Mud, beer and cash: Annual wife-carrying championship takes Maine by storm

While its origins are not exactly politically correct – more than 30 couples competed in the North American Wife Carrying Championship in front of cheering crowds.

The event sees competitors splash through water, leap over logs and trudge through mud – all while carrying their partner like a sack of potatoes.

It is believed to be based on a 19th century Finnish legend involving a man known as “Ronkainen the Robber”, whose gang was known to pillage villages and carry away the women.

Traditionally, the Finnish event featured male competitors carrying a woman.

On Saturday, competing couples did not have to be married, nor did they have to be a man and a woman.

One contestant – the carrier – was dressed as Mr Incredible, while his “wife” was dressed entirely in pink.

They and others were cheered on by crowds on both sides of the 254-metre course at Sunday River ski resort.

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Most of the participants use a technique in which the “wife” is carried like a backpack – upside down – to ensure the runners’ arms are free for the greatest agility.

The champion leaves with the weight of the “wife” in beer and five times the “wife’s” weight in cash.

To estimate the amount they win, the winning “wife” is put on one side of a see-saw-like scale that organisers balance out on the other side with cases of beer.

“We come each year for the fun,” said Wade Porterfield of Cuba, New York, who competed with his wife, Sara Porterfield.