). Artful pictures add quite a bit, especially for the young ones. Each competition has the event, where, when, rules, origins, and is about 1-1.5 pages. My favorite? You carry your wife (or woman within the weight zone) through an obstacle course. Origin? Wife stealing!

[Kathy Lautenschlager · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some pretty funny competitions going on.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a fun read with lots of great pictures.

[Zara's Corner · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I picked up this book it was to fulfil a challenge where I needed to read a book about sports otherwise I wouldn’t have even picked this book up. However, I’m glad I did. The different competitions contained within it range from the interesting to the absolute bizarre. It was a great deal of fun to read as well as being very educational.

It was fun learning about so many strange and unusual sports that people will compete in that most people wouldn’t even entertain the idea of doing. An interesting fact was the number of these competitions which originated in England - that at first glance seemed odd to have had their origins there. Another fact, was the number of competitions which began as a result of discussions between men in a pub. Some of these included, Welly Wanging (pg 36), Stinging Nettle Eating (pg 47), Bog Snorkelling (pg 70), and Lying (pg 242). Other competitions of interest were Caber Tossing which started because a Scottish highlander noticed that a birch tree branch had fallen down so he wanted to see how far he could throw it. Then there was Wife Carrying and Bee Wearing (also called Bearding). This is just a small sample of the competitions covered in this wonderful book.

[Amanda Sanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Beavers are not allowed to enter (the Lumberjack World Championships)". This is one of the snarky comments you will find in Bizarre Competitions: 101 Ways to become a World Champion. For most people this would not be a cover-to-cover read, but with all the funny asides, it can be done. As they say in the Sheep Shearing section "Where there's a wool, there's a way." Other competitions included are : Cherry-Pit Spitting, Combat Juggling, Chess Boxing, Handwriting Championships, Grits Rolling, and Speed Knitting. This is a fun book to browse.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun easy read with photos, encouraging tweens and teens to read something fun and makes for some interesting family discussions. We are planning a few competitions... not the shin kicking competition but definitely the window washing. :-)