Finland’s 2025 Wife-Carrying: 200 Competitors, 18 Nations, One Upside-Down Triumph

Wife-Carrying World Championships Finland 2025 opens with 200 athletes hoisting partners upside-down through Sonkajärvi’s mud, as trending queries like "How do you win wife-carrying races?" and "Why Finland hosts odd sports?" peak. U.S. duo Caleb and Justine Roesler claimed the main event, Justine clinging on in the event’s signature Estonian carry. “She ain't heavy, she's my wife,” echoed through the crowd as victory was declared.
Launching with the Estonian carry spectacle, this year’s contest introduced a women’s-only series and a chaotic team relay. Searchers ask, "What are the wife-carrying rules?" and "Can anyone compete in Sonkajärvi?" Visualize athletes in goggles hauling partners like sentient backpacks, with Justine Roesler’s muddy grin immortalized. One local remarked, “Only in Finland does love require a helmet and a stopwatch.”
Eighteen nations sent competitors, but after 80 seconds, a single muddy sprint, and one upside-down wife, only the Roeslers left Sonkajärvi with the championship and 49 kilograms of their partner’s weight in beer.