It took real dedication.
It’sOlympicsseason , which means one matter . on the spur of the moment , competition is everywhere — and not just in Paris .
All the sudden , it feels like everyone has participate into a fiercely competitive style that pass sports . We all just want to excel at something , whether it ’s a tennis game or how many shirts can be folded in one minute . We simplyneedto set a record .
This Olympics - fuel behavior has apparently pass on TikTok trends as well , to the dot where traveler are finding newfangled ways to resurrect the cake . Among them , encounter Owen Tilsner , 18 , who just took the vogue ofrawdogging flightsto a whole young level — and broke a TikTok record , too .
Photos by Owen Tilsner
Tilsner ’s TikTok profile onlyfeatures one video , which was posted on July 30 and already went viral , racking up more than 37,400 likes and over 600,000 scene . " 7/29/24 I achieved the unthinkable , " reads the overtext in the video . " 2,000 athletes . Handwritten . One seven - hour session . "
If you ’re bemused at why this should be suitable of Olympic - level praise in the flying rawdogging community , let me provide some crucial context . Tilsner was on a flight from Venice , Italy to NYC ’s John F. Kennedy International Airport when he decided he was going to rawdog a flight of stairs in a raw , viral - worthy way . He knew he ’d rise to TikTok celebrity .
" Originally , I was going to rawdog [ the flight ] and stake to TikTok , " Tilsner tell Thrillist . " But the course was buy the farm a short and I conceive this would be more pleasurable — and I could fructify a track record by naming 2,000 [ athletes . ] "
Image courtesy of Owen Tilsner/TikTok
Plus , he knew he could beat someone at this game . Tilsner had seen his competition , and thought he could take it . " I had realize this trend before on TikTok but it was only how many athlete you could publish in an hour and multitude would finish around 400 - 500 names , " he says . " So I thought engage it to a raw degree would [ make the TikTok ] ball up up . “Two hours into a nine - 60 minutes flight , Tilsner set off towards winner . Armed with a blue pen and blank sheets of paper , he started write down any jock name he could think of — without any outside resources , of course .
Being a Philly sport devotee , he was able-bodied to name a few hundred athletes with ease . What really helped him in his quest , though , were all the hours expend grooming on video game . " Up until a duet twelvemonth ago , I played sports telecasting game a lot , " he explains . " Madden NFL , NBA2 K , andMLB : The Show . That helps so so much . "
make it to the last was challenging , but as a true jock , Tilsner persist through injuries ( his hand started cramping past the 600 - name milepost ) , strong-arm needs ( he had to fight the impulse to piss for the last twosome of hours ) , mental weariness , and even the perplexed glances of spectator — and once he made it to 1,000 written gens , he knew he could make it to 2,000 . An incoming mathematics major at Boston College , when he reached number 1,600 , he quickly knew he was 80 % done with the labor . " I knew how close I was and just used that to keep me going till the end , " Tilsner says .
Photo by Owen Tilsner
A mere 17 minutes before he landed , Tilsner wrote down the last name he could think of — that of his champion Devon Decorte , a association football musician who recently run pro in Belgium . He had done it .
" theatre away , this was really insanely difficult with the hand pain and itch to pee for the last couple hours , " Tilsner wrote in the caption of his TikTok , which he named " My Greatest Achievement . " " With that being articulate , I believe that 2,000 in one seance is the record on TikTok for now . "
