A man plummeted 24 miles from a balloon Sunday afternoon and lived to tell the tale. Felix Baumgartner, a 43-year-old Australian skydiver, leapt 128,100 feet from the sky at 833.9 mph, where he set five world records: the first person to break the sound barrier, the highest freefall parachute jump, the highest vertical speed in freefall, the greatest freefall distance and the most concurrent views of a live stream on YouTube, with more than eight million people tuning in. This all happened in under 10 minutes.

Now that’s impressive.

Some people call this a publicity stunt (the jump was sponsored by Red Bull) and others call it an awe-inspiring tale. Me, I call it an athletic accomplishment, something that took bravery and talent. It took around 5 years to organize this jump, and Baumgartner had been training since 2009.

“It was really brutal at times,” Baumgartner said in a press release after the jump. “I thought for a few seconds that I’d lose consciousness. I didn’t feel a sonic boom because I was so busy just trying to stabilize myself.”

The competition was Baumgartner against the world, meaning the weather, the skies and atmospheric pressure. Most people wouldn’t call this an example of sport. I know for a fact my dad is going to give me a hard time for writing about this, but you can’t deny that this took athletic greatness.

The groundbreaking event got me thinking about other obscure athletic accomplishments. I perused the Guinness World Records and picked out some of the most impressive and eccentric athletic endeavors.

Longest distance swam underwater in one breath

Who doesn’t have these competitions in their youth? I’m pretty sure I’ve only been able to make it one-half of the pool’s length, but I’m not that talented. The record of two hundred meters set by Tom Sietas of Germany doesn’t seem all that impressive to me, and probably not McKayla Maroney either.

Fastest mile

Hicham El Guerrouj, a Moroccan middle-distance runner, is the world record holder for the mile, with a time of 3 minutes, 43.13 seconds. Guinness keeps records for every type of mile imaginable, including the fastest fireman’s carry mile (15:11:87), fastest mile on a pogo stick while juggling three balls (23:28), fastest one-mile sack race (16:41), fastest one-mile piggy back race (12:47) and the fastest mile hopping on one leg and jumping rope (34:01). I’m in shock that people kept going at those attempts for an entire mile.

Most star jumps in one minute

Give me a minute before you think I’m completely making something up by talking about star jumps. It’s like a jumping jack instead you start crouched on the ground and extend your entire body in a star position. So now that we know what a star jump is, we can puzzle over how somebody was physically able to do 61 in one minute. That’s more than a full jumping jack every single second.

Most squats in one hour

My first question is why would anyone do squats in the first place, let alone for an entire hour? Paddy Doyle from the United Kingdom did 4,708 squats in 60 minutes in 2007. I bet after that squatting marathon, he never squat again.

Longest distance walking over hot plates

Now this is probably the biggest stretch for an athletic accomplishment, but the fact that somebody subjected themselves to the torture of walking over hot plates for 22.9 meters deserves a shout-out. I watched the video, though, and it didn’t seem nearly as intimidating as I imagined. He was barefoot, which must have been rough.

That led me to realize how the majority of these stunts are built for publicity and not worthy of that much attention. There’s a fine line between real athletic competition and doing something simply for bragging rights. These seemingly athletic records test mental toughness more than anything else.

I’m still giving Baumgartner props. I mean, he broke the sound barrier. That’s something I’m not sure any sky diver will have the nerve (or ability, or guts, or whatever you want to call it) to try.

Emily is a graduate student. She can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @EmilyBayci.