Not too long ago, the wild minds behind start-up business ‘Sperm Racing’ made headlines with their announcement of the world-first sperm race in LA.
It wasn’t just for the laughs - it was all about raising awareness around male fertility.
Before the big day, the hype was through the roof. Contestants had interviews with TMZ, giving the world a chance to meet these ‘athletes’.
April 25th saw the event kick off at the Hollywood Palladium, and it sure lived up to the buzz.
There was a ‘preliminary card’ that was entertaining enough in itself.
Following this, there was a half-time show by popular American singer and songwriter Ty Dolla $ign. What’s a sperm race without serious star power?
But the real star of the show? The battle between 20-year-old Tristan Mykel of USC and 19-year-old Asher Proeger of UCLA.
It had all the drama of a championship fight - weigh-ins, stats, interviews, betting and live commentary.
Two samples of semen were collected from contestants and placed by a ‘lab assistant’ onto two-millimetre long ‘tracks'.
The track was magnified 100 times by a microscope, filmed by a camera that transferred the image to 3D animation software, before the final video was broadcast to a live audience.
Mykel, who competed with the stage name 'Tristan Milker' (genius or disturbing?), was crowned the winner, proudly calling himself a “fertility athlete”.
There were some classic first-time-event bumps in the road, like audio issues, lateness from competitors and general dysfunction (not erectile). However, the sold-out crowd really got into it.
The YouTube livestream of the event got more than 100,000 views, and as you can read from this article, made global news.
For a first outing, the gentlemen behind the event can be proud of the way it turned out.
Don’t be sad if you missed out, it’s rumoured there’s much more sperm racing to come (sorry).
