This Week in Weird Sports: Cycle Ball

We get wheel serious about bike-based sports!

We get wheel serious about bike-based sports!

Nicholas Kaufmann had a dream. That dream, to wear the most ridiculous shirt in the world, you better believe he accomplished. But he also had another dream! An even grander dream! That is, to combine this with this. In 1893, that crazy Kraut made it happen, and it’s still played to this day in such diverse countries as the Czech Republic, Denmark, Japan, Russia, and Switzerland.


The name of the game is Cycle Ball, and it is played by teams of two, who control the ball with their heads or bikes (which are brake-less) to score goals. At no time are any player’s feet allowed to touch the ground. From the 14 seconds of cycle ball we’ve watched on YouTube, that shit is actually pretty serious! Legend has it Kaufmann thought of the sport while nudging his dog along with the wheel of his bike. Luckily, in the 19th century, there was no such thing as PETA. Also, cocaine was totally legal. Which probably explains why nothing as awesome as this has happened in the last 100 years.