'It makes me different': Meet the women breaking world records in lumberjack sports
Karolina Urbanova has set two new world records at the Lumberjack World Championships in Wisconsin. Her success highlights the growing, though still niche, participation of women in traditional lumberjack sports.
Why it matters
The story showcases the diversification of traditional sports and the breaking of gender barriers in historically male-dominated fields.
Figure caption, Watch these women break world records at lumberjack competition
Karolina Urbanova had never heard of lumberjack sports until a new neighbour moved into her small Czech village and enlisted her help for events when she was a teenager.
Now 24, she has just broken two world records at the annual Lumberjack World Championships, which were held over the weekend in Hayward, Wisconsin.
The competition, which Hayward has been hosting since 1960, brings people from across America and around the world together to showcase their skills in everything from logrolling, chopping and sawing to speed climbing.
Men and women mainly compete separately but some events are mixed.
This year, 40 women from across the US and abroad joined 66 male competitors – a far cry from the female representation Urbanova saw when she started out.
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