'World's first sperm race' in sticky situation after 'faking live event'

People watch a visualization of the sperm race in Los Angeles last week (Picture: AFP)

It’s the one thing everyone on planet Earth’s done once and only once: win a sperm race.

So when two students set out to repeat the achievement in a ‘live’ race last week,it turned out to be a blockbuster event,attracting huge numbers of spectators and cash bets of up to thousands of dollars each.

But doubts have since been cast as to whether the contest was all it was made out to be.

The contest,held at the Los Angeles Center Studios on Friday,was billed as a dash between two sperm along a ‘microscopic racetrack’ ending at a finish line.

But a renowned fertility doctor has since said that videos purporting to show this ‘sperm racing’ could not be footage of real human swimmers.

‘I look at sperm all day under the microscope and these are not human sperm,’ said Dr Steven Palter,medical director of Gold Coast IVF in New York.

USC student Tristan Milker,20,beat 19-year-old UCLA student Asher Proeger

Mr Zhu insisted the sperm had still run a real race,even if it took place earlier in private.

He told The Free Press the sperm’s movement is indeed traced and rendered ‘in real time’,so what the spectators saw was a real race.

Posting on X after the event,the founders said: ‘Live clip comparisons between 3D and raw footage,along with an in-depth bio doc,will be published this weekend to show results and verifications of the races.’

Doubt has also been cast as to whether the race can indeed be called a ‘world-first’.

A BBC Two programme,Lab Rats,hosted a similar contest in a pub in 2004 – showing real zoomed-in microscoping footage in which sperm cells darted around erratically.

Another was produced as part of the BBC’s The Truth About Food in 2007.

Mr Zhu reportedly acknowledged hearing about them days before the event but did not change his marketing.

A spokesperson for Sperm Racing said: ‘We’re proud to have launched a brand new sport that blends science,entertainment,and health education.

‘While some early coverage may have misinterpreted parts of our broadcast format,we’ve transparently documented the entire process,from verified lab footage to final race results.

‘Sperm Racing is a real,competitive event filmed under controlled conditions and broadcast with full scientific integrity.

‘We invite anyone curious to look deeper. We’re building something the world’s never seen before.’