World championship jigsaw puzzle competition

"Minnesota is a powerhouse in this rapidly growing cold-weather sport [speed jigsaw]. Top-ranked players come from here. The biggest competition in the country is held here. And the sport's national organization is based here...

Puzzling, it seems, thrives in places where people spend a lot of time indoors... It's no coincidence that the biggest jigsaw competition in the country, the long-running St. Paul Winter Carnival Jigsaw Puzzle Contest, draws more than 1,200 competitors to downtown St. Paul in the dead of winter... The USA Jigsaw Puzzle Association put on a national championship held last year in San Diego. And, in 2019, a World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship was started in Spain."

More information at the StarTribune.  The video I've embedded above is full-length coverage (four and a half hours) of the final rounds of the world championship; the first part covers the individual competition, which involved solving this 500 piece Ravensburger puzzle -

- shown in a cropped screencap from the video. I have tried to find a copy of this puzzle to purchase, but have had no success looking on eBay and via Google.  I did, however, find and purchase this 1000-piece puzzle which was used for the pairs competition -

- and have set it aside for a wintry day.  

The video at the top of this post is way too long for most people.  I spent probably 45 miutes speed-browsing through it.  If you would like to see some very happy puzzlers, skip to the 39:00 mark to see the winning competitor (then continue for a few minutes to see others), then skip again to the 4:10:00 mark for the finish of the pairs competition.

Here are links for the USA Jigsaw Puzzle Association and to "Wicker Kittens" - a lighthearted look at Minnesota jigsaw enthusiasts (it begins with a person who mounts completed puzzles on the walls and ceiling of his home, and includes a delightful moment (05:10) of two Minnesota girls simultaneously saying "Oh, Yah.")

Addendum:  Washington Post 2024 article on speed puzzling.