Sochi Olympics are well underway, and it's time to break records - while laughing all the way to the prize!
One such extremely hilarious winter sport (which did not get any representation in Sochi, but hey, it's only 6 years old - since 2007) is the Underwater Ice Hockey, where participants play normal hockey game... upside down, underneath frozen lake surfaces. What's more, "competitors are not allowed to utilize any breathing apparatuses, but instead surface for air every 30 seconds".
Sounds like deep, deep - and slightly mental - fun. Watch a video of it here.
Reindeer races in Northern Finland are also pretty spectacular and somewhat strange:
(image credit: Henri Bonell)
Here is a summer-sport variation on the same theme:
(original unknown)
Comedy on Ice
Figure skating competitions routinely yield a rich harvest of hilarious facial expressions and not-so-funny performance wipe-outs.
The following picture reveals the occasional over-the-top emotional intensity in figure skating:
(image via)
Shown above is the "ice contortionist" from Japan Miki Ando, seen at the women's figure skating short program in Vancouver. Figure skating aside, short track speed skating, and of course, hockey also lead to many moments of "comedy on ice". The following picture is not so funny, as it shows the crash of two skaters during the World Short Track Speed Skating Championship in Vienna, Austria:
(image credit: AP Photo/Hans Punz, via)
Real teamwork! -
(originals unknown)
GO!!! GO!!! -
A little too extreme version of heli-skiing? (Russian, of course) -
And then, there are some Russians who launch themselves off a ski jump without a trace of any snow (or even any proper use of skis) - see the video here.
Wipeout! -
For all your future athletes, here is how you keep in shape...
- on an airplane:
- in a kitchen:
- at work:
- and simply hanging out (creative photography by Sven Prim:
(image credit: Sven Prim)
Some prefer workouts to getting all scrunched up in yoga:
It's hard to stay motivated... but if you have not seen this "Never give up on your dreams!" poster yet, we are more than happy to show it to you - and you can even order this on a t-shirt here
Afraid of heights?
Apparently not! -
"Montazhniki" (high-rise construction workers) doing their job over the Volga river - taken from the 1963 Soviet "Smena" magazine:
A construction worker climbs the steeple of the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong during completion of the building in 1990:
Even more unbelievable acrobatic feats and stunts:
Daredevil Yosemite climbing by Alex Honnold, without a rope or any gear - read the article here.
(image credit: Mikey Schaefer, National Geographic)
Can you really climb the walls with this apparatus? We would highly doubt its efficiency, but apparently it has been done:
(images via)
This is the "Vacuum-Cleaner Man" Jem Stansfield, who adapted the motors from two household vacuum cleaners into giant sucker pads, then proceeded to successfully crawl up the 300 feet wall (more info).