I’m an American. More importantly, I’m an American from the South. If I want to go into a steamy, sweaty, 100+ degree misery, I’ll just go outside and sit in my car for a few minutes. I don’t need a sauna to sweat myself sick, but in Finland, there’s a cultural tradition of sauna-sitting that goes back generations. In fact, the city of Heinola, Finland was the home of the World Sauna Championships every year since 1999; however, 2010 is the last year of the contest, as this year a World Sauna Championships contestant died from severe sauna burns.
Vladimir Ladyzhenskiy and Timo Kaukonen were the last two men in the last round of the sauna championship. The temperature of the sauna was a staggering 230 degrees. The two men had bested 150 other competitors to make it that far, and neither man was giving up. Kaukonen won; Ladyzhenskiy died due to the extreme heat.
“All the rules were followed and there were enough first aid personnel,” said sauna contest head Ossi Arvela. ”All the competitors needed to sign in to the competition with a doctor’s certificate.” Despite this, the sauna contest will end this year due to the tragedy.
Tags: World Sauna Championship, sauna championship, man dies in sauna championship, Heinola, Finland, Timo Kaukonen, Ossi Arvela, Vladimir Ladyzhenskiy, sauna champion dies, unusual contests, endurance contest
