The Lumberjack World Champions who call Wisconsin home

Last weekend, while elite athletes continued to compete at the Paris Olympics, Wisconsin hosted its own world-class championship. 

Every summer, athletes from around the globe travel to Hayward for the Lumberjack World Championships, where they compete in timbersports like log rolling, ax throwing, tree climbing and various chopping and sawing events.

Some of this year’s competitors enjoyed a home field advantage — several world champions are from Wisconsin. Livi Pappadopoulos of Holmen, won the title of Women’s Log Rolling World Champion for the sixth time in a row, and Kate Witkowski of Hayward won the Women’s Standing Block Chop and took third place in the women’s all-around competition. 

Pappadopoulos and Witkowski joined WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” to talk about the ins and outs of timbersports, and what it’s like competing among the best lumberjacks and lumberjills in the world.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Kate Archer Kent: What is the atmosphere like at the Lumberjack World Championships?

Kate Witkowski: This weekend is by far my favorite weekend of the year in town. The energy surrounding the world championships is such a blast. There are athletes that come from all over the world. It really is the best athletes in the world competing at a really unique venue. It’s really well-run, and the audience is always there cheering loudly, and that makes a big difference. 

KAK: Livi, what do the Lumberjack World Championships mean to you?

Livi Pappadopoulos: It is so special. I started competing in Hayward when I was 11 years old in the amateur log rolling division, and I grew up going to Hayward and spending a week there every single summer for the world championships.

KAK: So the youth events at the world championships hooked you on the sport?

LP: Yeah, I started log rolling when I was 8 years old at the La Crosse YMCA, and we still have a program in La Crosse. We have over 150 kids annually. I signed up for a bunch of different sports, and log rolling happened to be one of them, and it turned out to be my passion, and I took off with it.

KAK: Kate, tell us about your winning event, the standing block chop.

KW: We have two chopping events: a standing block chop, which simulates felling a tree, and then we have an underhand chop, which simulates bucking up the tree once it’s already fallen on the ground. 

The women have only been competing in that event for less than five years. So it’s been really special to see the whole field of women take off and really drive each other to excellence in that event. And so I was really proud to take that one home this year. 

Kate Witkowski competes in the Women’s Standing Block Chop event at the 2024 Lumberjack World Championships. Witkowski took first place in the event. Photos courtesy of Lumberjack World Championships

KAK: Can you talk a little bit about your tools of the trade, the axes and saws?

KW: The equipment that we use makes a big difference, and it’s not stuff you can just go down to the local hardware store and pick up. I get most of my axes from Tuatahi in New Zealand, and then I have an ax grinder in the United States fit the ax to me. And I have a special handle that I get from West Virginia. Each ax runs me about $600. 

We have a slew of axes to pick from, depending on the type of wood that we’re cutting or the type of event that we’re doing. On the standing block chop, I use a little smaller ax. It’s about 6 pounds and it is razor sharp. It’ll shave your arm if need be, or worse. 

KAK: Livi, what goes into preparing for a log rolling competition?

LP: Holy cow, there’s a lot. I train throughout the year, especially during the spring and summer, and I’m usually on the log at least three hours a day during the spring and summer months. I also do a lot of lifting, running and cross training to keep myself in shape throughout the year. 

As far as competition goes, I would say my biggest challenge is keeping my nerves under control, because I get very nervous, which I’ve come a long way with. 

KAK: What goes through your mind as you’re log rolling?

LP: You have to focus in. You have to zone everything out. Because if you become distracted, or if your mind isn’t where it’s supposed to be and you take one misstep, it’s over. There’s really not a lot of room for mistakes in log rolling when you’re in the heat of the battle. 

My mind does wander once in a while. But most of the time, I’m just focused on what my opponent is doing, where my body is at, and how I can either get them off the log or hang on myself.

KAK: Kate, do you face any challenges as a woman in a sport that some people might associate with men?

KW: Since I started competing about 12 years ago, our opportunities have really grown. When I first started, and even before then, there were just a handful of women that were pioneering the sport. And they started mostly because their boyfriends and husbands needed a Jill partner in the Jack and Jill events. They were willingly or unwillingly taken along to those events. And over time, I think the women started saying, “Hey, I think I can do this, too.” 

That’s how I started, as well. I got convinced by a friend in college, and I remember the first swing I took, I was hooked. The past few years, I’ve been really proud to be a part of a field of women that are advancing the sport. And we’re doing that with the support of a lot of the men that have been in the sport. 

There’s certainly naysayers out there that don’t think women should be doing the sport, or that because we can’t swing an ax as big or as fast as the men, that it’s not worth it. But we have our own skills and talents in our own right, and we have our own worth. I’m just really proud to see the women’s field growing and advancing and honestly, for a lot of people, proving them wrong, and that’s been rewarding, too.

KAK: Livi, you’re a leader in log rolling, and you’ve been World Champion six years in a row. Where do you take the sport from here?

LP: Growing up, I always dreamed of becoming a pro, a world champion. It was something that I wanted to do. I didn’t realize I would have six world titles at this age. Sometimes I take a step back and remember that I’m only 23 years old. I haven’t graduated college yet, and I have my whole life ahead of me. 

I’m going to keep log rolling as long as I can. I love it just as much, if not more, than when I was a little 8-year-old taking classes at my local YMCA. I’m just going to continue to challenge myself.