Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Pain Olympics
is one of the events that occasionally occurs at BME BBQs, especially
BMEFest. It is not endorsed in any way by the IOC but merely a contest
to see who has the highest pain tolerance and stamina where the
contestants come from a group of familiar people. Much like drinking
games, these are performed at the contestant's own risk as a rite of
passage, but unlike drinking games, it is often done by totally sober
people. Rites of passage involving pain tolerance have been documented
from the earliest of human records. What distinguishes the Pain Olympics
from other such rituals, like Kavadi or the Phuket Vegetarian Festival,
is that it is rarely done for spiritual enlightenment, but rather out of
curiosity and sport. In addition, Pain Olympics are almost exclusively
held by those people attending BME BBQs and are usually well
photographed and video recorded for bmezine.com and there generally is
no prize for winning other than notoriety.
