World Sauna Championships

The Sauna World Cup (Finnish saunomisen maailmanmestaruuskilpailut ) was a city in southern Finland Heinola discharged 1999-2010 annual event.

The competition had Volksfest character. The two -day competition at the Summer Theatre of Heinola, which was held in August attracted annually around 2,000 spectators. After the death of a participant at the final competition of 2010, the municipal council of the municipality Heinola decided in April 2011 to hold no further Sauna World Championships more.

Rules and implementation

The disregard of the rules could be punished by the competition management with disqualification. The fee was 50 euros last, also a medical certificate was necessary. During the two days of competition, the consumption of alcohol for the participants was strictly forbidden.

The contestants wore normal swimwear. The seats in the sauna were raffled. The sitting posture had to be upright, that is, that the elbow above the knees and upper arms had to be held vertically. The participants were allowed to interfere with each other in any way.

The temperature in the sauna at the beginning was 110 ° C. Every 30 seconds was poured about half a liter of water on the stove. This was done through a shower head fixed. The winner was voted one participant, who was the last to the sauna unaided.

Usually several preliminary rounds were held. In the competition of the men there were, due to a higher number of participants than among women, from the preliminary rounds Round of to the semi-finals before the six finalists have been chosen.

The White Russian Natalia Tryfanawa, a music teacher from Minsk, 2003 won the first title, which went to a non- Finnish person. After the World Cup 2008 extremely long times of about 18 minutes has been achieved, reduced to the sauna chambers and allowed to install more ovens.

In the 2010 World Cup finalists Vladimir Ladyschenski broke (Russia) and Timo Kaukonen (Finland ) in the sauna together. The doped with a painkiller Ladyschenski died, Kaukonen had to be admitted behind transmitting with severe, permanent damage burns to the hospital. The organizers, led by Ossi Arvela announced on trying to not perform Sauna World Cup more. However, a Finnish businessman declared shortly after the accident, trying to deliver the tournament continues. In April 2011, the municipal council of Heinola decided not to hold another Sauna World Championships longer because the competition could no longer take place "in the same carefree spirit ."

List of winners

( Note: Due to rule changes the winning times are not comparable with each other )