Finland is known for snowy winters,reindeers,forests, and swamps. Swamps stretch across the countryside as far as the eye can see. Once a year,the town of Hyrynsalmi, about 650 kilometers north of Helsinki,hosts a very unusual sports event: the Word Swamp Soccer Championship. This major spectacle attracts some 5000 participants from a number of counties. The players play soccer in the knee-deep mud, and often there is more wading and crawling than actual kicking of the ball. The game lasts for two periods of 25 minutes each in a marked soccer field that looks more like a pig pen. After kickoff,the participants’ brightly colored team shirts soon become dirty rags.