August 10, 2008


10th annual sauna championships

Finns dominated the world sauna competition.

“The main rules have not changed since the beginning of the competition 10 years ago, we have six men or women sitting inside the sauna (on each round) and the winner is the last one to leave,” Arvela said.

“There are no world records … we cannot control all the factors like the temperature of the sauna or the water thrown into the stove,” Arvela said.

When the championship started in 1999 five countries and 60 contestants participated.

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8 Responses to “10th annual sauna championships”

  1. Mike Dresser on August 10th, 2008 at 4:45 pm

    Ah, those are my people…my great grandma was straight off the boat from Finland. Their concept of sisu is a wonderful thing, often returning to my mind in moments of adversity. That and a recipe for cardamom bread (pulla), are my cultural inheritance. It’s enough.

  2. Sheila Ryan on August 10th, 2008 at 5:31 pm

    You Finns are something else, Mike. I scarcely even think of y’all as Scandihoovians. You’re beyond Scandihoovians. Some of y’all got serious intestinal fortitude. (This from a Dane, one with people in Jutland’s northwest.)

  3. Rick Neece on August 10th, 2008 at 5:42 pm

    Sheila
    Danny has used the word, “Scandihoovians” for as long as I’ve known him. And the word “Jutland,” comes up every now and then. I’m of a mind to say his people are from that region, too, though I couldn’t tell you if its the Northwest part of Jutland.

  4. Sheila Ryan on August 10th, 2008 at 5:54 pm

    Many of Danny’s relations, I recall, live up around Rockford, am I right?

  5. Sheila Ryan on August 10th, 2008 at 5:55 pm

    And he is a Jensen, yes? I am (to a considerable degree) a Jacobsen. It all fits together.

  6. Michael Grant Smith on August 10th, 2008 at 7:44 pm

    The Olympics are awesome.

  7. Sheila Ryan on August 10th, 2008 at 8:41 pm

    And aren’t those Finns something?

  8. Cindy Scroggins on August 11th, 2008 at 8:56 am

    I must profess my preference for Norwegians above all Scandinavians.

    I believe this is mainly due to Alan Arkin’s performance in The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming: When asked where he is from, Arkin’s character replies in a heavy Russian accent, “We are Norwiggens.”

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