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Timo Kaukonen is the king of sauna bathers.
He has won the World Championship 5 times.
He is regarded so superior compared to the other contestants that the betting company gives him completely different odds.
6 minutes have passed. 6 minutes, unbelievable.
Sauna World Championship - may the best man win
The Sauna World Championship finale had a tragic ending with the Russian man dying and the Finnish Timo Kaukonen getting severely injured.
Of course I've been thinking that, because of those couple minutes couple years turned out this way.
It all comes to me having enjoyed bathing so much as a child.
Dad was a big sauna man. He bathed with me a lot.
As teen I noticed that I can take more heat than an average person.
Before that I had only bathed with friends who already said that what I was doing is insane.
However it was only when I went to public saunas, that I started to notice.
I thought why the hell these people sit in cold.
That made me realize that dad had taught me to withstand heat.
In the beginning it was not that serious. Now it is.
During years there has formed a group of people who are able to take the heat.
It is approximately 20-30 people that have succeeded in Heinola.
They are all determined to win.
You can imagine with a determined group of 30 people, that it ends up with us sitting there like that.
It is quite horrible. Especially this new sauna.
It starts right away. It is already heated when you get in.
With that first pour of shower, it creates a heat that hits like a whirl.
The bathing starts right there and not after 5 minutes.
It burns. It burns your skin. You try to protect yourself with your hands.
And that's why we sit curled up like this to protect our bodies.
And that's also why the skin transplants could be taken from here, where it was not as burned.
The burning sensation comes first and then the breathing is so damn difficult.
No, never. It came only recently that people started to use lotions.
Nobody has done it before. At least I haven't conciously been fooling with any lotions.
When I do something, I do it seriously.
Probably a bit too ethusiastically. If I have promised something, I will do it.
Like this year we participated with couple of friends on ice skating marathone in Kuopio.
However the winter was very cold and it turned out to be 25 degrees below zero that day.
Many starts were cancelled and many ice skaters gave up as body parts got frozen.
I didn't give up, because I thought my friend was ahead of me.
I was wondering when he was going to catch me with a round. So I didn't give up.
I skated 100 kilometers. Back then my toe got frozen and stuck on my shoe.
Many people said 'couldn't you have given up for once', but that's just not me.
In the competition we ask the contestants whether everything is ok. 0:06:48.000,0:06:52.000 Contestants are supposed to answer with a thumb up, that everything's ok.
This is how they were monitored until the end of the competition. By the end quite frequently even.
The question is: why did they give thumbs up? Did they even realize it at that point anymore?
You should know the Finnish mentality. With a Russian sitting next to you, you won't give up easily.
The contestants were able to psyche themselves up, so that they didn't feel the pain.
Timo said to me that the pain of the skin is not a restricting factor.
I've always known that I have a high pain tolerance.
That the pain threshold is high and I have a lot of perseverance.
I have won it many years and I've always wondered how long could I sit there after the game is over.
I had never imagined that I could stay there that long after most of the contestants were out.
As we stayed with the Russian after the 4 minutes, we were probably partly unconcious already.
Couldn't comprehend any longer.
I have heard that I was talking to someone at the end. The Russian guy, the organizers? I don't know.
From that you can tell, that I haven't been quite normal anymore.
Both Timo Kaukonen and Vladimir Ladyzhenski were discarded.
World Championship title went for the man who was 3rd last in sauna.
There are several explanations for what made men sit for tragic 7 minutes in the sauna.
The final answer will perhaps never be revealed, but the crime investigation might provide some answers.
Timo Kaukonen's recovery has been exceptional.
Doctors estimate that the recovery will take still couple more years.
I still want to go to sauna. Of course I miss bathing.
Even the visiting friend didn't bring me flowers, but a birch whisk.
Makes me want to go to sauna even more.
Sauna has always been part of Finnish traditions.
At least in my family we have always bathed in sauna.
We bathed every day. Boys like it and wife likes it.
What happened in Heinola, could have happened anywhere. In any competition.
I don't blame Heinola or the organizers. I just took it a bit too far myself.