Fierljeppen
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Fierljeppen (West Frisian compound of fier—"far" and ljeppen—"leaping") or polsstokverspringen is a traditional sport of the Netherlands, and of West Frisian people in the Dutch province of Fryslân. The sport is also traditionally popular in the province of Utrecht which produced record holder Jaco de Groot and Theo van Kooten.
Description
The sport involves a long pole and a body of water. The pole is typically made of cedar wood or some composite materials. The pole is between Template:Convert long and has a flat round plate at the bottom to prevent it from sinking into the muddy river or canal bottom. Its material has evolved from wood which was heavy but prone to breakage to aluminium and currently to carbon-fiber reinforced polymers.<ref>Furtula, Aleksandar. "'You get to fly, like a plane': Why Dutch athletes pole vault over canals," The Associated Press (AP), Monday 1 September 2025. Retrieved 3 September 2025.</ref>
A jump consists of a sprint to the pole (polsstok), jumping and grabbing it, then climbing to the top of the pole while trying to control its forward and lateral movements over a body of water, and finishing by landing on a sand bed opposite to the starting point.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
History
The Netherlands has many waterways. Fierljeppen originated as a way for Frisian people to get around the waterways easily.<ref name="pbholland">Template:Cite web</ref> Over time it turned into a competition with the first official match in 1771 but the sport was not properly structured until 1957.<ref name="pbholland"/> The sport is believed to have originated with farmers who used poles to leap over small water drainage channels to access different plots of land. In the German region of East Frisia this sport is known as Pultstockspringen. Today the sport is primarily practiced for fun or to entertain tourists, but there still is an official annual National Fierljepping Manifestation (NFM) in the Netherlands, and championships are contested in six leagues and numerous clubs.
Record holders
The current Dutch record holders by category are:<ref name="pbholland2">Dutch official records in fierljeppen Template:Webarchive from pbholland.com</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Seniors: Template:Convert, Jaco de Groot from Woerden, Utrecht (12 August 2017, Zegveld)
- Veterans: Template:Convert, Thewis Hobma from Harlingen, Friesland (21 June 2025, Burgum)
- Ladies: Template:Convert Marrit van der Wal from It Heidenskip, Friesland (31 July 2019, Burgum)
- Juniors (under 20): Template:Convert, Germ Terpstra from Tzum, Friesland (5 July 2025, Jaarsveld)
- Boys (under 16): Template:Convert, Wisse Broekstra from Winsum, Friesland (19 September 2020, Burgum)
- Girls (under 16): Template:Convert, Hanneke Westert from IJlst, Friesland (24 August 2022, Burgum)
- Foreigners (Not native of Netherlands):Template:Convert, Alan Barth from Canada 19 August 2002, Burgum)
There are 532 registered active jumpers in the world; of those, 190 are from the Netherlands.<ref name="pbholland2"/>
Fierljeppen throughout the world
International tourists who have visited Friesland and or the Lek -regions and who have observed this sport have helped to spread its popularity across the globe. Competitions in other locales now take place, albeit at a less competitive level due to smaller numbers of athletes and the lack of suitable locations.
Many Americans were first introduced to the sport, referred to as "ditch-vaulting", on the twelfth season of The Amazing Race. This same task would be performed in the twenty-first and thirty-first seasons as a "Switchback" task.