Post-apocalyptic sports

[Mirasol]

So... I´ve been thinking. (Huh... I never thought that I of all people would start a thread about sports... But well, worldbuilding! Please point me to a thread where this has already been discussed, if it exists, I couldn´t find one.)

Are there still sports in year 90? I mean in like, team sports where different communities might even compete with each other, while fans watch? And which ones would still exist, or what could be new ones? I don´t think this was ever adressed in universe. With the risk of spreading infection or attracting trolls to your location, I´d imagine that to be quite difficult. But we´ve seen in our very own pandemic how people have been going nuts without being able to watch a bunch of people kick a ball across a field or something along the lines for a longer amount of time.
I personally don´t really get the appeal anyway (I´m neither good at sports nor invested in watching other people do sports), but it is a valued source of entertainment for many, as well as just a fun passtime for many more. And I do get why so many miss them. So what I´m trying to get at is: post-rash society might want to rebuild a bit of that entertainment. And how would they do that?

What I´m actually trying to ask: I´m writing a very stupid crossover-fanfiction that so help me will never see the light of day, and I need a post-rash-equivalent for a competitive teamsport, as it is a relatively defining trait about several characters that they are participating in one. Any ideas?

[Jitter]

In Finland, the Finnish version of baseball called pesäpallo is popular. It was developed from baseball and similar sports in early 1900’s as a game that builds up various sports skills. It was also considered good practice for future soldiers. It’s Finland’s national sport and one of the most popular. Playing for fun doesn’t require much. So I could well see pesäpallo games being a thing.

But if the character is to be some sort of a Known World famous sports star, pesäpallo probably isn’t the thing. Football (soccer) happens when there is a ball, some flat area and a minimum of 4 kids. So probably it’s still popular.

I also think wrestling and possibly versions of budo would be practiced but they aren’t team sports. Wrestling would also likely be entertainment in various festivities, whether considered sports or just fun and games.

Interesting question!

[Vulpes]

A lot of sports are basically practice for essential skills, so maybe the ones closest to key post-rash skills would still exist. Of course I'm not a team sport person, either, so I have no specific suggestions! But I second Jitter's football/soccer suggestion, it requires very little to play, and would be a welcome distraction. No particular post-rash survival skills being honed, but general fitness and agility is always good.

[wavewright62]

Not a team sport, but I headcanon that the Estonian competitive sport of kiik became popular in the Known World.  Doesn't require a lot of precious land, for one thing.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiiking
Biathlon (skiing and rifle shooting) should continue being a thing, although possibly not competitive any more (aside from bragging at the communal dining space).

[thegreyarea]

I would agree with Jitter (once again!) that soccer is so simple to play, and also so very popular almost everywhere, that they would probably have it in the Known World.
There's also one solitaire evidence that it exists in the "Beach Day" drawing, where we see Reynir and Emil having fun with a ball http://www.sssscomic.com/mainimages/art/beach_day.jpg

[afreude]

You could check out the Arctic Winter Games or the World Eskimo Indian Olympics although the latter is more specific to Alaska and northern Canada.  Both of these events feature traditional sports and/or events from northern indigenous peoples, and I rather like the idea that some of them may have become common again when the communities became more isolated after the rash illness.  But of course this doesn't help with the question about not spreading the disease around during regional competitions....nor are most of these really team sports in the sense that I think you were after.

(Also, if you're curious about the usage of both "Eskimo" and "Indian" in the WEIO name, they have a statement about it on their official website.)



Arctic Winter Games:
https://www.arcticwintergames.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Winter_Games

WEIO:
https://www.weio.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Eskimo_Indian_Olympics

[Róisín]

Nice idea for a thread! If you have an interest in potential year 90 sports, I explored the edges of that idea in a fic ‘What exactly is an Urbex?’ which you will find over on Archive of Our Own where I write as Tanist. In that story Lalli speculates about the old-world sport Mikkel is discussing, wondering what the old-world people did for fun. I had Mikkel be the one talking about Urbex, because in our-time, our-world Denmark it is quite popular, and might not have been forgotten. Also the person for whom I wrote the story as part of a gift exchange was into Urbex, as was I when younger - I and a couple of my cousins used to be right into it before the modern name existed. I write Lalli as being familiar with sports such as marathon running, archery, orienteering and target shooting, which seem to me likely to have survived into his time, cultivating useful levels of fitness, attentiveness and combat skills as they do.

[Róisín]

Sorry to double post, but just remembered something by Leslie Fish and Joe Bethancourt that might amuse. From a different post-apoc. A song from North America on the subject of when the bombs drop in the middle of quite an old-fashioned sporting event: the Pennsic War. The song is called ‘The War Is Going Home.’ It should be on youtube?

[Jitter]

Wave, I had no idea about kiiking! Wonderful to learn new things.

The name reminds me of a Finnish sport or game kyykkä. Two teams compete over a flat playing field. Both teams try to remove the other team’s pieces from the play area by throwing a wooden “bat” at them. See here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_skittles

Kyykkä is not a big sport, but there are active teams and it’s popular among students. All equipment is made of wood and would be very easy to make. It can also be played in winter on ice or any flat area, because there’s no running as such. Playability in winter would make it easier to arrange matches between communities. Still the difficulty of travel probably means there are no international series in any sports, maybe some sort of championship every four years or something at most.

Iceland has enough population and communities to develop a national series of some sports and also rhe entire country being safe of course helps a lot. Bornholm also has several communities within a safe area. As for the rest, it’s more complicated.

Urbex probably wouldn’t be considered a sport, rather a job for the foolhardy

[JoB]

Are there still sports in year 90? I mean in like, team sports where different communities might even compete with each other, while fans watch?

Random idea: If you want a sport that is likely to survive an apocalypse-and-return-to-traditions, look for traditions that the people in question would keep practising in isolation, and have already (been) turned into a competitive sport before.

For example, hallingdansen.

[Mirasol]

Wow, thank you for all the replies!

Jitter, I think pesäpallo is definitly already a step in the right direction, so thank you for the suggestion! And to Kyykkä, we actually have a similar game where I live. We know it as "viking chess", it´s not really played competitive, but a nice passtime. I think something along the lines would definitly still be played!

A lot of sports are basically practice for essential skills, so maybe the ones closest to key post-rash skills would still exist.

I think so too, especially sports that train skills useful for survival would probably still be popular.

Wave, that one looks kinda scary... But I could totally see that happening. Interesting what kinds of things exist around the world!

Grey, oh right, the beach day picture! I completely forgot about that! in the other one set on a beach, Lalli is also carrying a ball. I´m not sure though to what degree we can regard these drawings as canon. But then again, just throwing/kicking a ball at each other is one of the simplest game-ideas ever, it would most likely still be around. So I´m also with all of you that soccer probably still exists.

afreude, you´re right, for this particular question I was after team-sports, but a big part of why I made this thread was also just general interest in what post-rash-people would spend their free time doing when they don´t have to constantly fear being killed. So yeah, I could totally see them engaging into some of the sports listed in your links! With some of them, since they don´t require a lot of people, just a competition among people living in one city might work without the fear of spreading the illness. The only other idea to prevent it I have would be that all players that compete on a larger scale would have to be immune, though that seems to be kind of unfair...

Róisín, ah, I found the story! (here, in case someone else was looking for it:What Exactly is an Urbex?) Yeah, in the eyes of someone in Y90 this "sport" would appear very strange. (I had actually never heard of it before today, so also thank you for teaching me new stuff!) And I agree once again, sports that teach useful survival skills would have definitly survived. I also looked for the song you mentioned. I couldn´t find it under the title you named, but this one named "serious steel"  seems to be it:

Another thing I had no idea existed! But that situation would be such a cool post-apocalyptic set-up! The song is awesome!

Random idea: If you want a sport that is likely to survive an apocalypse-and-return-to-traditions, look for traditions that the people in question would keep practising in isolation, and have already (been) turned into a competitive sport before.

For example, hallingdansen.

Oh, more cool stuff! Yeah, that seems like a sport that would still be practiced.

Eeeee, so many possibilities!

[Róisín]

Mirasol, thank you so much for putting up those links! I can never make the things work. The album is Serious Steel, I think. It is a most entertaining song. I have had some involvement with the SCA, though mostly with their cooking, arts and crafts and brewing streams, and as a singer and storyteller rather than a fighter - their style didn’t really suit me. New Varangian Guard, HEMA and the Viking Society were more my speed, back when I did fight, for which I am nowadays somewhat decrepit. It was fun.

[Vulpes]

I always learn something around here... what a lot of interesting games!

Wave, I was thinking about biathlon, but how much would that be a directly practical skill? Beast and trolls are inactive in winter, and someplace else (Saimaa floating village thread?) there was some discussion of whether there would be human-human conflict with the consensus that life might be too tough to bother, so is skiing and shooting a key skill? Maybe useful for regular hunting? Not to say that a non-critical skill wouldn't be part of a sport, but I'm assuming that they don't want to waste energy on something completely irrelevant, like... ah.... (this is where my spotty sports knowledge lets me down) perhaps track bicycling. Kiik sounds absolutely awesome!

I'm glad afreude mentioned the Arctic Games. I could totally see individual competitions like that as a way to pass time during the long dark winter.

[thegreyarea]

Wow! So many sports that I've never heard about before! Always learning new things here.

As Vulpes mentioned "practical" sports like skiing, shooting or archery would surely have many competitors, but almost any sport would be possible in Iceland, since they feel safe as long as they are far from the coast and can move freely from town to town.
I'm planning to have a sports area in the floating town, using a barge to create a large flat surface. If we put a high net around it they could play volley, soccer and others in there.

[Róisín]

Maybe hockey?