A Thousand Wrestlers and Two Tons of Olive Oil (der Spiegel)

Every summer for the last 650 years, Turkish men have gathered to see who was the strongest, fastest and slickest of them all. It's called Kirkpinar, and it's the biggest oil wrestling competition in the world.

The well-muscled men face off in the middle of a grassy field, as a crowd of thousands looks on eagerly. Slowly, methodically, they cover their chests and legs with olive oil -- first with the right hand, then with the left. Then they take turns oiling each others' backs.


Then the fun begins: Turkey's annual Kirkpinar festival, the highlight of the Turkish sporting calendar, is a three-day orgy of oil wrestling. Known as "yagli gures" (pronounced "yaw-luh gresh"), the slippery sport is considered by some to be the Turkish national game.

Oil wrestling season lasts eight months a year in Turkey, but all the local and regional matches are just warm-ups for the main event: the Kirkpinar in Edirne, the granddaddy of all oil-based sports events. The Kirkpinar -- first contested in 1362 -- is considered by some to be the longest continuously running sporting event in the world, lubricated or not.