5 Bizarre (But Cool) Sports You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

Oxford Languages defines a sport as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.”

This definition leaves a lot of room for imagination.

While basketball or football may be the first sports to come to mind, there are plenty of sports out in the universe that are wild, weird, and virtually unknown.

Here are five of the most bizarre, but super cool, sports you’ve probably never heard of.

That’s right.

People sit on ostriches and then race.

I wasn’t aware that ostriches are actually amazingly quick animals. They can reach over 40 mph in a full sprint. So you can imagine that, when hyped up for a competition, ostriches provide a pretty fantastic show!

Here’s a clip of some ostriches coming down the final stretch.

Keeping in the spirit of racing things we don’t think to race, shovel racing is a sport that involves sitting on a shovel like a sled and flying down a mountain.

As silly as it sounds, this sport actually appeared in the Winter X-Games in 1997.

The 90s were an odd time for everyone, but I’d say that making a sport out of a shovel is a pretty fun choice.

I’m not convinced a shovel is a fantastic sled, but if it slides, then sled on! These pros seem to make it work!

I’ll admit, this bizarre sport sounds like a recipe for disaster. Teams of two play a soccer-like game, but they can only move the ball with the wheels of their bicycles.

I suspect there have been more than a few cycleball injuries due to running over the ball, but the game is entertaining nonetheless. And hey, maybe the pros know some techniques to help mitigate injury!

Check out this clip of world-class cycleballers. They are moving so fast!

This one may be a bit self-explanatory.

Competitors mount unicycles and play the classic game of polo on one wheel! This sport requires a massive amount of skill, and the result is fairly silly-looking.

Unicycling in-and-of itself is impressive. But unicycling for the purpose of a game of polo? Insanity.

Wife Carrying is a classic Finnish sport where husbands carry their wives around their shoulders and maneuver through an obstacle course. It’s quite a sight to see.

If you’re a fan of the reality TV series “The Bachelor,” you may recall a recent season that featured a wife carrying challenge in Estonia. While Zach and Charity didn’t end up together, their legacy of legendary wife carrying will go on for years to come.

Games are in our nature! Why not push a ball around with a bike? Why not run through an obstacle course with your wife on your shoulder? These sports are seriously bizarre, but they’re an amazing testament to the human tendency to create fun.

The featured images for this post come from YouTube (here and here)