© Sol Neelman.  Chessboxing. Berlin.

Sol Neelman is a failed athlete turned sports photographer living in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, USA. In 2007, he left his staff job at The Oregonian newspaper to pursue a life-long project documenting sports culture around the globe. This past spring, Kehrer Verlag in Heidelberg, Germany released his first book, “Weird Sports,” in the United States. His images have also appeared in a variety of publications, including National Geographic, Stern, ESPN The Magazine, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, TIME and The New York Times. He has a weekly photo column on Wired.com and is already busy working on his next book, cleverly titled “Weird Sports 2.” These recent images are a sneak peak.

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