Perhaps you prefer sporting events that involve teamwork. If so, you might consider attending the American Wife Carrying Championships in Maine. In this event, each participant navigates a difficult obstacle course that includes an 18-foot (6-meter) long pit filled with 3 feet (1 meter) of water, a downhill run on grass, and two log hurdles. The catch? He must do all of this while carrying a woman (though not necessarily his wife) on his back. Dropping the “wife” at any point during the race results in receiving penalty points. This unusual sporting event originated as a joke in Scandinavia, and is supposedly based on a past practice in which men found women to marry by running to their village, picking them up, and carrying them off.