So, we are all familiar with soccer, volleyball, cycling, and football, but what about all of those less common sports? Did you know that solo synchronized swimming (a bit of an oxymoron isn’t it) was actually once a part of the Olympics? In fact, it was part of the 1984, 1988, and 1992 Olympic Games. Rather than synchronizing with a group of women, a woman would synchronize with music on her own. Here are some more odd “sports”:

• Wife carrying is not a sport for the weak. The male competitor must carry a female competitor, who doesn’t actually have to be his wife, upon his shoulder across an obstacle course, in the shortest possible amount of time. This sport originated in Finland, but major competitions are now held in many states and countries around the world. (Really!)
• In Octopush, AKA underwater hockey, competitors play on a team and push a  weighted puck across the bottom of a pool toward their opponent’s goal. I’m guessing breath-holding is a very necessary skill to do well in this sport.
• Have you heard of the World Chess Boxing Organisation? It’s a real organization for a sport in which the competitors alternate between four-minute rounds of chess and two-minute rounds of boxing. You need to be smart and strong.
• Broomball, a sport growing in popularity in college, was described in a recently-posted article.
• Distance Plunging was part of the Olympics in 1904. The rules? An athlete would dive into a pool and stay motionless for a full minute or until his head breached the surface, then the distance would be measured.
• In cheese rolling, competitors chase a roll of Double Gloucester cheese that is rolled down a hill with a one second head start. The cheese is rarely caught because it can reach speeds up to 70 mph, so the first one to cross the finish line wins the cheese.
• Last, but certainly not least, Quidditch has been come to life from the pages of Harry Potter and is emerging in several colleges. There was even a match between the Middlebury Panthers and the Princeton Tigers! Watch it on Youtube here.