Beyond Belief Contest of Prawn Peeling

How Many Prawns Can a Prawn Peeler Peel? As the 2016 Olympics are getting closer, Swedes are already getting into competition mode with a prawn peeling championship.

“It started in the nineties as a way of seeing what we could do for the tourists, so we went to Mölndal in Norway where they did this and got the idea,” says Bengt Johansson, organizer of the event and chairman of the Swedish Prawn Academy.

The Swedish Prawn Peeling Championship took place this Wednesday in Strömstad, close to the Norwegian border.

Participants have to peel 22 pawns as fast as they can. A shell left on the plate leads to a five-second penalty. Winners get to share the prize pot of 5, 000 kronor, about $580.

This year’s champion was Inger Andersson, who managed to peel all her prawns in 1 minute 40 seconds. After giving an interview to a local newspaper, she proclaimed it was “fantastic.”

Even though Inger has worked before peeling prawns for living, it is still pretty amazing to see such great result, especially when she is quite far away from the best result of 1 minute 19 seconds.

Even a local Social Democrat took part in the competition.