Hornussen , a centuries-old Swiss sport where a puck is lashed with a stick sending it flying at speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour, is embracing modernity with each shot now recorded live via a smartphone app and clips shared on TikTok. The quirky sport gets its name from the puck, known as a hornuss or hornet, due to the buzzing sound it makes as it whizzes through the air. The game sees one side whip the hornuss with a wooden peg on a flexible stick, while the other team, 100 to 300 metres away, tries to stop it from landing using heavy, flat wooden shovels.
Each time it lands untouched, a penalty point is issued to the defending team. The team with the fewest penalties wins. The amateur sport wrapped up its biggest event in six years earlier this month, when around 4,500 players took part in the 40th national hornussen festival.
Outside the village of Hochstetten, 30 kilometers (20 miles) northeast of the Swiss capital Bern, teams battled to win a crown of oak leaves, a ceremonial cowbell or a coveted bull’s horn to take back to their clubhouses. With 32 hornussen fields laid out over 60 hectares (150 acres) of farmland, the scene almost resembled a battlefield, with columns of players stretching to the horizon, and the day’s play starting with cannon fire. ‘It’s our Olympics’ “For us, it’s our Olympics,” said Adrian Tschumi, president of the Eidgenossischer Hornusserverband (EHV), the national hornussen association.
“It’s not just a game: it’s .