Anyone who has been to a Basque festival will recognize the rural theme of many Basque sports. Based on activities that would have occurred at the baserri, or farm house, Basque rural sports include wood chopping and sawing, bale lifting, and weight carrying. In fact, the Basque Government has identified 18 of these events in […]
In 1987, attending my first (and everyone’s first) Jaialdi, I got my first taste of rural Basque sport. There were the aizkolaris and the sukatira, but probably the most impressive were the harrijasotzaileak, or the stone lifters. Men like Inaki Perurena were enormous celebrities in the Basque Country (after he retired, Inaki was a TV star as well, […]
