You're Going to Be Hearing More About Bike Polo

If you’ve never seen bicycle polo, don’t worry: you will. The sport, which boasted professional leagues in England and France back in the 1930s before nearly disappearing altogether, is making a worldwide comeback. Since a rebirth in Seattle some 15 years ago, bike polo now has at least 165 clubs in the U.S. alone, from Billings Hammer & Cycle to Cleveland’s Pedal Republik, and lively competition in England, France, and elsewhere. Last weekend, Milwaukee hosted the second annual North American Bike Polo Championships, whose sponsors included Pabst Blue Ribbon and bike polo apparel company Northern Standard. Tom Feld, writing in The Active Pursuit, set the scene:

It was a milestone for a game whose ascent has, until recently, been happily disorganized. Bike Polo’s competitive governing body, North American Hardcourt, is only two years old—it was formed in 2010 in response to an explosion of bike polo enthusiasm that began, according to the NAH, around 2007.