Carry my wife, please!

It's not about sexism, says John Lund, America's wife-carrying champion. It's about sportsmanship.

Sure, the sport of wife carrying traces its roots to Rosvo-Ronkainen, a bandit from Finland, who in the late 1800s challenged men to steal wives from neighboring villages. But nowadays, wife carrying is about athleticism, Lund says. And no wives are carried without permission.

''I think because both partners are willing, it's fun," says Lund, 28, of Cambridge. ''As long as it's consensual carrying, it's OK."

Lund represented the United States earlier this month at the annual international Wife Carrying Competition in Sonkajärvi, Finland, where he placed seventh.

Contestants carry their ''wives" -- who do not have to be wives -- through a 253.5-meter course (about 832 feet) that includes two hurdles and a water obstacle.

The fastest couple wins the title and the ''wife's" weight in beer.

This year, first place went to an Estonian pair who ran the race in under a minute; Lund and his partner finished in one minute, 13 seconds.

Lund, a mover who works for Gentle Giant in Somerville and Beverly, discovered the sport when he was a Northeastern University student studying abroad in the Czech Republic.

Some Finnish friends on his trip told Lund that at 6 foot 5 inches and 215 pounds, with a background in rowing and running, he might make the perfect wife carrier.

When Lund returned to the United States, he began researching the sport online and was pleased to find that the North American Wife Carrying Championship is held each year at New England's own Sunday River, a ski resort in Bethel, Maine.

In 2001, Lund and his then-girlfriend, Anneliese Thomas, competed in their first wife-carrying competition at Sunday River and placed fourth.

The next year, they came in second.

Lund had to skip the 2003 competition because he was studying languages with the Army in California, but came back in time for the October 2004 race.

He and a new partner, Emily Bruno, took second place in the field of 19 couples, only missing out on a victory because Lund accidentally ran off the course.

Had they taken the championship, Lund and Bruno would have won airfare to Finland for the international competition.

Despite his second-place ranking in the 2004 event, Lund still has claimed to be the American champion because the first-place winners were Canadian.

''The point is, we were the fastest Americans," Lund says.

Lund says his strong finish in October gave him enough confidence to raise money to enter the international competition on his own.

He raised money to cover the cost of flying himself and his newest partner, co-worker Julie Berson of Arlington, to Finland for the race held July 2. According to Lund, the key to good wife-carrying is not just his own athleticism; he also credits having had excellent ''wives."

Since first competing in 2001, Lund has had two nonromantic partners who actually haven't known him very well. Lund's second partner, Bruno, who competed with him in October in his most successful race, only knew him for a few weeks before the Maine race.

Bruno was Lund's boss when he had a job as a political canvasser for the Democratic National Committee in the fall of 2004.

Lund wanted to enter the race, but had no partner. He noticed that Bruno was a small-framed woman, and approached her about the competition, simply asking if she might know of any women who weighed about 100 pounds. She had already heard rumors about Lund and his hobby.

''I knew what he was getting at, so I said absolutely not," says Bruno, 23, who now works for MassEquality in Boston, a coalition defending equal marriage rights for same-sex couples, and who weighed in at 105 during training.

But Bruno was ultimately persuaded, mainly because she was curious to see what kind of people would enter an event like wife carrying.

One race, she said, was enough. Berson, 53, was Lund's third partner in four years. She is a sales support representative at Gentle Giant and part-time artist.

''It was an arranged marriage," says Berson. ''It was arranged through our company, but we're getting along so far."

Lund carries her in a kind of bandit-style position, with her body tossed over one of his shoulders.

The two met several times at the Tufts University track to practice before going to Finland this month.

They also retained help from Patrick Crowley, an Arlington contra dance instructor who is teaching the twosome about movement and weight distribution.

JoAnn Lund, John Lund's mother, said that even though her son has been serious about winning the competition, she does not expect him to return to Finland next year to try again.

''It's pretty expensive and to do a fundraiser every year is pretty tough," she said.

But Courtney Scott-Howard, marketing director for Gentle Giant, said she wouldn't be surprised if the pair makes the trip in 2006.

''I would certainly anticipate that John would do it again," she said. ''And Julie has a very adventurous spirit."

Meredith Goldstein can be reached at mgoldstein@globe.com.