WDCS069 Weight Lifting

WDCS231 Gymnastics

Barks seldom wrote stories about indoor sports in the duck's home. Not a great surprise partly because there are not that many to choose from and partly because the stories normally take place outside the duck's home. But as far as indoor sports for front covers are concerned Barks dreamed up more situations such as boxing, baseball, and tricycle riding.

WDCS071 Swimming

WDCS062 Water Skiing

When it comes to sports performed in the water there is usually a clear difference in skills between the nephews and Donald. The nephews are always adequately skilled in their sports performances, while Donald is usually inferior - and cheating. Sometimes he hurls himself into skilled sports that he has never even tried before...

WDCS112 Skating

WDCS114 Skiing

The basic skills - and lack of skills - are the same when the ducks are performing their sports on snow and ice. The nephews thrive at what they can accomplish, while Donald is always trying to perform better than his abilities allow.

WDCS255 Speedboat Racing

WDCS228 White-Water Rafting

The ducks have been practicing their skills in different types of boats - with and without motors - on several occasions. From the elegant managing of powerful speedboats to quiet fishing in old rowboats. Normally Donald is on top of things, otherwise he can rely on his nephews to help him out.

WDCS166 Midget Car Racing

U$34 Vintage Car Racing

Donald has his red car which he drives when required. This fact should also endow him with some experience, but when it comes to motorcars besides his trusted 313 he often seems to lack much of the basics necessary for driving safely and responsibly. And in the middle of motor races Donald usually lets his hair down, as it were; he treats the vehicles in a way that render them useless after the races...

WDCS240 Ballooning

WDCD Daredevil Flying

Donald has been seen piloting several airplanes throughout the stories, and he really seems to be a skilled pilot. And we have also seen him perform other sports in the air such as ballooning, rocket racing, and parachuting. Even the cautious and ladylike Daisy once performed as a stunt woman on the wing of an airplane...

U$66 On Track

FC0029 Cross Country

Donald has ridden horses on several occasions, and this seems to be a sort of sport that he manages fairly well whether he is on a leisurely ride at a dude ranch or chasing villains in the wild west. He has even participated in a few horseraces.

WDCS055 Calf Roping

WDCS055 Horse Taming

A few times Donald has acted as a cowboy - always without even the most basic knowledge of what the job contains. We have been shown his 'skills' on both dude ranches and on Grandma Duck's farm. In the latter place he once even managed to rope her pigs!

FC1095 Baseball

MMA Football

Although Barks always tried to make a point of not mentioning sports that were not commonly known outside the USA (such as basketball and volleyball) he sometimes touched on the topic briefly, and in these two stories typical American sports were essential parts of the plots. Barks has also drawn the ducks bowling and Donald in a showwrestling match.

WDCS108 Frog Jumping

WDCS267 Logging

Barks sometimes showed us what most people would consider odd sports. Most of them are existing sports such as the ones shown here, while others were Barks' own inventions such as rocket racing and money bag throwing. Maybe even Scrooge's strange money diving could be considered a sport...

Sprint		Hurdles		Shot Put
Javelin Throwing		Discus Throwing		Long Distance Running

In May 1956 Barks had a story published that was entirely focused on sports. It happened in WDCS188 where Donald is trying for nothing less than the Olympic games. It was no coincidence that the story came out at this exact time, because the official Olympic games were about to start in Melbourne, Australia. (Barks drew a story for WDCS286 in which Donald is an Olympic torch bearer - just in time for the 1964 Olympic games in Tokyo, Japan.)
When reading the story it becomes obvious that Barks was not on familiar turf when drawing the athletic events Donald has to go through. In the three running heats Donald moves left on the track instead of right, and the shot put takes place in the middle of the racecourse. Of course, one shall have to make allowances for the artist's right to let the events unfold as he sees fit, but nevertheless most readers will undoubtedly notice that things are wrong. Furthermore, Barks managed to draw the Olympic flag in different shapes and with different motifs throughout the story.
Anyway, it seems as if Barks had the story close to heart - he made a precise caricature of himself in the shape of Fulldrip Pulpbugle, the hay-fever stricken javelin thrower...