quadrobics

Not yet an official sport, it is nevertheless one that is gaining in popularity.  It achieved prominence  with a successful attempt to set a Guinness World Record for running 100 metres on all fours.  A Japanese athlete from Tokyo, Kenichi Ito, has held the record from 2015 to 2022 but he had been setting records for speed on all fours since 2008.  He spent nine years studying how patas monkeys move (having observed them in the zoo) and used to practise, as a janitor, mopping the floors on all fours to improve his technique and fitness. He struck some resistance from the Japanese community and once, when he was practising in the country, was almost shot by a hunter who mistook him for a wild boar.

Quadrobics was developed in the early 2000s by the Hungarian coach Peter Lakatos, a former gymnast and physical education teacher.  It imitated other animal movements so that the quadrobist (or quadrober) progressed from crawling to trotting, cantering and jumping.  It developed strong muscle coordination and core strength but it also appealed to people who felt an affinity with animals, so therians took to it. [A therian is a person who inhabits a human body but has the spirit of an animal]. It allows the quadrobist to dress up as animals with animal masks and tails.  It combines athleticism with acting and is becoming more mainstream.

The activity caused consternation when it became a craze in Russia where the conservative forces viewed with concern the young people wearing fox and cat masks and tails and scampering on all fours around Red Square.  They saw this as a threat to civilisation. A cleric pronounced that quadrobists should be refused toilet paper so that they had to lick themselves all over like animals.  Then, when they were sick, they should be taken to the vet.

It is the affinity with animals that some Russians find most disturbing. There are current moves to introduce legislation to ban it. That should make it very popular.

Kenichi Ito went on to set up a company involved in solar energy but he no doubt still spends some of his time on all fours.  He has lost the Guinness Record to Colin McClure.