HELSINKI (AFP) - Former US National Basketball Association star Dennis Rodman will take part in the 2005 Wife-Carrying World Championships in Finland in July, organisers said.
The whimsical annual event resembles a 250-meter (yard) steeplechase in which the "wife" rides upside down on the runner's back with her legs slung over his shoulders for maximum speed.
Rodman, aged 44, quit the NBA in 2000 and is known for his escapades.
But don't expect Rodman to walk down the aisle just for the event: he will be allowed to borrow a "wife" if he is neither married nor engaged in time for the championships on July 1-2.
Women must be at least 17 years old and weigh at least 49 kilograms (108 pounds) in order to qualify.
"It was Rodman himself who contacted us. He's tried just about everything, but not this," a spokesman for the organising committee, Eero Heinaenen, told Finnish news agency STT.
The competition takes place in Sonkajaervi, a small lakeside town located 500 kilometres (310 miles) north of the Finnish capital Helsinki.
The world record is held by Margo Uusorg and Birgit Ulricht of Estonia, who completed the race in
The whimsical annual event resembles a 250-meter (yard) steeplechase in which the "wife" rides upside down on the runner's back with her legs slung over his shoulders for maximum speed.
Rodman, aged 44, quit the NBA in 2000 and is known for his escapades.
But don't expect Rodman to walk down the aisle just for the event: he will be allowed to borrow a "wife" if he is neither married nor engaged in time for the championships on July 1-2.
Women must be at least 17 years old and weigh at least 49 kilograms (108 pounds) in order to qualify.
"It was Rodman himself who contacted us. He's tried just about everything, but not this," a spokesman for the organising committee, Eero Heinaenen, told Finnish news agency STT.
The competition takes place in Sonkajaervi, a small lakeside town located 500 kilometres (310 miles) north of the Finnish capital Helsinki.
The world record is held by Margo Uusorg and Birgit Ulricht of Estonia, who completed the race in
