Sperm racing is a thing and now there’s a World Cup for it

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Sperm is being taken to another level — an athletic level.

Men are set to pit their sperm against other guys in the new “science-based competitive sport” of sperm racing.

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And what better way to see whose swimmers are speediest than at the first-ever Sperm Racing World Cup?

The mission is simple: The fastest sperm wins.

How does it work?

The event will see semen samples from 128 men, each representing a different country, as they face off on a microscopic race track.

“We’re searching for the healthiest man alive,” according to the Sperm Racing World Cup’s recruitment video on social media.

“This race will immortalize a nation.”

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Set to hit a not-yet-disclosed location in San Francisco next month, the one-of-a-kind tournament has already attracted more than 10,000 applicants from more than 100 countries, including the United States, Iran, Israel and North Korea, as they vie for the hefty $100,000 prize.

Sperm racing was developed by tech entrepreneurs Eric Zhu, Garret Niconienko, Nick Small and Shane Fan, initially as a way to spotlight declining male fertility rates worldwide.

He said: “We are aiming to find the healthiest person possible for each country to compete,” Fan told the Daily Mail, noting that organizers are currently working through the enormous pool of hopefuls to find the swiftest sperm around the globe.

“There is a lot of work that goes into maintaining a healthy body.”

Who can apply?

To qualify for the race, competitors must be at least 18 years old, free of sexually transmitted diseases, and able to provide biological samples in compliance with competition regulations, among other qualifications.

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The illustrious entrants are sent a kit to provide a semen sample at home, which will be mailed back to California and processed “through advanced lab techniques such as incubation, sperm washing, pipetting, and through a centrifuge,” Zhu explained in a December video.

“These steps isolate and prepare the most viable cells for racing.”

The select athletes will then — under powerful microscopes, of course — will race other competitors along a customized microfluidic track, where they will travel a straight distance of 400 microns or about 0.02 inches — about the size of a granule of salt.

Every movement is magnified and the action will be broadcast live to online viewers, while giant screens at the San Francisco venue will show “play-by-play” progress, stats and live leaderboards.

Fans will also be see competitors’ health data, including body composition and biomarkers, so they can prick favorites much like a traditional sporting event.

Winners are determined by which spermatozoa is first across the finish line.

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Is this really the first sperm race?

While organizers claim it’s the first event of its kind, the inaugural iteration of the “world’s smallest sporting event” actually took place in April 2025 in Los Angeles.

Two college students competed live for a $10,000 cash prize before a crowd of hundreds.

Sperm of the winner, USC’s Tristan Mykel, came in at one minute and three seconds.

While the contest may seem nuts, Zhu insisted it was about raising awareness.

“It’s about making male fertility something people actually want to talk about, track and improve,” he writes on Sperm Racing’s official site.

“We’re taking a topic no one wants to touch and making it interesting, measurable, and weirdly changing this paradigm.”

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