There are athletes with nine-figure contracts and seven-car garages; athletes with Hollywood spouses and political ambitions. There are athletes who leap, throw, run, swim, kick and punch, and a few known to fly.

But aren't too many athletes out there who can do what Rogelio Juarez does.

Juarez, 49, is a rising New York star in the tiny but transfixing sport of Masskrugstemmen, an endurance competition in which athletes—and they are athletes—try to hold onto an enormous beer for as long as they can.

Yes, exactly: Masskrugstemmen is the greatest sport ever invented.

The game is far more popular in Germany, where it is played in beer halls and outdoor festivals. Contestants line up, extend one arm parallel to the ground, grip a one-liter beer, and try not to spill. Drop any brew, and you're eliminated.