There are lots of competitions in the USA and some of them are a bit crazy! A The Idiotarod
The Idiotarod is an annual race in twenty different US cities. Each team must have five people and a shopping cart. One person usually rides in the cart and four people pull it. Teams can decorate the shopping cart but they can’t change the wheels. All the teams have to start and finish at the same place but they don’t have to run on the same roads. The members of each team must cross the finish line together and they mustn’t finish without the cart!

B The Mud Bowl Championship
Mud Bowl football is similar to normal American football, so players can pick up the ball and run with it. There are also two teams, but the match is shorter. The winner is the team with the most goals at the end of sixty minutes. The really big difference is that the players have to play in a field with half a metre of mud!
1. Read the article again and match the sentences (1–6) with the competitions (A–B). One sentence is true for both competitions.

1 Competitors start and end at the same place.
2 The rules are the same as another real sport.
3 The competition is once a year.
4 You use a type of transport.
5 It’s for teams.
6 There is a time limit.

3 Look at the highlighted words in the article. Use the words to complete the sentences below.
1 Runners at the Olympic Games get a gold medal when they win a .
2 In football, there are eleven on each side.
3 At the beginning of the championship there are 24 . In the final, there can only be two.
4 A rugby lasts eighty minutes.
5 How many did you score?
6 The ball didn’t cross the , so it wasn’t a goal.
7 The received a gold medal.
5 Work in pairs. Answer these questions.
1 How many different kinds of race can you think of?
2 How many players are there in your favourite team sports?
3 What are the names of the sports teams in your town or city?
4 In what games do you score goals and in what games do you score points?