Originally published Sept. 16, 2008
So I asked my wife if she wanted to take part in this weekend’s Wife Carrying competition in Minocqua. She must have thought I said wife burying, the way she said no so fast, but in either case we’re sitting this one out. Too bad, too. I would have enjoyed winning her weight in beer.
This relative newcomer to the Wisconsin event line-up is intriguing, though, equal parts silliness and serious sport, at least half of which I’m well trained in.
The Wisconsin Wife Carrying Championship requires a man to carry his wife – real or borrowed – over a 278-yard course that includes sand, water and log hurdles. In 2007, six couples competed in the inaugural wife carrying contest, competing for a first prize of the wife’s weight in beer and five times the wife’s weight in cash.
According to the Minocqua Chamber of Commerce Web site last year’s winning team, Matt and Samantha Denton of Lake Geneva, received $545 for their victory and – unless my math fails me, always a possibility – 109 pounds of beer. Unless she showed great restraint with that, Samantha will weigh more than 109 pounds this year, but that’s her husband’s problem.
You would guess a contest as goofy as this one would have been thought up in a bar, like most seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time propositions. But no, it turns out the competition was born in Finland some years back – and the event has historical roots that go back to the 1800s when a certain brigand was said to have accepted in his troops only men who had proved their worth on a challenging track. It was also the custom at the time to steal women from neighboring villages, so it was only logical the activities should be combined.
According to a Web site for the world championships in Finland (Dennis Rodman took part in the 2005 contest, though it didn’t say if he was the carrier or the wife) wife carrying today “is composed of humor and hard sport on a fifty-fifty basis.
“The wife carrying is an attitude towards life. The wives and the wife carriers are not afraid of challenges or burdens. They push their way persistently forward, holding tightly, generally with a twinkle in the eyes.”
The event is a benefit for a local ski area. If you are thinking of taking part (rules and registration are at http://www.skimwp.org/) you should know that there are four customary styles to carry the wife: the traditional piggyback, the wife dangling upside down on the carrier’s back, thrown over the shoulder and crosswise on the carrier’s shoulders. Whatever style you choose, be prepared for the ride of your life.
“You can sense the excitement in the air during the wife carrying competition,” the world championship site said. “The core of the race is made of a woman, a man and their relationship. The wife carrying and eroticism have a lot in common. Intuitive understanding of the signals sent by the partner and becoming one with the partner are essential in both of them – sometimes also whipping.”
How kinky! No wonder a bunch of birch switches are recommended equipment.
Anyway, there you have it. The event begins Saturday at 11 a.m. in Minocqua’s Torpy Park, and if you lack a wife or even a wife-substitute there will be other events as well, including the less strenuous wife ferrying and pike carrying.
Also note that one week later, on Sept. 27, Minocqua will host its annual Rump Roast Run. Insert wife joke here at your own peril.
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