Marble Olympics: The 2019 Qualifiers (Video)

If you're in need of some Olympic action, you'll have to wait until next year for the events in Tokyo, or until 2022 if you prefer winter sports. However, there is an alternative: the Marble Olympics organized by the YouTube channel Jelle's Marble Runs on YouTube. The qualifying stage for the 2019 edition has already revealed the 16 teams that will form part of the great athletic celebration, and I guarantee you can't afford to miss a second.

One of the things I enjoyed most as a kid was organizing races with my collection of toy cars. On that imaginary asphalt, the most spectacular competitions in the world unfolded. Rain, crashes, burning vehicles, and the certainty that my favorite car always won, in a sort of personal "Speed Racer". That passion faded over time, but I'm glad to see that there are many people out there who never lost it, or who rediscovered it through another similar medium. For example, marbles. The first thing that comes to mind are Rube Goldberg machines or domino constructions, but no. This time marbles participate in something much more important: their own Olympic Games.

The Qualifying Stage

Nearly 17 minutes of pure action. Twenty teams with five members each compete in four special events, and from there the twelve lucky ones who will join the four pre-qualified teams in the final stage will emerge. Funnel race, strength test, team race, and underwater race are the four sports, with results that required photo-finish intervention on more than one occasion. Calls to the sports commissioners, objects on the track, incidents in the stands... the atmosphere is hot and tense, but everything concludes in relative order.

On the Jelle's Marble Runs channel you can also find practice rounds with the pre-qualified teams, rally-style races in the sand, and results from previous Olympics. Want to see what's next? If the answer is yes, you'll need a little patience. The "MarbleLympics 2019" begin on April 19. Will the favorites take it all, or will we see a team rise from the shadows and strike when no one expects it?