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Reindeer Racing World Cup

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Apr 16 2010

The remote town of Kautokeino, north of the Arctic Circle in Norway played host to the last of 7 cup races held throughout the winter season in Sápmi (the cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sámi people in N. Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia) on Easter Sunday, during the Sámi Easter festival celebrations.

So, the form for the adult races: 4 heats with 4 competitors in each heat. The winner of each heat going through to the ‘A Final’, while the runners-up go through to the ‘B Final’. Comparatively speaking reindeer racing is pretty similar to horse racing, there are owners and drivers. The owners train their reindeer from the end of Autumn in order to build up their strength. All the drivers are typically small, having to weigh 65 kilos for the race (some with the help of weights strapped to their ankles.)

Once the reindeer are harnessed up and ready to go in the starting pens, the drivers, who are waiting at their side, are passed the reigns, the doors slam open and they are off at great speed on a 1km long course around a frozen lake, quite surprisingly, with very few crashes along the way. I didn’t see any betting taking place, and unfortunately the tourist class was canceled due to poor weather, so I couldn’t test my skill as a reindeer driver, but it was an incredible, though very cold day of racing. Infact, the ice was so hard the ground was described as ‘fast’, and the eventual winner was less than one tenth of a second off the world record time. Go Go Rudolph.

 

 

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About this blog

The vast majority of posts in this blog are about quirky & eccentric competitions & festivals. I started it in 2006 in France with a competition I’ll never forget. Where contestants battle it out to become the World Champion Pig Squeeler, or ‘Cri du Cochon’. I had little knowledge back then of quite how far my pursuit of these kind of events would lead me. I’ve travelled all over Britain (and occasionally further afield) to capture our curiosities and quirks. There’s nothing uniquely eccentric about the British, you’ll find people all over the world up to all sorts of weird and wonderful activities, but we do have a remarkable capacity to embrace the madness. ‘A Brit Different’ is the book that was born from it, my labour of love! So what next? There’s always something interesting going on, so watch this space, only time will tell!

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