Finland holds world championships in carrying another person over a 253.5-metre obstacle track, in playing an invisible guitar and in football played knee-deep in a bog, and all three ran again in the summer of 2026. Several of the others that appear on every list of Finnish oddities have stopped: the sauna endurance contest in Heinola ended after a death in 2010, and the mobile phone throwing and mosquito-killing championships have not been held for years.
This page lists which are still running, where and when, and what happened to the ones that are not. Five have their own guides, linked below.
Why there are so many
There is no single reason, and the tidy explanations about Finnish humour or long winters are not something anyone has measured. What the history of the big ones does show is a pattern. They started small, run by a municipality or a club as a side attraction. The wife-carrying race in Sonkajärvi was a municipal culture secretary's idea for a village market, ran first as a Finnish championship, and became a world championship in 1996. Yle's 30th-anniversary piece quotes the organisers putting its value to local business at €400,000 a year.
They are also still being invented. In 2025 the swamp soccer weekend in Hyrynsalmi added a bog-crawling world championship, and its coordinator told Yle the idea had come up a week earlier, at the wife-carrying weekend. And they stop: the sauna contest after a death, the mosquito one when its ethics were questioned, and others with no announcement at all, which is why the status column below matters more than any list of names.
The calendar
| Event | Town | Usual month | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finnish winter swimming championships | Moves (Pajulahti 2026, Eerikkilä 2027) | Late January or February | Held |
| Kicksled World Championships | Keuruu (formerly Multia) | February | Held; next 20 February 2027 |
| Winter Swimming World Championship | Moves; Oulu in 2026 | March, every two years | Held in Oulu, 2–8 March |
| Wife pushing on the ice road | Koli | February | Not held since 2019 |
| Finnish Hobbyhorse Championships | Seinäjoki | June | Held, 13 June |
| Boot throwing championships | Several, including Leppävirta | Summer | Held; the world championship moves between countries |
| Wife Carrying World Championships | Sonkajärvi | First weekend of July | Held, 3–4 July; next 2–3 July 2027 |
| Swamp Soccer World Championships | Hyrynsalmi | July | Held; next 16–17 July 2027 |
| MM-Reiska slipper football | Vesanto | July | Held |
| Swamp Volley World Championships | Haukivuori, Mikkeli | Late July | Held, 24–25 July; next 23–24 July 2027 |
| Heavy Metal Knitting World Championships | Joensuu | July | Not held since 2022 |
| Mosquito-killing world championships | Pelkosenniemi | Summer | Ended in 1999 |
| Air Guitar World Championships | Oulu | Late August | Held, 26–29 August |
| Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships | Savonlinna | Late August | Not held; last results found are from 2013 |
| Sauna World Championships | Heinola | August | Ended in 2010 |
The five with their own guides
Wife carrying, Sonkajärvi
The best known of them. Pairs run a 253.5 m track with two dry obstacles and a water pit about a metre deep, and the carried person must be at least 17 years old and weigh at least 49 kg. In 2026 Taisto Miettinen won his ninth title, carrying Katja Kovanen, in front of about 2,500 people. The 2027 championships are on 2–3 July. Full details in the wife carrying guide.
Air guitar, Oulu
Held in Oulu since 1996, with licensed national qualifiers in more than ten countries. The 2026 edition ran on 26–29 August as part of the main summer weekend of Oulu's year as European Capital of Culture. The 2027 dates were not published when this page was checked. See the air guitar guide.
Sauna championships, Heinola
Contestants sat in a sauna heated to over 110 °C while water was thrown on the stove at fixed intervals; the last one to leave won. It ran every year from 1999 to 2010. On 7 August 2010 the final was stopped when the Russian finalist died and the Finnish finalist was taken to hospital, and the organisers ended the event. It has not been held since. The sauna championships page covers what happened and what followed.
Hobbyhorsing, Seinäjoki
The Finnish Hobbyhorse Championships are the national final of hobbyhorsing: riders jump and ride dressage tests with a horse's head on a stick. The 13th edition was on 13 June 2026 at Seinäjoki Areena, with competition classes in four disciplines and more than a hundred merchants. Visitor tickets in 2026 started at €18 in advance and €25 at the door. More in the hobby horse guide.
Swamp soccer, Hyrynsalmi
Football on the Vuorisuo bog near the Ukkohalla ski resort in Kainuu. In 2025, the 24th edition, 124 teams took part. Spectators get in free. The 2027 championships are on 16–17 July. The pitch is leased land whose lease ends on 30 April 2027, and in April 2026 the municipality started working to buy or lease it for the long term. See the swamp soccer guide.
The rest: still running
Kicksled world championships, Keuruu
The potkukelkka is a chair on two long steel runners that you push along with one foot. Its world championships were for decades a Multia event. The 30th edition was held there in March 2018, on a track frozen over the sports field: the race had moved off the lake a few years earlier, after water pooling on the ice made racing on natural ice impossible. The event now runs at Keurusselkä Resort in Keuruu. The 2026 results cover a sprint, a 2 km interval start and a 3 x 500 m relay, and there is a costume-friendly team race for workplaces. The next championships are on 20 February 2027, and registration is open to anyone.
Boot throwing
Saappaanheitto is a real sport with a split personality. The international federation, IBTA, throws a plain rubber boot: size 43, 880–1,050 g, for men and size 38, 630–800 g, for women. The Finnish heritage sports federation throws a modified boot, riveted flat around an aluminium plate, that flies about half as far again: its world record stood at 102.99 m in 2019, against 68.14 m for the plain boot. The first world championships were held in Pielavesi in 1992. In 2025 they were in Finland again, at Leppävirta in late June, after Italy the year before. The heritage federation's 2026 calendar had boot-throwing championships in Varkaus on 14 May and Leppävirta on 28 June, and several of its events take entries on the day.
Swamp volleyball, Haukivuori
Volleyball on a bog at Haukivuori, now part of Mikkeli, four players a side, with men's, women's, mixed and business series. All players must be adults. The 2026 edition was on 24–25 July, and the 2027 one is on 23–24 July.
MM-Reiska slipper football, Vesanto
A summer football tournament played with a light plastic children's ball, in which the only permitted footwear is the classic Finnish slipper: genuine Reino slippers for men, Reino or Aino for women, unmodified and not strapped on. It ran again in Vesanto in July 2026.
The rest: paused or ended
Mobile phone throwing, Savonlinna
Held in Savonlinna in late August from the early 2000s. The 2010 edition was cancelled. In 2012 Ere Karjalainen threw an old Nokia 101.46 m, the first throw in the event's history past 100 metres. The last published results found for this page are from 24 August 2013, the 14th championships, when more than 80 people threw in Kirkkopuisto and Riku Haverinen won with 97.73 m. A 2015 date was advertised, and by 2023 Finnish event roundups were listing the championships as history. Nothing has been announced since.
Heavy metal knitting, Joensuu
Knitters on stage, combining knitting with heavy metal attitude while a band plays. The first final in Joensuu in July 2019 drew competitors from 12 countries and was won by Giga Body Metal from Japan, whose act included sumo wrestlers. After a gap it returned as a live final on the Joensuu market square on 8 July 2022, won by String Thing from the UK. The organisers' site still lists 2022 as the latest winner, with the next one shown as a question mark. It has not been held since.
Wife pushing on the Koli ice road
A winter cousin of wife carrying: one partner pushes the other on a kicksled along the 7 km ice road across Lake Pielinen from Koli to Vuonislahti, the longest official inland ice road in Europe. The ice road itself only opens in winters when the ice is at least 40 cm thick. The last edition with published results was on 17 February 2019. No championship has been announced for any winter since, so treat it as lapsed.
Mosquito-killing championships, Pelkosenniemi
A summer contest in Lapland in the 1990s to kill as many mosquitoes as possible. The three-time champion's record was more than 20. The 1999 championships were the last: by then, as the regional paper Lapin Kansa put it in 2024, the ethics of the sport were being questioned.
Winter swimming and ice swimming
The Winter Swimming World Championship is held every two years, and in March 2026 it came to Oulu, the first time in Finland for 12 years. The 2026 championship ran over 2–8 March with more than ten distances and disciplines, and the organisers expected 2,000 swimmers.
The Finnish championships are held every winter with Suomen Latu, the outdoor association. In 2026 they were at Pajulahti near Lahti on 30 January–1 February. The 2027 championships are at Eerikkilä on 5–7 February 2027. Races are 25 m breaststroke, 25 m freestyle and 50 m breaststroke by age group, and there are two ways in for beginners: an untimed 25 m swim, or a category where you only dip into the hole in the ice.
If you want to try it first, Helsinki has around twenty winter swimming spots run by clubs and companies, six of which take single visitors without a membership. The sauna guide has the safety advice.
Going to one
Most of these are in small towns, and a car makes them easier. By train from Helsinki, on the autumn 2026 timetable, the fastest direct services take:
- Seinäjoki, for the hobbyhorse championships: 2 hours 45 minutes
- Iisalmi, for Sonkajärvi: 5 hours 20 minutes, then the event bus, 30 minutes and €10 each way
- Oulu, for air guitar: 5 hours 30 minutes
- Kajaani, the nearest station to Hyrynsalmi: about 6 hours 15 minutes, then by road
Summer timetables differ, so check the day's services before you book.
You can take part in most of them. Wife carrying costs €50 for the main race and €25 for the sprint, each including a weekend pass. The kicksled and winter swimming championships take anyone who registers. Accommodation is the real constraint: Sonkajärvi and Hyrynsalmi are small places, and both organisers publish accommodation pages. The best time to visit Finland guide explains what July is like outside the cities.
Left out
Sitting in an ant nest (muurahaispesässä istuminen) appears on many lists of Finnish championships. Record attempts have been filmed, but no organiser, town or date for a championship could be found, so it is not on this page.