Only In Finland

[loveableleopardy (imported)]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/7730 ... a-contest/

Probably shouldn't laugh, but this story cracked me up.

A good example of human stupidity.

*

A Russian man trying to win the Sauna World Championships has died after collapsing with severe burns in the final stage of an event that required contestants to sit in a 110 degree Celsius room as water was tossed onto a searing stove.

Vladimir Ladyzhenskiy, an amateur wrestler who was in his 60s, was pronounced dead late Saturday after he collapsed alongside reigning champion Timo Kaukonen of Finland roughly six minutes into the final round.

Nearly 1000 spectators had gathered in the southern Finnish town of Heinola to watch 130 competitors from 15 countries, waving flags and cheering on the contestants before medical workers pulled the shaking and bleeding men out of the sauna.

Video footage shows workers pouring cold water over the two men and administering first aid as organisers tried to cover up the scene and calm spectators.

The men were bleeding from what appeared to be severe burns, said Hakon Eikesdal, a photographer with the Norwegian daily Dagbladet.

Ladyzhenskiy headed a charity fund in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. The fund's spokesman Konstantin Kruglyansky told the LifeNews daily that his family has demanded an investigation into his death.

Kaukonen, about 40, was hospitalised in a stable condition on Sunday, contest spokesman Ossi Arvela said.

The annual contest had been held since 1999. It will never be held again, Arvela said.

Half a litre of water is added to the stove every 30 seconds and the last person to remain in the sauna is the winner.

There was no prize other than "some small things" Arvela said. He declined to provide details.

Eikesdal said Kaukonen - the defending world champion - had refused to leave the sauna despite getting sick and that organisers had to force the men out.

Sauna bathing is a popular pastime in the Nordic countries and Russia, but especially in Finland, which has an estimated 1.6 million saunas for a population of five million people. Temperatures are normally kept around 70-80 degrees Celsius.

"I know this is very hard to understand to people outside Finland who are not familiar with the sauna habit," Arvela said. "It is not so unusual to have 110 degrees in a sauna. A lot of competitors before have sat in higher temperatures than that."

According to a research report from 2008, the annual death rate in Finnish saunas was less than two per 100,000 inhabitants, representing around 100 Finns a year. It said the majority of deaths were due to natural causes, such as heart problems and that half of the deaths occurred under the influence of alcohol. Around 25 per cent of the deaths were the direct result of the heat exposure.

Arvela said all rules in Saturday's competition were followed and the temperatures and times were similar to those in previous years.

He said police are investigating the death.

[DeaconBlues (imported)]

I think we will see this get at least an "honorable mention" in the Darwin Awards.

I loved one of the comments posted under the news article in the link:

"What an awful way to FINNISH your life."

[jemagirl (imported)]

This is not to judge anyone, but I guess my take on the Darwin awards is changing. I used to laugh at these things but now I just think they are sad. This man had friends and family who probably miss him.

[Riverwind (imported)]

Having lived in a retirement community years ago, they had signs around the hot tubs telling people not more then 15 minutes in the heated water, this also goes for saunas etc, this person was 60. Not a smart move on anybody's part, its just not safe and if you have a medical condition like a bad heart, it could very easy be a death warrant.

I am with Jema on this one,

River

[DeaconBlues (imported)]

You are right of course Jemagirl, this is not so funny, it is very sad. The old Russian probably pushed himself past the reasonable limit because he wanted to impress his grandchildren or something I would imagine. Yes, it is sad, not really funny.

On the OTHER HAND... I do get a lot of evil ideas from this thread, and super-heated saunas being used on the parents of the baby left in the hot car, the parents mentioned the other thread titled "Two people who need to be sterilized... Ya think?"

http://www.eunuch.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=18579

[loveableleopardy (imported)]

A Russian man trying to win the Sauna World Championships..........

Perhaps I'm just trying to defend my own goodness (to myself as much as anyone!), but I think it was these initial words that got me laughing more than the death itself.

This planet must have a World Championships for everything!

But I also liked the comment about him finishing his life, so I will try to add to this.

The man insisted on Russian to the Finnish line of life in order to experience the even greater temperatures of hell quicker.