UF students are entering to participate in a weeklong contest to race across Europe.
The contest, called “Red Bull Can You Make It?” is run through the energy-drink company. Teams of three college students are selected based on audition videos. Teams will travel across Europe in seven days, using cans of Red Bull to get food, shelter and transportation, said Dixie Smith, a UF dentistry doctoral student entering the contest.
Smith, 21, said teams are selected based on the number of votes their audition videos get online. Red Bull judges will select 165 teams by region, the quality of the videos and the number of votes they get.
If picked, she and two other UF students would collect points by completing different tasks in Europe. The team with the most points wins a free trip to a major European city.
Six women from UF’s Surf Club are trying to make it on two teams, she said.
“We’re technically competing against each other, but the goal is we’ll both go,” said Smith, whose team’s name is “Rad Bull Babes.”
Lauren Wilson, a UF biology sophomore, said her team’s name is “Bae Watch.” She said she wants to participate in the contest to travel.
“I’ve never been to Europe; it’s been totally out of my price range,” the 19-year-old said. “I’ve never had an opportunity to go that far from home.”
Smith said it would be hard to prepare for the trip if her team is selected.
“We’ll probably just wing it,” she said. “We’re kind of taking it one step at a time.”
Wilson said she was inspired to audition with her team because of a friend who participated in the race in 2014.
Natalie Palmer, who graduated from UF in 2014, said she participated in Red Bull’s first competition.
While her team didn’t win, she said it was the craziest thing she’s ever done.
“It’s definitely not for the lighthearted,” the 23-year-old said.
She said the first day of the race, her team traded three cans of Red Bull for a flight from Austria to the Swiss Alps. She said her team persuaded the airline to give them the flight for publicity.
“Within ten minutes we were running through security trying to catch the next flight out,” she said.
Wilson said she would trust strangers to help her team in the contest.
“I have a lot of faith in humankind,” Smith said. “I think a lot of our generation has lost that faith. Every team is going to make it most likely, and that’s from the kindness of other people.”
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @k_newberg.
From left: Brett Walker, 24, Sky Smith, 22 and Dixie Smith, 21, pose for their team photo for RedBull’s “Can You Make It?” contest which tasks teams to a race across Europe with nothing but cans of the energy drink. The students are a part of UF’s Surf Club and entering alongside another team of three in the same club.
