3. Finland invented the self-explanatory and dangerous sport of Wife-Carrying
The Finns have their own way of doing things. Just as modern soccer and basketball were growing in popularity, the people of Sonkajärvi came up with their own sport: eukonkanto, or Wife-Carrying. Quite simply, the game involves men racing one another to carry a woman (who has to be married, at least 49kg in weight, and over 17 years old) over a range of brooks, fences, and rocks across a 253.5-meter course. The wives can be carried in a piggyback, fireman’s lift, or Estonian-style (upside down on the man’s back). The winner takes home the wife’s weight in beer.
Eukonkanto was based on tales of the robber, Herkko Rosvo-Ronkainen, and his gang, who quite literally used to steal women from villages, running with them slung over their backs, and then marry them. Clearly, the distress at losing one’s wife was outweighed by admiration for the gang’s athleticism. Some said that Herkko trained his men for wife-stealing by making them run with heavy sacks on their backs, and soon everyone fancied a go (if not a new wife). Incredibly, the sport is so popular today that it is also played in Australia, the US, Estonia, the UK, and Hong Kong.