Wife carrying and lake leaping among top alternative sports, survey finds

Finland’s wife-carrying championship, a Dutch lake-leaping contest and a French wine marathon have been named as the most interesting “alternative” sports.

As people are following traditional events in the Paris Olympics, airline easyJet drew up a list of less familiar contests.

Mud Olympics in Germany, Hobby Horse championships in Finland and Scottish haggis throwing contests also featured as alternative European sports tournaments.

The list was also compiled by votes from 2,000 sports fans surveyed by easyJet, which has increased its seats by around 20% across routes to European destinations hosting sporting events this summer.

Sophie Dekkers, chief commercial officer at easyJet, said: “It’s been fantastic to be able to support fans who are travelling across Europe this year to watch the incredible competitions being hosted, but there’s a huge opportunity beyond the main events to explore Europe through sport, and we hope our list of alternative experiences highlights the fantastic choice out there.”