• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Fort In Sport (Odd Sports & Sporting Incidents)

The legendary Formula 1 doctor, Sid Watkins, had a bit of a bad feeling about the race weekend, that fateful Saturday in 1994.

After the tragic death of Roland Ratzenburger on the Saturday, Watkins tried to talk Senna out of racing in the Sunday.

The excellent documentary on Senna goes into their closeyr but sometimes fraught relationship.

For a medical man who had seen so much to be so prescient always struck me as a bit Fortean, given the further tragedy that unfolded.
 
A Russian drinking game involving a tazer, I bet Boris does this:
 
Aaaaaaaaand ... They're off!!

trace2.jpg

The annual T-Rex race at Emerald Downs racetrack in Washington state was held this past July.

Here's an NPR news item describing the event and providing a video of this year's race. I laughed myself silly at the video.

https://www.npr.org/2019/07/10/740373117/at-the-t-rex-races-on-your-mark-get-set-rawwrr
 
Probably looking for a game of chicken golf.

Sent off for a fowl! Footballer is given a red card for killing a CHICKEN during a match in Croatia
  • Ivan Gazdek, 23, was playing football in Croatia when chickens ran on the pitch
  • Athlete was filmed chasing after the flock before kicking one of the animals dead
  • He then picked up the chicken's body and hurled it over a nearby fence
  • He was shown a straight red card by the referee for 'unsportsmanlike conduct'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7654835/Croatian-footballer-killed-chicken-match-shown-red-card.html
 
Those Crazy Russians! :)
 
Would bunnies be better players?

Hungry rabbits left a football club "hopping mad" after munching through a goal net.

Cambridge United groundsman Ian Darler was preparing the pitch for Saturday's home game against Stevenage when he noticed "we've had a little visitor". The bunnies chewed through the bottom of the net and left "other little gifts" in the goalmouth, he said. Mr Darler managed to tie it back together and said he was inspired by "watching fishermen mend their nets".

Fans were quick to comment when photographs of the damage were posted on social media. Those despairing of the League Two club's form - they have won one of their last seven games and did not score at all in the last two - suggested the rabbits might make better players.

"At least the rabbits actually found the net," one wrote, while another said the club should "sign them up - they appear to know where the net is".

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-51148811
 
I think this just about fits here.

Six Nations: The Wales rugby international 'shot by a poison arrow'

"I could tell immediately that he was going to be a fascinating story."

In 1908, Norman Biggs was reported to have been shot by a poison arrow while in northern Nigeria working as a district superintendent. But Biggs was not from Nigeria, he was born in Cardiff and was Wales' youngest rugby international, said local historian Ted Richards.

He explained that Biggs first appeared in the newspapers aged about 12, with a story about his rugby talent. He later played for Cardiff aged 16, before joining the Welsh team aged 18.

"That record stood for 120 years," said Mr Richards.

Mr Richards, a former toxicologist, was researching people killed by poison when he stumbled onto Biggs' story in an old newspaper article.

"The more I researched him and his family, the more interesting the story became," he said.

Biggs' first international game was against the New Zealand Natives, which later became the All Blacks, in Swansea.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-51325491
 
He's the spit of Roy Keane.

A football match was disrupted by an unusual pitch invader when an alpaca bounded on to the field.

Carlton Athletic's tie against Ilkley Town in West Yorkshire on Saturday was halted for 15 minutes when Oscar escaped from a nearby farm and joined the action. Attempts were made to entice it off the pitch with food, before a farmer managed to shepherd it home.

After the bizarre delay, Ilkley went on to secure a 2-0 away win.

The sides play in the West Yorkshire League Premier Division, with Carlton, near Rothwell, "renowned" in the league for having alpacas nearby, Ilkley manager Simon Armstrong said. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-54224681
 
Just heard on the radio that break dancing will be trialled as an Olympic sport in the 2024 games.

:zom:

Any more ideas for grotesquely un-olympian Olympic sports, please post here!
 
How about Olympic Knock Down Ginger?
Split the Kipper?
British Bulldog?
Plate spinning?
Yodelling?
50 metre Spacehopper relay?
 
Just heard on the radio that break dancing will be trialled as an Olympic sport in the 2024 games.
Any more ideas for grotesquely un-olympian Olympic sports, please post here!

That would open the door to all sorts of possible dance competitions. I suspect the first to plead their case would be the jitter-buggers.
 
Owing to the global diversity in food and eating habits I don't think it would be feasible to set up a fair international competition in:

- Cooking or cooking-related abilities
- Competitive eating
 
I reckon they've missed an opportunity here.
Surely pole dancing would be far more popular at the Olympics than break dancing?
 
Owing to the global diversity in food and eating habits I don't think it would be feasible to set up a fair international competition in:

- Cooking or cooking-related abilities
- Competitive eating
Added to which, it's stretching the traditional definition of "sport" a bit.
 
How about track events using extreme surfaces and / or surface conditions? For example ...

At the summer Olympics - an X meters race run on deep sand or mud.
At the winder Olympics - an X meters race run on ice.
 
I think this qualifies in this thread in that: "To measure a circle, you can begin anywhere." is Fortean, this year those crazy break dancing kids that do just that as an art form/sport are now an official Olympic event as of the next Olympics!! :cool: :badge: (B Boys are notoriously stupid though so the mandatory drug testing and inevitable corruption etc will be fun to watch) ..

https://news.sky.com/story/breakdancing-confirmed-as-olympic-sport-for-2024-paris-games-12154546

The 'sport' will be called 'breaking' .. it's taken about 50 years (it you don't count other earlier styles it adopted)

Last year's world championships

 
Last edited:
Just heard on the radio that break dancing will be trialled as an Olympic sport in the 2024 games.

:zom:

Any more ideas for grotesquely un-olympian Olympic sports, please post here!
I'd get rid of all Olympic sports that involve judging – gymnastics, surfing, rhythmic gymnastics, synchronised swimming etc. The results should be measurable: as in faster, higher stronger. While not a big fan of golf and tennis at the Olympics – as with road cycling (the Tour de France is much more important than the Olympic road race) these have monumental championships in their own sports – they at least aren't subjective.

I'd even have darts, chess and snooker over the likes of breakdancing. As for why squash hasn't made the cut, I presume they haven't spread the cash in the right direction. Not that I'm implying the IOC has ever been corrupt – apart from when they have been proved to be corrupt. In fact, all major sports organisations – the likes of FIFA etc – are paragons of virtue and forward looking...

Sorry, I'm a keen sports fan but sporting organisations drive me to despair, from cricket to football to rugby, the IOC, FIFA. The trouble is if you throw lots of money at organisations to award events, there is a massive potential for corruption.
 
(In a whispered announcer's voice ... )
"Oh, my ... Kenny's dropped his second shot short of the water hazard, but left himself stuck on the even more ominous gator hazard."

Golf-FL-Gator.jpg
Florida man retrieves golf ball that landed on alligator's tail

A Florida golfer was caught on camera retrieving his ball from a particularly dangerous hazard -- the tail of an alligator.

Kyle Downes said he and his brother were at the Coral Oaks Golf Course in Cape Coral on Sunday when a ball landed on the gator's tail. ...

Downes shared video showing his brother sneaking up on the alligator to grab the ball off its tail.

The player quickly grabs the ball and the alligator, apparently startled, darts into the water. ...

FULL STORY (With Video):
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2020/1...that-landed-on-alligators-tail/3201607971021/
 
This one is from 2017. A football belonging to Banks o' Dee FC, from Aberdeen, was returned to them after being washed up on an island off the coast of Northern Norway. Their stadium is right beside the River Dee, so it wouldn't take too much of a clearance or wayward shot to send a ball on its merry way.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-40070744
 
Anyone here follow the subreddit r/theocho?

As they say in the description, "If it's almost a sport, we've got it here."
As if I didn't spend enough time on the internet?! Pro bean bag throwing; competitive tag (I saw that on TV last week and I'd have loved to have played that when much younger, fitter and not broken!), big geezers throwing a medicine ball over a volleyball net, tank biathlon!!!!, camel jumping, underwater rugby.

That's the Christmas holiday's viewing sorted.
 
Back
Top