Relax while competing! Enter the Finnish Sauna World Championship. Simply stay the longest inside a Finnish sauna in a temperature of 110 degrees centigrade, 240 degrees Fahrenheit.
Thousands attend the championship in Heinola, Finland, but only dozens compete. Why? Because the temperature of the sauna is 28 degrees over the boiling point of water. But there’s no humidity! It’s true, sauna’s humidity is low, running from 10-to-25 percent. So give it a whirl. Compete!
Or maybe not, in 2010 a contest died. Staying a sauna too long can do nasty things to a body. Spectate!
But maybe you have a competitive nature, while having the inactive disposition of a rock. Then this competition is for you. Compete!
Maybe you like the idea of thousands of spectators and TV audiences watching your nearly naked, sweaty body, covered with only a towel. Compete!
It’s held in August, when it’s hot outside anyway. Compete!
– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D., Travel Advisor
Check out my latest novel, the hilarious apocalyptic thriller, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms? It’s published by HumorOutcasts and is available in paperback or Kindle on amazon.com
Strange to say, with all that and the death of the contestant, the event was cancelled after the 2010 championship.
How long are we talking? What’s the record time?
“The 2003 champion and world record holder Timo Kaukonen, stayed in the sauna for a massive 16 minutes 15 seconds. Some competitors don’t even last two minutes, and some of the most seasoned sauna users only manage to last five to six minutes. At first glance staying in a sauna for 5-6 minutes doesn’t sound too difficult, let alone 16 minutes. The starting temperature of the sauna in the Championships is 110°C-230 degrees Fahrenheit –
and this heat is increased every 30 seconds. With this in mind and knowing the contestants only stop when their body is at its limits, it’s not recommended to try such a feat. To paint you a sharper picture, many contestants experience first degree burns and have red and pink blotchy skin after experiencing such heat for this short amount of time.”