The Strange Sport of Wife Carrying
In the world of sports, there are the regular and popular sports that people watch and enjoy. Then there are the odd, strange and downright bizarre sports that also take place around the world. Wife carrying is one of the stranger sports that are practised in the world. It is a sport with ancient traditions and a great back story and is practised in a few places around the world today.
The sport of wife carrying, which is in fact an actual sport, is practised in Finland mostly and in a few places in America. The sport is basically a man carrying his wife or any woman on his back and completing a race in the shortest time. The championships have been taking place for the last 15 years in a small town in Finland. The 2010 championships took place in Sonkajärvi in Finland and were won by the duo of Taisto Miettinen and Kristiina Haapanen from Finland.
The history of this interesting event is shrouded in mystery and intrigue. There are three stories that people say form the basis for this strange sport. The first of these stories is one where an ancient Finnish robber and his gang of thieves used to plunder the land. The leader of the gang was named Ronkainen the Robber and he and his gang used to steal food and women from surrounding villages in the area where he lived. They would carry the women away on their backs and that evolved into the wife carrying race of today. The other legend behind this race is the one about a practice in 19th century Finland when young men used to go to neighbouring villages and steal other men's wives and claim them for themselves. The practice was known as wife stealing and may have contributed to the sport of today. The final origin story is a little bit mundane and ordinary. This again features the character named Ronkainen the Robber but this time he used to train his thugs to become faster and stronger by carrying big heavy sacks on their backs.
Through all these origin stories we now have a sport where a man has to carry a woman on his back and race across a course. This years’ course had added obstacles such as a pool, sand and a fence. The prize for winning the race is the woman competitor's weight in beer. There are a couple of interesting aspects to this prize; firstly the lighter a woman weighs the easier it will to complete the race but on the other hand after winning the race if the woman does not weigh that much the winning team do not get that much beer.
There is strategy to this race. Most runners place their female competitors on their back upside down, so their faces are close to the man's bums. This gives the man leverage in running but is not the best position for the woman to be in for the water obstacles when she gets her head dunked into the water. The water obstacles are the trickiest part of the course and this year's competition saw a couple in the lead trip and unfortunately they fell into the water and lose precious seconds. They ended up coming in second place.
This odd race is not the most politically correct though. As the world moves on in terms of male and female equality we still have a race where women are carried by big strong men to the finish line. It does not say a lot about gender rights. But the race is a tongue in cheek kind and is only done to keep old traditions alive and relive the olden days of Finland. The sport seems to be more of a joke event and it is not to be taken seriously.
Wife carrying will continue for many years to come. It is a light hearted although physically demanding sport that is not for the faint of heart. More interesting and odd sports like this should be practised across the globe to give people a sense of their ancient culture and keep traditions alive.
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