Wife Carrying World Championships

Wife Carrying World Championships

Snippet by © Paul Dodson 2012

Like so many of the world's more bizarre events, wife carrying has it's origins buried deep in the bosom of an age old local tradition - in this case, the 19th century practice of wife stealing. Finnish men of the era were known to plunder the female populations of neighbouring local villages, taking what took their eye, caveman style. The motivation may have changed since then but the practice remains largely the same.

To enter the modern day championships a wife is a neccessity. Not neccessarily yours. In fact any female over the age of 17 will do.

To the cheers of thousands of assembled spectators, contestants - with wife on board - must negotiate a 253.5 metre course covering sand, grass and asphalt. To add a measure of difficulty to the event, two dry and two metre deep water based obstacles have been added to the mix.

Besides the more obvious reprisals that are likely to arise from dropping your wife, judges too take a dim view of a bouncing spouse. The result - a deduction of 15 points.

So, what for the winner? Well, in true Viking style, amongst a multifarious mix of cash, food and electricals, they get to take home their wife's weight in beer. Sobering thought that!

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