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Ag Olympics makes debut

Kids, teens, adults and everyone in between showed up at the Faribault County Fair on Wednesday with their sights set on one goal: to win the first Ag Olympics.

Analicia Swanson, the 4-H intern who has been working on the event, said the idea to have the Ag Olympics came from the fact that it has seen success elsewhere, such as at the Blue Earth County Fair.

The Ag Olympics included teams of four competing in a variety of timed events. In each age division, the team with the fastest times over all the events would be announced as the winners and would receive gift cards and little trophies.

People of all ages came to claim the winning title, with age categories from 5-10, 11-15, 16 and over and an open/family category that included a mixture of kids and adults.

After deciding that Ag Olympics would be a good fit for the fair, it was time to pick out the events that the kids and adults would compete in. Because of a Minnesota state law that does not allow live animals to be used for events like the Ag Olympics, those involved had to get creative when picking out the events.

Swanson said that she got many of her ideas from Pinterest and looking at how other schools and fairs have handled events like Ag Olympics.

These events include “pigs in the hay stack,” in which people had to find a small pig toy in an inflatable pool filled with hay, “hay hurdles” and wheel barrow races.

In one event, horses were replaced with people. The human barrel races involved two members of the team of four riding on their teammates’ backs as they ran around barrels in the arena.

Swanson said people responded positively to the event, with about 75 kids and adults signing up to be involved, and others excited to cheer on the contestants and see how the event unfolded.

“I have ages 5 up until probably 60 who are really interested in the event and really excited that it’s happening,” Swanson said.

In the grandstand arena on the fairgrounds, it didn’t take long for everyone involved in the Ag Olympics to get covered in mud. A large crowd cheered on the teams as they braved the challenges ahead of them and tried not to slip and fall in the process.

Kara Ristau, Heidi Schiltz, Maddie Schiltz and Maddie Anderson, also known as the “Lucky Ladies,” decided to join the Ag Olympics in the family category because they were “looking to have a good time.”

“We thought it was a good idea at the time,” joked Schiltz as the members of the team washed mud off of their feet.

The team agreed their best event was the milking, and that they would definitely return next year to do it all again.

“It’s a blast,” Ristau said.

“Good memories made,” Schiltz said.

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