The competition consists of a race of around 254 meters, during which the contestants face various challenges – such as diving into the water, jumping over logs and walking through mud – always with the women on their backs.
Mud, beer and money. This is the combination that convinced more than 30 couples to take part in the North American Wife Carrying Championship, an annual contest that takes place at a ski resort in Maine, United States.
The contest consists of a race of about 254 meters, during which the competitors face various challenges – such as diving into the water, jumping over logs and walking through mud – always with their wives on their backs, reports The Associated Press (AP). The winner takes home the woman’s weight in beer and five times the weight in cash.
As images from the event, which you can see in the gallery above, show, most of the contestants used the same technique to win: placing the woman like a backpack, upside down, to ensure that her arms are free.
The contest was inspired by a Finnish legend from the 19th century, which tells of a man known as ‘Ronkainen the Thief’, whose gang was known for sacking villages and taking the women.
Although the tradition involves a man carrying a woman, the contestants in Saturday’s contest did not have to be married, nor did they have to be a man and a woman.
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