Pole dancer wins ax-throwing competition

Could you throw an ax while pole dancing? An Irish woman is a newly minted ax-throwing champion and credits pole dancing for turning her into a winner.

BBC reports Ceola McGowan, of County Sligo, won the World Double Bit Axe Throwing Championship in Canada. McGowan, 31, said she hoped to score the title by the time she was 35 and has previously competed in championships held in Scotland, Germany and Sweden.

She’s a member of the Wicklow Axe Throwers group and says she loves the ax-throwing community, but her passion is working the pole — for fun.

She said the dancing sport “helps me center, it helps me work on my balance, it helps me work on my core.”

“The pole-dancing community is actually very similar to the ax-throwing community where you’ve got that love, camaraderie and support,” added McGowan.

Now that she’s a world champ, she hopes to inspire more women to get into throwing axes. She added, “A lot of the women out there throw just as well, if not better, than most of the men in the competition.”