Alberta's First Wife Carrying Competition 2023

                                                                                                                              Alberta Wife Carrying Championship 2024

• What is Wife Carrying?

• Wife carrying is based on husband-and-wife teams racing with the husband carrying the wife through a regulation length obstacle course featuring dry land obstacles as well as a water hazard. 

• Teams race two at a time with the event being timed so competitors are racing against the clock rather than each other. *The three teams with the fastest time will share in the prizes.

•  Competing couples do not have to be married, though they must be comprised of a man and a woman and both must be at least 20 years old to enter. 

• How the wife is carried is the competitors’ choice with the most used method being the “Estonian Carry” where the female participant holds the male around the waist and tightens her legs around his neck, thereby freeing his hands.

• The winning team will receive the wife’s weight in beer and five times her weight in cash. The second-place team will receive one-half and the third-place team one-third of that amount. The winning team will also qualify for free entry to the North American Competition at Sunday River Resort in Newry, Maine, USA.

• Rules and Regulations.

• The Alberta Wife Carrying Championship will follow the rules and regulations as set out by the North American Wife Carrying Championship which were adopted from the World Championship Rules.

o Competitors

1. Teammates are not required to be legally married.

2. Helmets are not required for the carried competitor, although recommended.

3. The only special equipment allowed to be worn by the carrier is a belt, which is optional.

4. *There is a weight limit for the female competitor. The female must weigh a minimum of 108 pounds as per the World rules. Ankle weights will be added as necessary.

5. Competitors must sign a waiver.

o Competition

1. *Competitors run the course two teams at a time with each team being timed. The three fastest teams qualify for the prizes. 

2. If a competitor drops his teammate, the team will be penalized with five seconds added to their time.

3. Teams may not advance on the course without the wife being carried, and will be disqualified if they do so.

4. There is no restriction on how the female teammate is carried. Several types of carry are commonly used including the Piggyback and Fireman’s Carry (over the shoulder), but the most popular is the Estonian Carry where the wife hangs upside-down with her legs around the husband’s shoulders, hanging onto his waist.

o Course

1. Length of course is 254 / 278 yards and is predominantly on level ground.

2. Course design consists of three dry land obstacles and one water obstacle. Specific obstacle designs may vary by course and by year.

• History

• Wife Carrying originated in Finland, and its history is based around the 19th century legend of Herkko Rosvo-Ronkainen, or “Ronkainen the Robber”. There are three stories as to how the sport was created. First, Ronkainen and his thieves were accused of stealing food and women from villages in the area he lived in, then carried these women on their backs as they ran away. Second, it has been said the men would go to villages near their own to steal other men’s wives, and then have the women become their own wife. Third is the story that Ronkainen trained his thieves by carrying big, heavy sacks on their backs, which could have eventually evolved to a sport.

• The first modern day wife carrying event was held in Finland in 1992 and is now held annually in Sonkajarvi, Finland as the World Championship. A North American Championship was started in 1999. Founded in 1999 at Sunday River Resort in Maine, the North American Wife Carrying Championship has been held annually ever since.

• The Alberta Wife Carrying Championship was started in 2023 by the Lac La Biche Agricultural Society.

*new for 2024