12 Amazing Athletic Competitions You Should Be Watching

While all eyes are on Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, we here at Atlas Obscura have a few Super Bowl alternatives for you to consider—the amazing sports, competitions, and champions that get just a little less attention. Join us as we marvel at the talents of competitive stone-skimmers, mashed-potato wrestlers, lion dancers, log riders, llama racers and, yes, chair-sitters.

What Is the Hardest Unicycle Trick?

by Eric Grundhauser

Contrary to popular perception, the unicycle is not just for circus performers, eccentric panhandlers, and that kid you knew in elementary school. Competitive unicycling takes a number of forms, from one-wheeled basketball to off-road trail bombing. But maybe the largest cohort of sport unicyclists are the urban riders who hop, spin, and flip like Tony Hawk with a seat and a single wheel.

Malaysia Has Turned Lion Dancing Into a Gravity-Defying Competition

by Marina Wang

Beneath the colorful costumes at the biannual Genting World Lion Dance Championship in Malaysia are acrobats who have spent years perfecting their dramatic stunts. The lion dance is traditionally performed to ring in luck and prosperity, and is a common fixture at the Lunar New Year and other celebrations such as birthdays, weddings, or corporate events. But over the past 30 years Chinese Malaysians have raised the stakes, turning the ancient tradition into an extreme sport. “As lion dancers, we always go by this motto that 10 years of practice is equal to one minute on stage,” says one competitor.

What It’s Like to Compete in a Grits Rolling Contest

Stone Skimming Is a World Champion Sport—And a Model for Spaceships

by Ella Benson Easton

The Stone Skimming World Championships is held annually in Scotland, on the small island of Easdale. The goal is simple: skim a stone across a body of water as far as possible. Anyone who reaches the back wall of the quarry, more than 200 feet from shore, is rewarded with a klaxon horn, a huge cheer from the crowd, and qualification for the “Toss Off,” the grand finale of the competition. But the skimming also has a serious side; physicists have studied the sport to determine the best landings for spaceships.

Monster Wrestling And Other Weird, Wonderful Sports from Around the World

by Roxanne Hoorn, Editorial Fellow

Sol Neelman has made a career of being that “weird sports photographer.” He’s captured instant mashed potato wrestling in South Dakota and log riding (known as kiotoshi) in Japan, among many other unexpected competitions. In his travels he’s seen llamas race, monsters battle, and dinosaurs bowl. “I tell people I might be the only photographer who wants people to laugh at their photography,” he says. “I’m passionate about photography and what I do, but I really want people to get a sense and feel of what it’s like to be at these events where there’s so much joy.”

Inside the High-Flying World of Estonian Swinging

by Eric Grundhauser

Estonia has a cultural love affair with swings—there are communal wooden swings across the country—so it’s perhaps no wonder that some Estonian daredevil would invent a way to go over the top. Meet the extreme sport known as kiiking (kiik means “swing” in Estonian), in which competitors make a full 360-degree revolution on a specially designed swing. We “like to say that ‘kiiking’ starts when your legs are higher than your head,” explains one participant. “Before that it is just swinging,”

What Does It Take to Be the Rolley Hole Champion?

by Maggie Gigandet

The intricate marble competition known as rolley hole thrives on a stretch of the Tennessee-Kentucky state border, about two hours northeast of Nashville. While its exact origins are unknown, it has survived in the region for generations, sustained by players who pass down their skills. The National Rolley Hole Championship began about 40 years ago at a time when the future of rolley hole was in jeopardy; the annual tournament has helped revitalize the game.

Meet the Man Who Wants to Make Sitting an Extreme Sport

by Laura Kiniry

Robert “Robby” Silk is, so far, the only competitor in a new sport: sitting. That’s it. He just sits—for hour after hours in some of the world’s harshest environments, from an island off Antarctica to a scenic spot in Joshua Tree National Park, where he sat from sunrise to sunset, 14 hours and 27 minutes. “The idea,” says Silk, “is to really just be, and not do much of anything.”

139 Unusual Sporting Sites in the United States

From the Atlas Obscura Community

Explore the competitive side of the country, from a subterranean ping-pong stadium in Atlanta, to the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame in Milwaukee, to the Olympic Black Power Statue in San Jose. And yes, there’s even something to mark Super Bowl LVIII: the Cheifseum in Manhattan, Kansas, where the world’s largest collection of Kansas City Chiefs memorabilia is on display in one man’s basement. Sorry, 49ers fans, there’s nothing in the Atlas specifically for you—at least not yet.