Bizarre Sperm Racing World Cup features $100K prize
If you thought competitive sports had been taken to its limits (Chess boxing, Power Slap, anyone?) then think again.
The world's first Sperm Racing World Cup is heading to San Francisco next month, and it's already attracted more than 10,000 applicants from over 100 countries, all competing for a $100,000 prize.
Yep, you read that right.
The tournament will see semen samples from 128 men, each representing a different nation, go head-to-head on a microscopic race track.
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It's simple really, the quickest sperm wins, and its owner collects the mammoth six-figure payday.
Applicants have come from all over the world: from the US, Iran, Israel, and even North Korea.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, co-founder Shane Fan said organizers are currently working through the enormous pool of hopefuls to find the speediest sperms from across the globe.
He said: "We are aiming to find the healthiest person possible for each country to compete. There is a lot of work that goes into maintaining a healthy body."
How does the Sperm Racing World Cup work?
Competitors won't need to show up in person, which is probably for the best.
Instead, each selected 'athlete' will be sent a kit to provide a semen sample at home, which is then mailed back to California for testing.
Scientists will isolate individual sperm before placing them into a specially designed microfluidic track, where they race in straight line sprints measuring just 1500 micros - roughly about 0.02 inches, or about the size of a find grain of table salt.
Powerful microscopes will magnify every movement and broadcast the action live to online viewers, while giant screens at the San Francisco venue will show 'play-by-play' progress, stats and live leaderboards.
Fans will also be shown each competitor's health data, including body composition and biomarkers, so they can prick favorites much like a traditional sporting event.
Is this the first ever sperm race?
Despite claims of being the first event of its kind, the same team actually staged a much smaller race in Los Angeles last April. Two college students competed live for a $10,000 cash prize before a crowd of hundreds, complete with giant screens, commentary, weigh ins and live rankings. That event was billed as mix of entertainment and awareness around men's reproductive health.
Clearly it was successful enough to take things global.
Why is America having a male fertility crisis?
Beneath the fun nature of the event, the organizers say there's a serious point they are making. Research has suggested average sperm counts may have dropped by more than 50 percent over the last century, with obesity, poor diet, inactivity, chronic disease and environmental factors among the causes scientists have identified.
Fertility rates have also declined across many developed nations, raising concerns about reproductive health more broadly.
How do doctors assess sperm health?
Doctors asses sperm health not just by count, but also by motility, or how well individual sperm swim. After all, there's no point in having loads of sperm if they can't swim to fertilize an egg.
Morphology, meaning the shape and structure of sperm, matters too, since abnormal forms are less effective at fertilization.
Smoking, excessive alcohol, steroid use, obesity and overheating of the testes are all known to affect male fertility.
The race's backers say that by turning something awkward as semen into a sharable, competitive spectacle, they hope to remove the embarrassment from men getting tested, and to push the conversation on male reproductive health into the mainstream.
Whether it works or not, $100,000 is certainly one way to get people talking about it.
Thomas Bamford