Published: November 17, 2010

According to Finnish legend, there was once a band of thieves in the early 1800s, led by Ronkainen the Robber (in my opinion, a fantastic name for a gang leader). These thieves terrorized small villages throughout the country, sneaking in at night to steal whatever they could from the villagers. Why should we care? Well, they not only stole money and food, but they also stole… WIVES! They would take the women from their beds, throw them over their shoulders and run back to their encampment, presumably to the confusion of the recently awoken wives.

This is one of the more fittingly strange origin stories for the weird sport of wife carrying, a sport that is gathering popularity throughout the world, especially around Finland. While the sport exists in the U.S., it hasn’t yet set the nation ablaze with its popularity.

“I would never play it,” said Rashawn Weathers, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’11. “It’s dangerous and makes no sense.”

While there is no official rulebook for wife carrying, most competitions consist of a 250-300 meter race through an obstacle course. Contestants are required to run the race while carrying their wives (or husbands; the wives are also allowed to carry their husbands) through a three-stage course. The wife doesn’t have to be the contestant’s wife but can be another person’s wife. The only stipulation is that there is a minimum weight of 108 pounds and a minimum age of 17 for the wives. Wives that do not reach the minimum weight are given bags of sand to hold in order to reach the minimum. Obstacles vary, but they are usually a run through the sand and a run through water. Contestants are penalized if they drop their wives at any point in the race.

Unlike participants of other eccentric sports, wife carriers are fully aware of all the sport’s quirks, and most contestants try not to take themselves too seriously. For most couples, wife carrying is just a unique way to spend some time together. Even the traditional prizes emphasize the fun aspects of the game. The prize for first place is usually the wife’s weight in beer, added incentive for carrying slightly heavier wives.

“The prize is really worthless,” Weathers said.

But the sport also appeals to the more serious athletes looking for a competitive thrill. There is an annual world championship tournament in Maine where 40 couples participated in 2009. Players have even come to utilize specific wife carrying strategies in order to maximize their speed and balance.

“I don’t think I can carry a wife for that long, unless you give me a not-so-heavy wife,” Yuriy Tumanian FCLC ’13, says.

While it would seem intuitive to use a piggy-back style or even a fireman’s carry, most of the major competition winners utilize the Estonian method of wife carrying. Named for the country that has won the last 11 Finnish Wife Carrying Championships, the Estonian method involves the wife being carried upside down with her face in the husbands back, her arms wrapped around his stomach and her legs around his head. This carry frees the husband’s arms to use for balance during the uneven portions of the race.

“Honestly, wife carrying sounds like the stupidest sport since curling,” said Tumanian.

He’s not completely wrong, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun.