I learned about the World Wife Carrying Contest today. The annual competition was held yesterday.
The rules to wife carrying seem simple enough. The woman must weigh 49 Kg. The track is 253.5 meters long consisting of sand, grass, and gravel. There are wet and dry obstacles. You lose 15 seconds if the woman is dropped (plus you have that nasty fight about dropping your wife which will last much longer than 15 seconds).
After further research on Wikipedia I found that there are three techniques to carrying your wife: piggyback, fireman's carry (over the shoulder), or Estonian-style (the wife hangs upside-down with her legs around the husband's shoulders, holding onto his waist).
It seems that Estonian style as proven to be the most efficient method since the Estonian's have won every year since 1998. This years winner, Margo Uusorg, was also last year's winner, although he carried a different "wife" last year.
Best time wins the wife's weight in beer. Is it better to have a light wife that is easier to carry or a heavy wife that will win you more beer?
