This year we are enjoying a longer than usual vacation away from messing about in a sailing yacht in the Tropics. We have the good fortune to spend 5 months in Finland. The Nordic weather is presently showing it’s best face, with temperatures rising to 34C in the air and 26C below the surface.
Finland has a glorious past in the world of sports, with probably more olympic medals per capita than any other nation. Unfortunately those days are long gone now, the only events where Finland can expect to succeed, on a good day, is the javelin in athletics, and occasionally perhaps also in some sailing events. In order to remedy this decline the Finns have invented some bizarre sports where they can excel. As an example, we have swamp soccer.
The exotic sport of Swamp Soccer originated in the swamps of Finland. It was started by some cross country skiers who were training in the swamps during the summer months. One of them was Olympic gold medalist Mika Myllylä, seen in the photo below.
(Photo by Hannes Heikura, chosen Best Sports Picture in Finland 1997)
Finland held its first tournament in 1997 with 13 teams. Held every year, this competition was upgraded in 2000 to the World Championships. Now this event has become a massive football competition with 325 teams and more than 5000 players registered for the 2010 World Championships, taking place this week-end at Hyrynsalmi 600km north of Helsinki. In 2009, after a few years’ break, Finnish teams managed to get away with the championships of both competitive series.
As an off-shot of swamp soccer, the Deep Snow Soccer Championship, is held every winter in the same place.
[Photo sources: www.suopotkupallo.fi and www.swampsoccer.co.uk]
The Finns are very competitive and some mad brainstorming during the years have produced other bizarre activities. If more than one Finn does something, they are bound to organize world championships sooner or later. Here is a list of some events that you may want to put on your list, if you visit Finland:
Wife-carrying (Eukonkanto)
Old Geezer Carting (Äijänkärräys)
Booth Throwing (with an off-shot, Mobile Phone Throwing)
Iron Bar Walking, an off-shot of Nordic (Pole) Walking
Ice-hole Swimming
Air Guitar Championships
I will try to explain some of these activities in a later post.
