At the age of nine, most girls are happy playing with dolls or watching their High School Musical DVDs. But, for alligator wrestler Samantha Young, nothing passes the time like grappling with a 2.4m (8ft) reptilian killing machine.‘I have been wrestling alligators since I was six,’ she said. ‘I was taught by my father and mother to take on the gators and my dad has been wrestling and around them since he was bitten by one aged five.
‘I was a bit scared at first but my dad was there and he always knows what to do with them.’
Samantha regularly teaches visitors to Colorado Gators Reptile Park how to tackle the predators and has even trained US soldiers in the art.
‘It is all about getting your balance and position on top of the gator’s back so that you can control its mouth and neck,’ she said.
‘Once you have that under your power, then you can pull its head back and you have tamed the gator.
‘I need to know how to wrestle them because they are all around me so it is safer that way. And it looks cool for when my friends come round to the park. I like the looks on adults’ faces when they see me do it and I show them how.’
Father and park manager Jay Young, 36, said: ‘Samantha is very proficient with the gators and wrestles the size of alligator that we involve the public with.
‘We don’t let the public near the 600lb gators but we do let them tackle the 6ft to 8ft, 300lb ones.’
metro.co.uk
The Poutine Eating Championship is a yearly food-eating competition where the contestants have to eat as much poutine as possible, in just 10 minutes.
I bet you’re still stuck on poutine, right? Many people outside Canada have never even heard of this delicacy, but they just eat it up there in the north. Poutine consists of french fries, cheese curds and brown gravy. Some say it sounds disgusting, but I wouldn’t mind trying some.
Anyway, during the World Poutine Eating Championship 2010, contestants had to gobble up as much poutine as possible, in 10 minutes time. The winner, 24-year-old Pat Bertoletti, churned 13 lbs of the stuff, and won himself a $750 prize and a cool trophy. Asked what he was going to do with his prize, Pat said he will spend it in a bar.
