Sauna Death

[Granyaski]

Hardly an epic contest....why would you die over something so...petty and stupid.

[NiteStryker]

I cant stand saunas to begin with, let alone try and out-stay someone inside one.

[AddisonMeyers]

Originally Posted by Minnesnowtan

And I thought only Americans had brilliant ideas for potentially fatal contests.

Beside sauna competition Finland is known for other weird competitions such as ice swimming . Wife-carrying, World Cell Phone Throwing Championships, Air Guitar World Championship, Mosquito Swatting Championships, Ant-Nest Sitting Competition .. .... ..

[Huffardo]

Yeah, for some reason we have a lot of weird championships, such as the world championships in swamp soccer, but the sauna contest is probably the most dangerous of them.

Originally Posted by Admiral Donutz

Ouch.. I could see the challenge in trying to stay in a sauna (or an icy bath etc.) to see who has the best stanima but at some point you'd have to give up. Having a medical team monitor you and force you to pull out when your enter the mortal danger area would be an option. THough ultimately you are the one responsible for your actions. You might be able to hold on a little longer then the medical staff says, or you might just get unlucky and end up under a few feet of dirt...

I'm pretty sure they had medical teams monitoring the contest, but unfortunately the contestants were pulled out too late. I'll give part of the blame to the ridiculous amounts of water that was added, the temperature itself should be bad enough, but such inhuman amounts of steam will cause rapid changes to the condition of the people inside the sauna.
I don't know why they didn't keep the pace of the contest a little bit more controllable, especially as this was bound to happen sooner or later when you put a Finn and a Russian in a contest where someone dies if nobody gives up...