Bad Axe brings backyard to global stage

By Irene Galea and Patrick Peori

Kelsey Burton says that holding an axe feels like holding a trophy. If that’s the case, she’s a champion: as an axe-throwing coach at Ottawa’s Bad Axe Throwing, she gets to wield razor-sharp hatchets every day. She rarely misses her target. Founded in fall 2014, Bad Axe Throwing opened its first location in Burlington, Ont. and has since spread across the Canada and the U.S. This fall, the Ottawa location has joined the World Axe Throwing League, the largest international urban axe-sport club.