A white pine log didn’t last long under Karolina Urbanova’s axe.
At the Lumberjack World Championships in Hayward, Wisconsin, the 24-year-old from Czechia set two women’s world records in speed lumberjack events in a single day, the BBC reported in a profile by Sheila Flynn.
Urbanova broke the women’s record in the Underhand Chop, cutting through 11 inches of white pine in 21.28 seconds. The previous record was 24.26 seconds. In the event, the axe is swung at a log segment between the competitor’s legs.
She also set a women’s record in the Standing Block category, cutting a standing log segment in half in 19.38 seconds.
“I’m still growing and still learning, but now the level of the girls is really high, so it’s also hard to keep the same rhythm with them because they now want to be better than me,” Urbanova told the BBC’s Sheila Flynn. “I just feel pretty proud of myself.”
Urbanova was among the 40 Lumberjills and 66 Lumberjacks who competed in Hayward, where the championships recently concluded.
The sport remains niche in the United States and is “virtually non-existent” in Czechia, according to the source text.
Flynn wrote that Urbanova grew up in a small village and was talent scouted, along with her mother and sister, by someone trying to grow female participation in the sport in Europe. The three then practised splitting logs with different axes in a barn.
Her podium finishes in Hayward capped a long path in a sport with a long history and limited space for women until recently, Flynn wrote.
The Standing Block event was only added in 2022, and Flynn wrote that women’s events had previously been limited almost entirely to logrolling, where competitors try to keep their balance while running on a log suspended in water.
The championships in Hayward are now in their 66th year and are one stop on a circuit of timber sport organisations around the world.
Flynn wrote that prize money is limited and “almost never enough to cover the expenses of a trip,” but that travelling to compete has been a highlight of Urbanova’s young life.
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