UPI – In 2024, a variety of unique talents and skills will be showcased in unconventional categories, spanning wife-carrying, underwater chess, dog ugliness, and mullet-sporting.
While the year brings renowned events like Super Bowl LVIII, the Paris Summer Olympics, and a United States (US) presidential election, it also highlights lesser-known but equally significant competitions, including the Heavy Metal Knitting World Championships, and the Air Guitar World Championships.
Celebrating these unique challenges and the participants proudly showcasing their home nations, these are some of the most unusual competitions across the globe.
WORLD’S UGLIEST DOG CONTEST
The world’s most aesthetically challenged canines gather each year at the Sonoma-Marin Fair to see which of them can capture the hearts of judges and the public. The ugliest dog in each contest wins prizes including USD1,500 and an appearance on a TV show. The annual contest aims to celebrate imperfect canines and encourage adoption of pets in need of good homes.
USA MULLET CHAMPIONSHIPS
Diehard fans of iconic 80s fashion statements compete to find the best business-in-the-front, party-in-the-back hairstyles in the annual USA Mullet Championships.
The online contest features divisions including the men’s contest, a femullet contest for women competitors, a 55+ division for older competitors and kids and teens contests to find the next generation of magnificent mullets. The winners in each category earn the title of America’s best mullet, as well as a USD2,500 prize.
HEAVY METAL KNITTING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
This unusual contest calls on competitors from countries including Finland, the US, Japan, Denmark, Latvia, Russia and Sweden to combine their knitting and heavy metal dancing skills. The inaugural event in 2022 saw each competitor join heavy metal band Maniac Abductor on stage to dance and knit in time with the music.
WORLD WIFE CARRYING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Husbands carry their wives through 830 feet of obstacles and mud to compete in the annual wife-carrying world championships. Qualifying events are held in countries all over the world to decide who will represent their nation at the championships in Finland, where the sport of wife-carrying originated.
AIR GUITAR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
The best strumming simulators from countries around the world gather in Finland each year to pretend to play an invisible guitar while dancing along to the song of their choice.
The contestants are judged on technical merit, stage presence and the difficult-to-define concept of “airness”. The Air Guitar World Championships were founded in 1996 to promote the concept of world peace.
