Katharina Buczek
Have you ever heard of pigeon racing? This lesser-known sport actually dates back to 1818 when, in Belgium, pigeons formerly used as messengers embarked on their first-ever long-distance race of over one hundred miles.
Then, following the spectacle, pigeon racing quickly gained prominence in England, France, and the United States throughout the 1800s.
Nonetheless, Belgium has reigned supreme as the most popular pigeon racing region.
And even though using pigeons as messengers has been outdated since the mid-1800s following the invention of the telegraph, racing the birds has continued on as a popular sport across the world.
In fact, back in December of 2020, one racing pigeon was valued at and sold for 1.9 million dollars in China. That was one rich bird!
Still, despite the sport’s continuance in the modern day, not a lot of people know about it. So, one young pigeon racer named Jai Loft is trying to change that.
Jai started posting videos about his racing pigeons and the sport as a whole on TikTok in April of 2021, and his first seven TikToks all gained a couple of hundred likes from intrigued viewers on the platform.
Then, Jai’s account completely blew up. His following two videos collectively gained nearly one hundred thousand likes and jumpstarted his pigeon racing social media following.
TikTok; pictured above are some of Jai’s pigeons
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