(Image: The Local/Owen Kilgour)
Now I shall ask the obvious question: why is this not an Olympic sport? Getting dragged behind a galloping horse while on fire is a fantastic recreational activity. It should have a role in youth sports programs, training these specialized athletes from a young age. After a generation or two of this, we could see athletes halving Joe Tödtling’s record.
Tödling, a stuntman from Austria, wore a special protective suit (which, in my opinion, takes some of the fun out of it) while being dragged by a horse for a full 500 yards. He did this on fire, thus breaking the previous Guinness Word record of 472.8 meters. Tödling then immediately turned around and was dragged by an ATV 582 meters, also while on fire.