The Bellyflop Championships Is The Most Painful Sporting Event Ever

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Bellyflops go a long way in some walks of life. Just ask anyone in Norway.

The country hosts the Det Internasjonale Dødseforbundet (which translates to ‘World Championship of Death Diving’) in which contestants try to accomplish the most daring and hilarious belly flops into a pool from a high dive platform.

It’s a simple pleasure: jump off something tall into water while flailing around like a fish out of the sea.

The extreme sport, also known as ‘deathing’ (bit more grim) had its world championships on Friday where winner, Emil Lybekk, took home the gold with a horizontal corkscrew, twisty, type thing, which of course, culminated in a belly flop.

Watch it here:

Divers are judged on running speed, jump height, jump length, acrobatics, degree of difficulty, holding a pose before entry, entry style and favourite of all for the punters watching, splash size.

One person wrote:

You can tell a lot of these divers know what they’re doing, not just some random joe’s. They always fold at the very last second to avoid a flat landing, that takes experience and training.

Another said:

Some people think its impressive to jump into water and not do anything fun in the air or make a big splash… I’m glad you all got your priorities straight!

A third added:

For any of you saying that it’s boring, and their not doing any crazy flips. It’s exciting in the fact that they could easy rupture a lung from 10 meters up and or die if they were to not fold at the last second. That’s why they call it death diving. [sic]

Not to take all the fun out this hilarious event but it begs the question: can belly flops go too far? Yes, obviously. That should come as no surprise.

Deeper abdominal injury from belly flops is known as blunt abdominal trauma. It’s similar to being hit on the belly really hard. It can affect organs such as the liver, kidney, pancreas and the bowels, CNN report.

Not only is the abdomen taking the most of the landing into the water at a super high velocity, there’s also an immediate deceleration (fancy talk for a reduction in speed when you’re bombing it) both of which can cause pretty bad trauma to the organs.

Children are more vulnerable than adults, clearly, as they have less abdominal fat and a relatively larger abdominal cavity.

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After a belly-flop, it’s usual for the skin to sting for a while. If the pain doesn’t go away (when does it in such trying times?), or if you see blood in your wee or poo, you should see a doctor straight away.

But hey, it’s Friday tomorrow. Let’s just enjoy this funny video of Norwegians jumping into swimming pools like it’s 1999.

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