Mud, beer and cash: Annual wife-carrying championship attracts competitive couples to Maine

NEWRY, Maine (AP) — An annual event in Maine involving mud, beer and cash has once again drawn dozens of eager competitors. More than 30 couples participated Saturday in the North American Wife Carrying Championship. The raucous, politically incorrect event involves embarking on a 278-yard race during which contestants splash through water, leap over logs and trudge through mud — all while carrying their partner like a sack of potatoes. The championship is based on Finland’s “Ronkainen the Robber,” whose gang was known to pillage villages and carry away the women. Traditionally, the Finnish event featured male competitors carrying a woman. On Saturday, competing couples didn’t have to be married, nor did they have to be a man and a woman.