From scaring dog walkers to making history: Meet America's first ever wife-carrying world champions

CNN

4 days ago

On July 5, Caleb Roesler picked up his wife, Justine, slung her over his shoulders, ran 250 meters through water and over hurdles to the finish line, making history and winning Justine's weight in beer in the process.
It's fair to say wife-carrying is a sport that sometimes draws some confused looks when the Roeslers explain why they're going to be out of town on the weekend.
'There's only two reactions – they're the extremes,' says Caleb in an interview with CNN Sports. 'If you tell somebody you did this race, some people are like 'Oh, that's so cool. Good for you, that seems like a fun time.'
'And then the other people are just like '…Why? Why would you do that?''
It's a fair question. The answer's origins lie halfway across the world – in Sonkajärvi, Finland.
No one is quite sure exactly how the tradition began, but most believe it has something to do with the 19th-century legend of Herkko Rosvo-Ronkainen, the leader of a gang of thieves.
'Ronkainen the Robber,' as he was better known, supposedly trained his accomplices by making them carry heavy sacks of rye, according to the championship which continued his legacy. Many believe that he and his men would even literally steal women from nearby villages, putting them over their shoulders and taking them back to their camp.
These days, wife-carrying is far more innocent, and far more inclusive too. The Wife-Carrying World Championship began in Sonkajärvi in 1992, and, despite the name, anyone is free to carry anyone, regardless of gender or marital status. The competition also has an over-40s division, as well as a women-only category which debuted this year.
The Roeslers' wife-carrying origin story begins in their hometown of Waukesha, Wisconsin, and is slightly less dramatic than that of the 19th-century bandits – Caleb heard about the sport on ESPN.
'I've always been a runner. I like running races, mostly just running in triathlons,' he says. 'And I remember seeing that reel, like 'The top 10 wildest races in the world.' And honestly, like half of them, I thought were awesome … But that one just seemed the most realistic. Like, 'Hey, I bet we could actually do that, it seems relatively safe.'
'We kind of forgot about it, and then in 2021 we saw an advertisement, just random, that there was one in Wisconsin. Sort of like, 'Hey, it's only an hour down the road, we have to go give that a try.''
'There's only a certain percentage of women who are willing to jump upside down in water like that and not panic and let go.'
Caleb Roesler, wife-carrying world champion
The couple quickly discovered that they were naturals – victory in their home state was followed by a three-peat in the North American championship between 2022 and 2024. But what has made them such a good wife-carrying team?
'I think it's two things,' says Justine in an interview with CNN Sports. 'The guy has to be strong and fast and somewhat agile. If you're going through obstacles and stuff, you have to be able to do that and land well.
'And then the woman has to be able to hang on.'
To do that, the Roeslers make use of the most popular method in the sport: the so-called 'Estonian carry,' in which Justine is carried upside down like a backpack, her hips on Caleb's shoulders and her arms reaching back under his armpits.
'(It) means I'm holding on to my legs myself, so that Caleb has his arms free,' she explains. 'I feel like that's definitely the fastest method of how you can run it.'
A little bit of bravery also helps, according to Caleb.
'Justine's the secret weapon,' he says. 'There's only a certain percentage of women who are willing to jump upside down in water like that and not panic and let go. So I was so impressed that she did it. She's the secret.'
But the Roeslers did not just learn this all overnight. They have had to practice to get to where they are today.
And, believe it or not, running around your local park with your wife upside down over your shoulders does occasionally attract some attention.
'At least once a year, we'll pass a dog walker,' says Caleb. 'We always try to make sure no one on the trail can see us. And then we'll run and all of a sudden somebody will round the corner and pass us.
'Once we stop, we'll be like 'Hey, I'm sure what you saw looked really weird.' We'll just explain this is a weird obstacle race called wife-carrying that we train for. And usually people find it pretty funny.'
Not everyone, though.
'We did have a dog walker definitely bark at us like 'That's not normal, that's bad,'' he laughs.
It's not easy balancing your wife-carrying pursuits with looking after your four children, but 2025 finally offered the Roeslers their first chance to make a bid for the world title.
Flying all the way to Finland, however, raised the stakes for the couple.
'You always get a little nervous before a race, just because you're trying to perform your best. But that was definitely the one I felt the most pressure. I didn't want to let family and friends down back home,' explains Caleb.
That pressure was not the only new challenge Caleb and Justine would have to overcome.
'This course, the main thing was the water jump. In the other courses you just run through water, but we had never jumped through water like that. So we were a little bit nervous,' reflects Caleb.
The Roeslers' quickly found out that Caleb had good cause to be apprehensive.
'I thought I was tall enough … I did not expect to go completely underwater. And I landed, and you don't really realize, the momentum takes you underwater. And so I remember being kind of surprised, almost panicking, going underwater, swallowing a bunch of water,' he continues.
'But then I remember being happy that she didn't panic or fall off. And then I kind of just regathered myself, tried to spit out water. And then once we got back up on land, just, 'Okay, run. Let's go.''
From Justine's perspective, the water jump was even trickier.
'When we finished the race I was like 'Man, I wish I could have seen what that looked like.' Because you just don't see anything – I'm backwards and upside down!' she laughs.
'I was kind of like peeking my head around him a little bit, trying to just watch because I knew the ground was going to change, knowing we're going into the water,' she adds. ''Close your eyes, hold your breath, we're going under.''
The Roeslers finished with a course-record time of 1:01.17. They knew it was good but, given they were the very first couple to run, they would have to wait to see if it was good enough.
'When the final person ran, the announcer kind of comes up to you with a microphone, and maybe a couple cameras show up in your face,' says Caleb. 'All of a sudden someone sticks a microphone in your face, and you're like, 'I guess we won!''
Caleb and Justine had finished in first place, more than three seconds ahead of reigning three-time world champions Vytautas Kirkliauskas and Neringa Kirkliauskiene.
For the couple, victory justified all that it had taken for them to finally get to Finland.
'We took a lot of time and money to come out there, so it felt good to actually have won!' laughs Justine.
But they also took satisfaction in having been able to do what so many former North American champions could not quite manage. Up until this year, only runners from Finland, Estonia, Russia and Lithuania had taken the world title. But this time, of the 18 nations that were represented, it was the United States that was added to that list.
'We finally got an American to win,' says Caleb. 'So it's just kind of cool to share in the small history of the sport.'
It may not be the Olympics, but who knows? Maybe the next dog walker at the Roeslers' local park won't be quite so confused the next time they see Caleb carrying Justine on his shoulders.