Swimming Debuts At Russian 'Pig Olympics'

Apr. 16 -- An unusual event took place in Russia on Saturday, the Pig Olympics.

Russian piglets trained to run, swim and play football took part in the third annual Pig Olympics, held during the 'ZooRussia 2005' exhibition at an exhibition centre near Moscow.

The first event was a short-distance running race.

It seemed that piglets are not natural athletes - their coaches had to run behind them to keep them on track, clapping their hands and stamping their feet in an effort to make the piglets run faster.

Next came a game of so-called "Porkball", which is set up like soccer with two teams of five piglets.

Instead of goals, the piglets have to push the ball into painted, half-circles at the pen's corners.

To move things along, the ball is covered in fish oil to excite the piglets' interest.

Each year since its inception in 2004, the yearly pig championships have attracted more and more spectators and fans, who really love the show.

2006 saw the advent of a new event - what is loosely called 'pig swimming', but would more properly be called 'pig paddling', as the piglets are not out of their depth in the water.

However, they seemed more interesting in nuzzling and bumping into each other than sticking in their lanes and getting to the other end of the pool.

One piglet got his foot stuck in the rope separating the lanes.

The organizers of the event, along with the newly formed Russian Federation of Sport Pig Breeding, say they hope to introduce pig-boxing or pig fighting into the next year's games.

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