What do you get when you win the U.K. Wife Carrying Race? Bragging rights and a barrel of ale

As Teemu Touvinen sprinted over the hillside with his girlfriend Jatta Leinonen flung over his shoulder — sidestepping bales of hay and getting doused with buckets of water — he saw victory within reach.

With one last push in the final 50 metres, the pair dashed past their competitors and won first place at the 2026 U.K. Wife Carrying Race in Dorking, England, on Sunday.

They were, of course, awarded the customary barrel of local ale. 

While Touvinen spent the race worrying that sweet victory would be snatched from his hands, Leinonen was busy holding on for dear life.

“I was afraid that I was going to fall because it was slippery,” she told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. “I just hold tight on my legs and hope for the best.”

In the end, they say, it was worth it to sip the malty beverage of champions.

“It’s feeling really, really good,” Touvinen said.

Exactly what it sounds like, mostly 

The event is, more or less, exactly what it sounds like. Participants race 380 metres, through obstacles and rolling hills, while carrying another person. 

It’s a Scandinavian tradition that has since spread to the U.K., United States, Australia, Poland, and even Canada.

It’s said to be based on a 19th-century Finnish legend about a gang that pillages villages and steals the women. Despite the sinister origins, these days, it’s all fun and shenanigans. 

It’s also no longer restricted to husbands and wives. 

Anyone can participate, so long as they’re carrying someone over the age of 18 who weighs at least 110 pounds. Those under that weight need to wear a rucksack filled with flour or water to bring them to the minimum weight.

“You do not have to carry your own wife. It could be someone else’s. Or a mate, girlfriend, boyfriend, sister or brother,” organizers said. “They should ideally weigh less than you do.”

The couple first got into wife carrying in 2024, when the world championships were happening near their hometown in Finland.

At first, Touvinen says, they just signed up for a laugh. But, it turns out, they were pretty good at it. 

“So I think, ‘OK, next year we’re gonna do better than this, and we take this seriously,” he said. 

Their second race, however, didn’t go as planned.

“We actually didn’t do better because 10 metres before the finish, we [fell].”

But this time, he says, they’ve been training. For Touvinen, that meant lifting weights and running, sometimes running while wearing a weighted vest. 

Then, as the big race neared, the couple practised their wife-carrying technique.

Racers can carry their partner however they like, but Leinonen and Touvinen favour what’s known as the “Estonian Hold,” where the “wife” hangs upside-down on the carrier’s back with their legs crossed in front of his face.

The reason is simple.

“This is the style [where] I don’t fall,” Leinonen said.

The couple’s next stop will be the World Wife Carrying Championships in Finland in July. 

If they win, they will once again be awarded a barrel of ale.