In 1976, Dr. Paul Davis and his colleagues at the University of Maryland created a series of tests to measure firefighter fitness. The tests did a good job of predicting performance, but the connection between fitness and performance wasn’t well understood by the firefighters themselves.

Davis had noted how competitive firefighters were toward each other during the tests and thought, Why not devise a competition?

So began the Firefighter Combat Challenge. It’s called the competition with a purpose, because there could scarcely be better training for firefighting than training for the Challenge’s grueling events.

We visited the Challenge during the FireHouse Expo in Baltimore this July. We think you’ll agree this is the toughest two minutes in sports.