Basque Sports - Herri Kirolak

Nothing better to reflect the history of the Basque people than their traditional rural sports. This is because the sports are based on labor activities of the Basques such as cutting wood for the winter or moving rocks for construction. Most of them originate in rural areas, which is reflected in the use of logs, axes, and even carts.

A prominent example of this is “Aizkolaritza”, one of the most popular Basque rural sports. “Aizkora” means “axe” in Basque and the activity is related to the task of cutting firewood. Contestants have to cut trunks, which are already without bark and usually made of beech wood, with an axe. But remember: it is not about strength but about technique.

Competitions are commonly held at most festivals, especially town festivals, and usually involve at least two individuals or teams competing against each other. The most famous championship, the Sherpa.ai Aizkolari Txapelketa Nagusia, is regularly streamed on Spanish Television allowing the spreading of basque traditions.

The revival of the popular sport of the “Barrenadores”, the borers, happened in Ortuella during the town's festivities in 1998, as before 1930 it was very popular in the festivities of the towns in the mining region of Vizcaya. Barrenadores drill holes in stones with the help of a long steel bar, finding its origin in mining; holes were created to put dynamite in and thus enable blowing up the environment to exploit the mine.

“Sega jokoa” ("scythe game") is a competition in which the participants challenge each other on their capability of either cutting the most kilos of grass or being the fastest at cutting the same amount. Once again, an everyday life activity turned into a sport with its first record being from an 1880 bertsolaritza about a competition in Iturriotz. Nowadays, the players, called segalari, usually compete for one hour, but there are also two-hour competitions.

In the end, the grass is raked, weighed and baled or time is checked to determine the winner.

One can see demonstrations of these or many other Basque rural sports in the festivities of any village or the respective competitions throughout the year.

Check out this video if you want to know more about other Basque sports!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPkeeYRZYvg

Sources: Euskoguide , Euskadi.eus, BasqueCountry.eus , Euskoguide- Deporte rural