Let’s get this Balloon World Cup in the Olympics, pronto

The World Cup is the biggest sporting event for the most popular sport on earth when it rolls around every four years. It’s when most Americans who rarely pay attention to footie get to throw on their capes, pull out their flags, and cheer on the home team. There’s a new World Cup that seems to have popped up overnight that many people are catching on to, and it began gaining popularity on social media. The Balloon World Cup has arrived, and it’s pretty awesome.

Even if you don’t understand the call, it’s an exciting clip of this match where Peru and Alemania compete to keep this red balloon from touching the floor. But you’ll never guess where this phenomenon started. Let’s flashback to the lockdown during the pandemic. Three siblings, Antonio, Diego, and Isabel Arredondo, decided to pass time while stuck inside by jumping around their living room in Oregon, attempting to keep a balloon in the air as long as possible.

Of course, this made for some hilarious yet intense sequences, and the trio decided to post their new time-wasting game on TikTok. Before they knew it, their posts had gone viral and had caught the eye of celebrity streamer Ibai Llanos in Spain. That’s all it takes to be discovered, especially today. Fast forward just a couple of years later, and what started as a way to waste time during lockdown now has its own World Cup, which is wild.

We could be looking at the next sports to be added to the Olympics. Stranger events have found their way into the Olympics. Live pigeon shooting was once part of the Olympic games over 100 years ago. Think duck hunt, but far more graphic. And adding this balloon game to the Olympics wouldn’t raise any eyebrows at PETA, either. If it continues to gain in popularity, this could certainly be the next step.