Miriam Hamberg wins Norway's 2019 Death Diving Championship, a breakdown

Aug 30, 2019 8.4M views 2:20

What Happened

On a 'Fun Sport Friday' detour in August 2019, Jomboy broke down the women's finals of Norway's Death Diving Championship, a sport called dodsing where competitors leap from a high platform, hold a spread-eagle 'X' pose as long as possible, then tuck before hitting the water. Five women competed, with scores ranging from a rough 40.5 to near-perfect 9.5s. Miriam Hamberg won with a full superwoman dive, holding the pose without over-rotating and nailing a clean tuck finish. Her closest challenger, Astrid, over-rotated on a backflip attempt and came up short, prompting Hamberg's enthusiastic celebration.

Why This Matters

Dodsing is real and the scoring rewards exactly what Hamberg did. Judges want maximum extension in the flat 'X' shape held as long as possible, then a late tuck to break the surface safely. Hold too long and you flop, tuck too early and you lose points. Astrid's backflip showed the risk: commit to a rotation you can't control and you land flat, which the slow motion made obvious. The competition only became an official championship in 2018, so 2019 was early in its formal life, and Jomboy's coverage exposed a niche Norwegian sport to millions of American baseball fans. The breakdown format, normally reserved for arguments and ejections, translated surprisingly well to judging dives. It became one of his most-watched videos ever despite having nothing to do with MLB.

With 8.4M views, this oddball detour ranks #5 of 1,583 breakdowns, putting it in the top 0.3% of Jomboy's entire catalog.

Key Moments

Who / What Is Involved

Players: Miriam Hamberg.

Full Transcript

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it's fun sport Friday we're going to

Norway for the death diving championship

of 2019 you got to hold an axe for as

long as you can then you can tuck we're

doing the women's finals there was five