Bizarre Sports #5 – Wife Carrying

Whilst many men around the world cherish going off at the weekend, spending a few hours away from the wife and enjoying some leisurely pursuits, a few creative souls from Finland got together and decided that the wives should be more involved.

As a result, the sport of wife carrying was born. As the title suggests, the sport involves a man carrying his wife, or another woman (if he is that way inclined), through an obstacle course in the fastest time possible.

Bizarrely, wife carrying appears to have originated as a joke, supposedly reminiscent of a past in which men courted women by running to their village, picking them up, and carrying them off. In many countries that would be considered kidnapping, but who’s to judge?

As well as laying claim to inventing the sport, the World Championships are still held in Finland every year, in the small Eastern town of Sonkajavi. Understandably, the Finns are very proud of their history and have won the Championships numerous times. However in recent times, Estonia have established themselves as the top country for wife carrying.

Not content with finishing second, the Finns persuaded a man by the name of Taisto Miettinen to start competing. A jack of all trades and winner of many competitions, Taisto’s record of achievements reads like a list of obscure Scandinavian sports. Not content with being a national champion in water running, iron bar walking, snowshoe running and winter swimming, he has won the prestigious wife carrying championships for the last four years. What a man.

Those not in the know would wrongly dismiss this sport as a caveman-esque activity, requiring little intelligence. However, there is more to wife carrying that meets the eye. As the sport has developed a number of different carrying techniques have evolved.

The most common style used is the standard piggyback whilst the fireman’s lift is also popular. The most creative style has to be what is known as the ‘Estonian-style’ and involves the wife hanging upside-down with her legs around the husband’s shoulders, holding onto his waist.