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Some athletes train their whole lives, working almost non-stop to reach their goal of competing in the Olympics.
Competitors at Montenegro’s annual Lazy Olympics are not those people.
Not that they aren’t competitive.
This year’s Festival of Laziness in Montenegro has seen records broken for sloth-like behavior.
“I’ve been here for 800 hours,” The Sun reports competitor Lidija Markovic admitting.
The rules are, as one might expect for a contest centered on being as lazy as possible, pretty simple.
Competitors have to lie on a mattress. Standing or sitting results in immediate disqualification. The last person standing, errr, lying down, wins the grand prize of £900 (around $1,100).
“The competition is a joke about the stereotype of Montenegrins being lazy, and we wanted to organise something that no one else has,” said the event’s organizer Radonja Blagojevic.
This 12th year for the competition, held in the village of Brezna. The previous record for the contest was five days.
This year, 21 contestants began competing for the laziness title way back on August 21. As of this week, over a month later, there are still four players remaining.
“I’ll get up when I get bored, and I don’t know when that will happen,” said Markovic.
Contestants are allowed to use their phones, read books, and have visitors. Every eight hours they are allowed to take a 15 minute break.
“I am proud of myself for enduring this long,” said another contestant Gordana Filipovic.
One participant, Jovan Crncanin, competing for the second time, agrees, saying he began the contest for the money, but now it’s all about pride.
“Now I’m here for myself, to prove my limits to myself and… overcome the situation and reach the end,” he said.
“I hope that I will be able to transfer that experience and patience to real life.”
Like we said, it may be the Lazy Olympics, but that doesn’t mean that the players aren’t competitive.