At the Wife Carrying Championship, participants overcome various obstacles on a 253.5-meter course
Judge for yourselves. Every year in Finland, world championships are held in mobile phone throwing, boot throwing, swamp football, wife carrying, and air guitar. At the same time, spectators and participants have a blast, forgetting about gray workdays and getting a huge boost of positive energy.
Finnish championships are the real deal – with national qualifying competitions, their own regulations, rules, and records. For example, to go to Oulu for the Air Guitar World Championships, you first have to become the champion in your own country. To do this, you need to successfully go through two rounds, and in the last one, you must play an air guitar to a song that the participant hears for the first time right before the final.
Or, for example, at the Boot Throwing World Championships, which have been held for almost 40 years, the rules state that men throw a size 43 boot and women throw a size 38 boot. And, of course, competitors set world records, like Ere Karjalainen, who at the 2012 Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships threw a phone as far as 101.46 meters.
Tell me, what pleasure is there in sinking into mud, falling, pulling your legs out of the bog, dirtying your clothes and face, just to kick a ball? But that is exactly what the Swamp Football World Championship is all about. If in 1998, when the first competition was held in the village of Hyrynsalmi, only 13 teams participated, in recent years, 250-300 teams from different countries have been competing for victory.
"The Swamp Football World Championship came about thanks to Finnish skier Ese Romppainen, who ran through the swamp during the summer months to improve his physical fitness," says tournament coordinator Miia Huovinen. "Later, the idea was developed and turned into exciting swamp football competitions."
The championship attracts a huge number of spectators – about 30,000 people visit the competition over two days. "The public wants to see 'Finnish madness' in all its glory and enjoy the wonderful relaxed and fun atmosphere that reigns in the swamp," smiles Miia Huovinen.
"Looking for a slender girl to participate in the Wife Carrying Championship," read an ad by a young Briton on an English-language website. As the rules of this championship state, "the wife can be your own, your neighbor's, or a fiancée; however, she must be over 17 years old and weigh at least 49 kg." Hoisting their wives onto their backs or shoulders, competitors overcome various obstacles on a 253.5-meter course.
"This competition has historical roots," says Eero Pitkänen, secretary of the culture department of the Sonkajärvi municipality, who became the founder of this championship. "In the 17th-18th centuries, robbers operated in our area, who not only carried loot on their backs but sometimes stole women from villages and carried them off to their hideouts. In 1986, the local authorities remembered this historical past and held the first competition."
Every July, winners of national championships from Australia, the United States, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine gather in Sonkajärvi. This shows that Finland's unique competitions have gained popularity all over the world. Basically, people on the planet are the same. At least, in that they like to fool around from time to time.