If you hopped into the Hot Tub Time Machine in 2007 and fast forwarded three years, you'd be shocked to find that:
- Tiger Woods, Brett Favre and LeBron James, three sporting icons, are now badly tarnished and even vilified by a majority of fans
- Michael Vick, disgraced and headed to prison, is a serious contender for the MVP of the NFL
- Tim Tebow's backup is leading his school to the BCS national title game, with a Heisman in tow ... but not for Florida

Those are but a few of the strange twists in the sporting drama of 2010, which, in all honesty, began on Thanksgiving night of 2009. The unraveling of Tiger Woods' immortality - both as a golfer and as a human - really came into clear focus in this calendar year. Compared to this mind-blowing saga, the trials and tribulations of Favre and James almost seemed trivial.

But that's not to say that there aren't any feel-good stories in 2010. An imperfect perfect game gave us a glimpse of human decency and reminded us why we watch sports. A marathon tennis match that lasted three days served as an illustration of courage and perseverance. A hockey game that had nothing (money) and everything (a gold medal) on the line was won by a superstar who seems incapable of getting in the news.

In the deserts of Yemen, Zaraniq tribesmen compete to leap camels in a single bound.

Among the members of the Zaraniq tribe on the west coast of Yemen are, apparently, the world’s only professional camel jumpers. “This is what we do,” says Bhayder Mohammed Yusef Qubaisi, a champion bounder. The presumably ancient sport was recently documented by Adam Reynolds, a 30-year-old photojournalist from Bloomington, Indiana.

Ed Stafford

In a time when there are few great expeditions to still be completed, British adventurer Ed Stafford found one. On April 2, 2008, he set out to travel the entire length of the Amazon River, from source to sea, on foot, a distance of more than 4,000 miles (6,437 kilometers). Along the way, the explorer faced hostile locals, drug runners, disease, lack of food, and a host of dangerous animals and insects. He also picked up a companion, Cho Rivera, who joined him on the trail for much of the trek.

When the 2010 World Cup was at its peak, we all heard a barrage of Vuvuzelas and like most of the world we asked ourselves "Why, God, why?" So, now we take a look at all the weirdest sports rituals from around the world and how they've affected their respective games. Here are the most bizarre sports rituals from around the world.

Urinating On Hands Instead of Wearing Gloves

Bull riding has been called the most dangerous eight seconds of sport in the world. So there will be a few raised eyebrows that children are taking part in the notoriously difficult sport.

The youngsters, both girls and boys, were taking part in the Bull Wars rodeo event in Montpelier, Idaho, in the United States on miniature bucking bulls.

The sport involves the children being lifted on to the large steer and attempting to stay mounted for at least eight seconds while the frisky animal attempts to buck them off.

Bored with Olympics?

The Olympic Games have been around millenniums. From 8 BC to 5 AD the Olympics were only found in Athens, Greece. Then in 1894 a great intellectual named Pierre de Coubertin revived the tradition. This gentleman realized how “organized sport can create moral and social strength”. (The Olympic Idea. Discourses and Essays. Editions Internationales Olympiques, Lausanne, 1970.) His combined love for physical education and ancient Greece caused him to reinvent the Olympic games. He is now known as the father of the modern Olympic movement.

It’s all about those breathtaking 20 or 30 meters, those two to three seconds of freefall from rocks and bridges, when those hardy souls known as cliff divers perform the most amazing moves, somersaults and twists, before hitting the water’s surface at up to 90km/h.

Snowboarding and rally car racing are an unlikely duo. After all, don’t rally cars belong on a racetrack? At the DC Mountain Lab in Park City, Utah, however, there are no rules. The private snowboard park is owned and operated by DC Shoes, and it’s a hotbed of innovation for the talented team of snowboarders that DC Shoes endorses.

Trapeze Bolted to a Snowboard. In 2001, a Canadian named Don Arney used his technical skill and his imagination aided, I’m guessing by some dangerous combination of beer, weed, boredom and fearlessness, to invent the HangBoard.

Germans Strip Down to Their Skivvies for Some Naughty Winter Fun. A naked sledging event in Germany’s Harz region created a logistical nightmare over the weekend after 14,000 people showed up to watch 30 men and women strip before sliding down the mountain.

 

From tiered seating to a hydraulic launch, the built-in smarts of these coasters—even if they don’t stack up to the super-steep new Fahrenheit—make this America’s scariest handful of theme-park rides.

Maverick | Only Twisted Horseshoe Roll

Cedar Point | Sandusky, Ohio

Maverick roller coaster Cedar Point This steel coaster has ten banked turns from 62 to 92 degrees, plus the only twisted horseshoe roll in the world. It starts with a clockwise corkscrew turn followed by a 180-degree banked turn and finishes with a second, counterclockwise corkscrew.

This is just plane fun. That’s what it is. The Seabreacher watercraft concept is really interesting. The idea of sailing the seas just like a dolphin or a shark is a new and odd thought. Nonetheless it is a brilliant new aproach to navigation. The only bad thing about the Seabreacher it’s the price. To get your hands on one of these fantastic vessels you’ll have to spend from US$ 65,000 up to US$ 85,000 (or higher, depending on the extras you feel as necessary).

No matter how hard you try, there are some people you can’t keep away from the edge. Here’s where you’re likely to find them. It all made for adrenaline addicts.

13. Pikes Peak, Colorado, USA

Camel racing is a popular sport in the United Arab Emirates. Controversy over using children as jockeys has led to the introduction of robot jockeys (pictured in Doha). Camels can run at speeds up to 65 km/h (40 mph).