(The sporting field of Molyvos, Photo Sto Nisi)

Lesvos is no island for lazy people who only come for a beach holiday – except of course for in the months July and August, when there is nothing else to do than turning around on a sunbed in the sun on the pool or seawater’s edge. It’s only when the sun has not turned Lesvos into a burning inferno that Lesvos is a perfect island for sportsmen. 

The only sport you can do in the hot summer months without health risk is sailing. Therefore we have the Aegean Regatta that at the end of August will circumnavigate the islands Agios Efstratios, Lemnos and Lesvos, making the sea a venue for one big party with merry white sails. 

However, sailing is not that popular on the island, just like horse riding or climbing rocks that are only practiced by a small number of people. But for the last few years more and more people have started biking. If, for example, you’d like to see a big part of the island in one day, you can participate at the Lesvos Brevet, a cycle race of more than 200 km. But for that you have to be trained: it is an endurance race.

Mountain biking is even more popular. Maybe because Lesvos has a lot of exciting rides on offer, swinging over rough paths through woods and along mountain slopes, even sometimes zigzagging over small old stone roads leading through old sleepy villages. Nowadays it looks like every little town or village organizes not only the yearly festivities around their patron saint, but also an endurance race for bikers (or sometimes runners). Each weekend you can find another challenge, first in this village, than in another one. And so this way, Lesvos has become a bikers paradise*

There are many sporting people coming from Lesvos. Most of them are football players. Athletes are no more than a hand full. Konstantinos Kenteris is the most famous. He surprised the world during the 2000 Olympic Games  with a gold medal for 200 meter running; but he blew his reputation with a doping scandal at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. The rower Dimitra Kontou did a better job by becoming European and World champion and won bronze in the last Olympic Games of 2024. The triathlete Irini Mouchou and sprinter Dimitrios Regas are also well known in the international world of sport.

Cross country running through wild nature is another sport growing popular. The municipality of West-Lesvos changed he sporting field of Molyvos into a semi Olympic field, maybe hoping to catch all those running people on this state of the art athletic track.

The medieval village seems to be besieged by this kind of misshapen project, because – the rumour goes – when choosing between a terra cotta or blue color, they chose the latest color and that hurts the eyes. This little sports centre now intrudes into the landscape surrounding Molyvos, as much as the paid parking field that was opened last year at the entrance of the village. 

I do not know how much money the Municipality of West-Lesvos and the Region of the North-Aegean Islands paid for this (nor how much disappeared in some pockets). But it looked like they were rebuilding the Acropolis, so many people were for several years hanging around there daily, smoking, doing nothing or just supervising some workers. The mayor of West-Lesvos said that he now is ready for the Aegean Games in 2026. No idea what they are. There are the Mediterranean Games, small Olympic Games for the countries around the Mediterranean Sea. Therefore in 2026 thousands of athletes will go to Italy, not to Lesvos. 

The question rises who benefits such a super expensive sporting field. It is clearly not for tourists, the athletic clubs of Lesvos are few in number and most runners prefer to run through the woods. For the Aegean Games, if they do exist? I wonder where Lesvos will house and feed thousands of sporting people and their public in the summer, along with the already overflowing masses of tourists.

It might be an idea for the cyclists that no longer like the rough paths in nature and want to give track racing a chance. Anyhow, when the next Mediterranean Games will be organized in 2030, the sporting field for sure will be ready for a another restoration. 

*For more information about bike rental, bike tours and a bike races: Lesvos Ride Bike Shop, Perama,