Wasfur ein schooner bart!

They come from the UK, Germany, Italy, the US, Norway, Sweden, Mexico, and China. They play for teams like the Den Norske Mustachclub, the Handlebar Club, the Hong Kong Harriers, and the Kurpfalzischer Bartclub.

They are the few, the proud -- the bearded and mustached.

And they gathered this past Saturday in Carson City, Nev. for the World Beard and Mustache Championships.

Competing in 17 different divisions -- from Musketeer to Imperial to Fu Manchu -- hundreds of contestants strutted their fluff in front of celebrity judges like Carson City Mayor Ray Masayko and Nevada Supreme Court Chief Justice Deborah Agosti.

With trampolining and speed walking already Olympic sports, making the definition of sports wider than a Patriots lineman in July, there doesn't seem to be any reason why bearding and mustaching can't be next.

The competitions are organized by beard and mustache clubs in the host country. This year's worlds were organized by Phil Olsen from Tahoe City, Calif., the first time the competition has been held outside of Europe since the inaugural games in the H?¶fen/Enz village in Germany in 1990.

Olsen first got involved with beards and beard competitions when he competed at the 1999 games in Ystad, Sweden. Fellow contestants urged him to organize a competition in the US.

Stone Roberts, who had decided to make a documentary about the Carson City competition for FireLight Films after seeing photos of what looked like Santa Claus and his buddies on a flyer at the post office, was given the job of media relations coordinator.

"I wasn't a beard enthusiast by any means," Roberts told me, "but this was too good to be true.

"Have you seen those photos?" he continued. "It's like Christopher Guest meets Fear and Loathing."

Olsen requested that Roberts not shave for the two months that the documentary was in production. "I'm ready to take this thing off my face," Roberts said. His first priority was the film, however. "As a filmmaker, you've got to kind of become part of the story."

Still, you might say, "Even speed walkers have to be in relatively good physical condition, but the dudes over in Geislingen in the Schabischer Bartclub just have to lay off the razor for a few weeks and they're world champions."

Wrong.

Not only do beard and mustache competitors risk getting their peach fuzz caught in power equipment (true story), but they were required to march with their team members, carrying their country's flag, in the Nevada Day parade before the competition.

Because the World's are only held every two years, the (ahem) athletes have to train in between by attending local competitions at town fairs and the annual European Championships and German Championships.

Olsen spends very little time managing his beard except for on game day, but he said the competitors with elaborate freestyle beards "might take up to an hour every morning" to keep it in shape. Personally, if I spent an hour every morning messing with my face, I'd want a lot more than a trophy and a tour of Virginia City.

The participants, at least the European ones, also meet regularly with their clubs. The Handelbar Club, one of the most prestigious of the British teams, meets weekly at the Windsor Castle pub in London. From its inception in 1947, "The object of the Club was, and still is, to bring together moustache wearers (beards being strictly prohibited) socially for sport and general conviviality," according to the club's website.

Olsen, who classifies his beard as a Garibaldi, said he doesn't expect the world championships to inspire a beard community in the US. "There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of interest," he told me. "There's something social about Europe -- there seem to be clubs for everything."

However, there are Americans besides Olsen and Alaskan native Dave Treaver, who placed third in best in show in Carson City, who support beard and mustache awareness.

The National Beard Registry, for example, lets beard wearers in the US register their mug online. Their website reads: "The National Beard Registry has been established to encourage men in all walks of life, from every continent, to resist conformity, corporate culture, and androgyny by embracing the beautiful, unique and utterly personal habit of growing a full beard."

So guys, think twice the next time you reach for that Bic. After all, who's more famous, you, the freshman from Long Island with a little stubble on his chin, or Karl Heinz Hille from Berlin, the best in show winner at the World Championships?