Finland's Wacky World Championships: Unique Sports & Fun

Finland's Unique Sporting Competitions

In the past decade or so, Finland has become host to a number of unusual sporting competitions. In many of these events, the winner – or winners – are crowned as world champions. Common to most of these pursuits are their origins in Finnish folk heritage. While intelligence or social skills are not required for success, power, stamina, and courage are vital.

What, then, are these strange sports? Here are a few of the most popular ones:

Wife Carrying World Championships

The Wife Carrying World Championships have been held in the small town of Sonkajärvi, Central Finland, since 1992. The winners are the couple who complete the course in the shortest time. To make it more difficult, two dry and two-meter-deep water obstacles have been added. Competition rules also state that men can choose any woman over the age of 16 to be their partner for the event. Interestingly, the competition is usually dominated by Estonian pairs.

Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships

This obviously doesn’t please the local Finns, who have been wife carrying for centuries. Finland, being the home of Nokia, is the obvious place to organize the Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships. This year, a record 3,000 spectators watched the competition in Savonlinna, Eastern Finland. The mobile phones used in the competition are provided by the organizers and fitted with batteries. And the prize for the longest throw? A new mobile phone!

Air Guitar World Championships

For the past decade, the northern Finnish town of Oulu has gathered imaginary guitar heroes for the annual Air Guitar World Championships. In recent years, more than fifteen nationalities have been represented in this light-hearted competition. Air guitar is the art of pretending to play along to a rock solo with nothing but an imaginary guitar and fitting facial expressions. Most contestants are national champions sent to Oulu by their local air guitar associations. Judges are looking for:

• Originality
• Technique
• Stage Charisma
• Artistic Impression
• 'Airness'

Finland's Playful Spirit

Overall, even though Finns are sometimes described as reserved, no nation taking itself too seriously could come up with these amazing sports!