Get a Load of the Unbelievable Displays of Strength in Basque Country’s Rural Sports

The topography of the Basque Country varies greatly from the rolling hills of Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, the jagged “flysch” of the coastline of Bilbao, to the thick jungle or “Selva de España” of Navarra. The geographical topography of each region has spawned its own unique sport. In the forests of Navarra, popular sports involve wood cutting, like the trontzalar itza or arpana, in which two people use a giant saw to cut discs of wood from the end of a horizontal trunk. In contrast, the open hillsides of Bilbao and its surrounding towns have a history with stone lifting and plowing because of their agricultural past.

This is the legendary Joseba Ostolaza’s gym, where his daughter Udane Ostolaza Etxabe trains alongside her male counterparts. In the early 20^th-century, regulations on the weights were introduced so that the shape of the stones used by athletes would be fixed and could serve as a reference.

The stones used until then were eventually roughened by stonemasons to make them easier to lift. Later, four geometric shapes—the cylinder, cube, sphere, and rectangle—were introduced. A cylindrical shape was used for the smallest weights between 8.9 and 10 arrobas, which is the same as 100 to 125 kilos in imperial measurements.

The cubic and rectangular stones oscillate between 10 and 17 arrobas, corresponding to 125 kilos and 212.5 kilos, respectively. The spherical stone, commonly called a ball, is usually 9 and 10 arrobas.

Udane is just 16 and is one of few women who compete in stone lifting. Following in her father’s footsteps, she has broken all records for her age group. She trains daily with her father in Orio, where she was born. By age 10, Udane was able to pick up a 20-kilo stone in Pamplona, and by 16, she could pick up a 101 KG rectangular in a single two-minute round.

Ousmane Dramé of Senegalese descent is one of the Basque Country’s star lifters. Last year, he made history at the San Roke de Deba festivities. In an exhibition of txingas, Dramé broke a record dating back to the late 80s, held by the mutrikuarra José Luis Elorza Pikua, who made a 40-meter run in the Alto del Kalbario. Ousmane surpassed that mark with a record of 51 meters covered with 113 kilograms in each hand—226 in total. Txingas is another rural sport where a competitor moves between two points holding a designated weight in each hand. Ousmane says that through participating in the Herri Kirolak, he can assimilate into what is usually a relatively closed society.

This is Gorka Etxeberria, a local champion from Oria, posing with the traditional rock that athletes have been lifting for centuries. Its smooth surface makes it very difficult to grip, so much so that competitors put a form of natural glue on their hands to make it easier to raise onto the shoulder. In stone lifting, the competitors take turns lifting and dropping a stone multiple times within a designated time— typically two or three minutes. Mieltxo Saralegi holds the record for the heaviest lift at 329 kg.

Herri Kirolak and Harri-jasotze have always been seen as male-dominated sports, and throughout history, there have been very few female competitors. However, this has started to change thanks to women like Karmele Gisasola.

“When I was little, I did not dare to compete because I did not see women in the town squares competing,” explains Gisasola. “My brother and my cousin did start as children. At 17, my father encouraged me, and so I started with my cousin. We must not forget all those women who, like my [grandma], did not have the opportunity to go and show what they could do.” In October 2020, Karmele won the Bizkaia Women’s Stone-lifting Championship, ahead of Garazi Arruti in Berriz.