World Sauna Championships
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World Sauna Championships is an annual event held in Heinola, Finland. It originates from unofficial sauna-sitting competitions that resulted in a ban from the swimhall in Heinola. The championships were first arranged in 1999 and the event has grown bigger every year. Competitors from over 20 countries take part in the competition at their own risk, and have to sign a form agreeing not to take legal action on the organizers. Notably, the Finnish Sauna Society opposes the event.[1]
The championships begin with preliminary rounds and end in the finals, where the best six men and women see who can sit in the sauna the longest. The starting temperature in the men's competition is 110 ºC (230 °F) and every 30 seconds a litre of water is poured on the stove. The winner is the last person to stay in the sauna and walk out of there without outside help.
The host country has usually dominated the event, as no foreign competitors have ever made it into the finals in the men's competition. The first non-Finnish winner in the women's competition was Natallia Tryfanava from Belarus in 2003.
In 2004, the national Japanese tv-company Nippon Network filmed a documentary about the World Sauna Championships. The program was broadcasted to an audience of about 40 million spectators in Japan.
Nippon Network did same kind of document again in 2007, when they filmed whole week in Heinola and in Lahti. This time with them was Japanese superstar Kazumi Morohoshi (former singer in a popular boyband Hikaru Genji (musical group), who also took part to the competition. His competition ended in a first round, with a time 5:41.
Same year also American sport journalist Rick Reilly was in Heinola. His time in a first round was 3:20 and was eliminated from the second round.
[edit] Champions
| Year | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 |  Ahti Merivirta |
Katri Kämäräinen |
| 2000 | Leo Pusa |
Katri Kämäräinen |
| 2001 | Leo Pusa |
Annikki Peltonen |
| 2002 | Leo Pusa |
Annikki Peltonen |
| 2003 | Timo Kaukonen |
 Natallia Tryfanava |
| 2004 | Leo Pusa |
Natallia Tryfanava |
| 2005 | Timo Kaukonen |
Natallia Tryfanava |
| 2006 | Timo Kaukonen |
Leila Kulin |
| 2007 | Timo Kaukonen |
Leila Kulin |
