{"id":5192,"date":"2014-12-16T16:00:50","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T16:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.studyabroad101.com\/?p=5192"},"modified":"2023-05-09T05:04:26","modified_gmt":"2023-05-09T09:04:26","slug":"study-abroad-see-sports-you-never-expected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.studyabroad101.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/study-abroad-see-sports-you-never-expected\/","title":{"rendered":"Study Abroad – See sports you NEVER expected!"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot of attention is paid to sports in the United States, but the craze for competition goes well beyond American shores. For those of you who love sports and can’t imagine a semester without the sports pages, ESPN or sports talk, don’t worry there’s hope abroad. In America we love our football. In Europe they have..well, football and in Australia they have.. well football. The Aussies may also call it Footie and the Europeans may call it The Beautiful Game and for those of you considering study abroad it is yet another chance to experience cultural immersion.<\/p>\n

From Finland to East Asia let\u2019s explore some of the silliest, wackiest, and most outrageous competitions around. At first glance these sports will make your head spin, but pull up a chair, pop open a beverage, stoke up the grill and join the global tailgate, because sports abroad can be as entertaining as it gets!<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
photo courtesy of The Georgetonian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First stop Finland:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Land of fine chocolates, fiord hockey and cheerful shoes. Finland has been the butt of many jokes about cultures both strange and exotic. But really, she\u2019s a good country and one that plays host to one of the world\u2019s most triumphant competitions known, in Fin-speak, as Eukankanto. Translation: Wife Carrying<\/em><\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

The pictured \u2018carry\u2019 is known as Estonian style. Wife Carrying is a heralded sport in it\u2019s European home that not surprisingly has penetrated other cultures across the continents. On competition day, an annual event, wives will enjoy having their husband lunge through sandy, fenced, and wet obstacles all while just inches from their partner\u2019s bum. Ultimately, the prize to gain is not the glory of \u201cWorld Wife Carrying Champion\u201d but rather the grand prize of your wife\u2019s weight in beer.<\/p>\n

\"mighty-morphin-power-rangers-team-copy\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Next stop, Japan<\/strong> where you might have thought Sumo was as strange or bizarre as it gets. No, we found a sport that may have started as a training regiment for Power Rangers. It is called Bo Taoshi<\/em><\/strong><\/span> and it looks something like this:<\/p>\n

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