Monday, October 13, 2014

A Quirky Championship!

Wife Carrying Championship: A championship which makes a man value his wife's weight!!

This is unique sport which originated in Finland and basically is a contest where a husband carries his wife through an obstacle course. The couple who completes the obstacle track in the shortest time, wins.

The husbands are allowed to carry their wives only in a few ways. These ways are:
1. piggyback
2.  fireman's carry (over the shoulder), or 
3. Estonia style (the wife hangs upside-down with her legs around the husband's shoulders, holding onto his waist).
In Finland these compitions are held every year and the winners prize is beer . It doesnt just end there.. the quantity of beer given away varies according to the wife's weight. Therefore if a guy has a big wife and wins the race...it means more beer!
The competition today, is held in a number of countries.

The story behind the origins of this completion dates back to the 1800 's in Finland. A robber named Herkko Rosvo-Ronkainen lived in a forest with his gang of thieves. He and his gang of thieves stole food and women from villages. They kidnapped women and ran away from the village with the woman on their backs. This wife stealing act eventually became an annual and much loved competition.


Interestingly, an International Wife Carrying Competition Rules Committee has been set up. This committee has set up the rules to standardise the competition taking place in different parts of the world. Some of the rules worth noting are:
  • A defined length of the  track (253.5 meters) which has to have atleast 2 dry obstacles and one water obstacle.
  • The wife to be carried may be your own, or the neighbor's, or you may have found her further afield; she must, however, be over 17 years of age :)
  • The minimum weight of the wife to be carried is 49 kilograms. If she weighs less than 49 kg, she will be burdened with a rucksack containing additional weight to bring the total load to be carried up to 49 kg :)

So if the competition was to happen in your city , would you participate ??? :)

12 comments:

cre8tone said...

Haha! Got such Championship one? It's a good and cute one...

FX777222999 said...

How fun for this kind of competition! How about a heavyweight wife? Maybe, the husband feel sorry, I think.

Roch said...

Whaha is there also a rule about the weight of the wife? We had played this course once as part of our sportsfest in the office. The woman has to be in a certain weight to be able to qualify.

Ehara Poetry said...

I love to watch this championship on youtube, would really love to be participants buuuuttt i think my husband will not like it, ahahaha

Franc said...

I guess this would be a nice competition to watch. I'm sure husbands here are watching the weight of their partners before competition.

Unknown said...

Gpsh. I'm only 45kg and I guess this means I will require extra weight if I ever join the contest! It's a fun bonding method though!

Unknown said...

I remember these competitions from my childhood, lol. We Finns do have all kinds of crazy competitions. Try competing in ice-swimming for instance :)

Suzanne said...

Would I participate? No, I think it is kind of demeaning to the wives. Like they need to be carried and can not manage on their own. I suppose it is all in good fun, but time to advance to the 21st century..

Shiny Bliss Ortilano said...

waaah! it sounds sooo much fun! I bet i'll be laughing all the way while watching this!

Unknown said...

This looks so fun! Haha. I love how quirky the contest really is. It helps the couple bond more too!

Indira Wulandari said...

Really looks interesting game.
Sure, I'll laugh hard when watch this.

Fred Said said...

I hope they do this sport here. It should be a lot of fun to watch, I can imagine. But I also cannot imagine my wife and I joining. I don't think she will allow me to carry her Estonia style! Haha!