Beer Helps Bring Couples Together In Wife-Carrying Contest

Sonkajärvi, Finland (AHN) - An Olympics more to some men's tastes is brewing this weekend in this small Finnish town. The winner receives his wife's weight in beer.

More than 50 couples from countries around Europe are registered for Saturday's 16th annual Wife Carrying World Championships. The rules are simple, even if the contest isn't necessarily easy. The wife-even a borrowed one- is carried by the man-piggyback, on his shoulders, or however he can manage-around a quarter-kilometer (.15 miles) course made up of sand, asphalt and grass over logs and through three feet of water.

Along with winning the woman's weight in adult beverage, the winners also take home personal electronics.

"It might be a computer, a TV or a camera," an organizer told Spiegel Online. "We're not sure. It changes from year to year. Normally we also gave backyard saunas. But the people had to carry them home."