Finalist dies in world sauna championship

[mike r]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0808/sauna.html

Finalist dies in world sauna championship
Sunday, 8 August 2010 15:17

A Russian man died in the final of the world sauna championships in Finland after spending six minutes sweltering in temperatures of 110C.

Dozens of competitors were whittled down to just two, but six minutes into the final judges noticed something was wrong with Russian champion Vladimir Lazyzhenskiy.

They dragged him and Finnish finalist Timo Kaukonen from the sauna, but Mr Lazyzhenskiy was later pronounced dead.

One witness said that had both men appeared to suffer serious burns...

[Swede]

1. 10C hotter than boiling water?

That's insane.

[the other one]

2. Another Darwin Award winner!

Congratulations Vladimir!

[gateley]

3. I saw the headline and thought "The Onion" -- I can't believe they

really have a Sauna Championship and subject themselves to obviously lethal levels of heat. I'm sorry this happened, hopefully they'll make some changes or cancel this "sport".

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Why in the world *is* there such a thing as a sauna championship?

That's bizarre. See who can stay in a hot little room longest without falling over dead? The point of a sauna is to work up a sweat, clean out your pores, then roll in the snow to cool down (which sounds bad enough); it's not to see how long you can stand being parboiled. What next, a bath championship? See who can sit in a bathtub the longest before the skin on their butt gets all pruney and starts to fall off?

:eyes:

[hedgehog]

9. I recall seeing a report that the sudden rise in blood pressure

caused by going from extreme heat to extreme cold can cause major hemorrhagic stroke. The graphics included a bursting hose.

[Warpy]

5. Good thing they hold it in Finland

because trying that sort of stunt, quickly fatal at that temperature and I don't fancy the second man's chances of survival with scalded lungs, the whole thing would be sued completely out of existence.

There are just some things our bodies are not built to survive and inhaling live steam at 18 degrees F above the boiling point of water is near the top of the list, just below things like bathing in lava and doing a swan dive out of a jet at cruising altitude with no parachute.

[Gman]

6. Wow! That's 230F

I smoke brisket at 225 - 250F

[The_Commonist]

7. When I was a kid, we had some Finnish friends...

...who built a sauna at their Rhode Island lake house.
We visited them maybe 3 or 4 times over the years.
The ladies would sauna first, and then the guys would go, and we'd get all macho.
The old man would get it cranked up to about 206F and that was one of the best feelings I've ever experienced.
After a few minutes, we would go jump in the lake, and do it again.
A real wood fired sauna, water on rocks from that lake.
In the winter, they would roll around in the snow, because the lake was frozen.
Unfortunately, I never got to try that.
All the saunas that I've been in since that one have been totally lame in comparison.
At some health club once, people were complaining that 165F was too hot.
Meh...

[davidinalameda]

8. was he disqualifed because he died?

:shrug:

[Crunchy Frog]

10. Why not just introduce out and out death matches?

Who can survive longest swimming with sharks? Who can eat the most arsenic? Who can go the longest being boiled?

Really, what do they think is going to happen with something so stupid as a sauna championship?