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Amateur sport called to reinvent itself

Obviously something happened. During the two months of confinement, many French people got into sport, transforming their home into a gym, walking around their neighborhood while jogging. Boom in sales of rowers and exercise bikes, explosion of registrations in digital running applications, and everyone in the saddle, barely the door to the deconfinement open.

→ TRIBUNE. Thomas Guillochon: “Amateur sport and the challenge of the coronavirus”

Is this craze only temporary, a simple occupation of the time suddenly released by health restrictions? Or the general awareness that this body must perhaps be maintained and finally give in to the injunctions of health sport? Does all this great upheaval caused by the Covid-19 encourage us to think differently about practices? Does amateur sport demand a “reinvention”, this new Grail in search of which all sectors are supposed to embark?

New practices

Certainty: during confinement, everyone made their program. A sports practice outside the frame, free, always embracing this autonomy claimed by regular practitioners as well as by Sunday sportsmen. “This phenomenon of putting leisure into sport has developed thanks to the free time revolution. It’s not new, but probably the coronavirus is accelerating it ”, observes the sociologist Olivier Bessy, head of the master’s degree in leisure, tourism and territorial development at the University of Pau and Pays de l’Adour. “People are looking for a new way of life. It remains a pleasure to perform, but it is no longer the same, each being situated first in relation to oneself. These practices question the traditional sports movement of federations and clubs which try to adapt, not without difficulty. »

It is not easy, it is true, for the federal universe to get out of a still largely dominant competitive logic. “What do you judge the work of a president of a sports federation? The titles won by its top athletes and the number of its licensed amateurs », recalls the sociologist Arnaud Saurois, lecturer at the University of Poitiers and coordinator of the French Sports Observatory. “It hardly pushes leaders to think about practices differently than by wondering whether they bring back licensees or not. »

This researcher proposes to redefine the unit of measurement that is the license. “These are the clubs that should buy the licenses from the federations, he advocates, and then distribute them in two forms: a free license to know and federate the practitioner; then a premium license, this time for a fee depending on the services offered. What would better pose what we do and why. » Arnaud Saurois evaluated it through his surveys or brainstorming sessions carried out during confinement: many club volunteers would like to promote new practices but do not know how or lack tools.

Rethinking the society of tomorrow

These tools, Yohan Penel, 36, head of the sustainable development and citizenship commission of the French Badminton Federation (FFBAD), would like to make them emerge. Hence its “Citizen call” to candidates in the federal elections to be held by April 2021, for a sport “Committed and emancipatory, at the service of society”.

Amateur sport called to reinvent itself

Himself a candidate for the presidency of the FFBAD, he hopes to put the question of the societal impact of sport back at the center of the debates. “We make champions, we offer leisure, but we no longer make citizens, he judges. We should rediscover this educational ambition, because our clubs remain major places of social bond. It is not a question of being nostalgic for “it was better before”, but of innovating by making the central and transversal role of sport prevail. »

→ PORTRAIT. Emma Oudiou, champion of the 3000 meters steeplechase and “French teacher”

Yohan Penel is not isolated. The European Sport & Citizenship think tank also calls for strengthening the place of sport in society. And the Colibris du sport collective pleads for the emergence of a “Model truly adapted to the new needs of a sustainable society”.

→ MAINTENANCE. Isabelle Autissier: “Like at sea, drawing unexpected resources from us”

Christophe Lepetit, head of economic studies at the Center for Sports Law and Economics (Cdes) in Limoges and one of the inspirers of the Hummingbirds, is convinced that sports will become “An obligation, even if it is each at their own pace, from the ultra-trail to learning to fall in Ehpad for the elderly”. On their platform (1), the Hummingbirds wish to share their reflection but also “The good experiences already existing, and to be duplicated, says the economist. Sport can be an essential axis to move towards a softer, more united society. »

A glaring example in metropolitan areas: sport as a driver for redesigning town planning. “To practice, you can look for nature, the mountain or the beach, explains Olivier Bessy. But it was impossible during confinement. The city is increasingly establishing itself as a playground, and no doubt it will be even more tomorrow this theater of practices that must be thought of accordingly, as part of a naturalization process to which aspire elsewhere city dwellers. »

Environmental challenge

Sport can also be found at the heart of new mobility. “We may be witnessing a changeover today. By moving on foot or by bike, you do not only good for your body but also for the planet ”, suggests François Bellanger, director of Transit-City, a think tank specializing in foresight and innovation on cities and lifestyles. “I plead for the return of certain means of transport: going to work by kayak via the Seine. It will have to be organized. Biking in the city should no longer be a fight, but an evidence. We should think of corridors for runners. Or places of call for these new forms of mobility, as are petrol stations for cars. We especially lack showers everywhere for runners, cyclists… ”

→ READ. Deconfinement: the world after struggling to register in sports calendars

Sweet utopia or enviable future? “It remains difficult to think about these subjects, admits François Bellanger, all the more that we should perhaps already be on the spot: what sports practices, tomorrow, with global warming? For now, on this subject, the sports movement has absolutely nothing to say, no more for the amateur world than for the professional world. »

This professional world, it seems to have started again, show and business as usual, crossing your fingers so that the virus does not seize the machine again. Disappointing ? “It is not a specific feature of the sports world, shade Arnaud Saurois. Everyone is having trouble thinking about the environmental crisis. Faced with all these challenges, the essential parameter for imagining the sport of tomorrow will be solidarity. The high level as the mass sport, as well as the companies of the sector, the associations, all the actors must come together to reflect and revise the system. Without fear of daring to disrupt. For some, when competition stopped during the pandemic, everything stopped. Others have taken this time to reflect. This is rather good news. “

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Two thirds of French people do sport

Two-thirds (66%) of French people aged 15 and over, or 36 million people, practice sport at least once a year. This figure is included in the national barometer of sports practices, set up by the Ministry of Sports and the National Institute for Youth and Popular Education (Injep). The barometer was produced in collaboration with the Research Center for the Study and Observation of Living Conditions (Crédoc) and published for the first time in January 2019.

Walking and running dominate (40% of French people), ahead of fitness and gymnastics activities, such as fitness, bodybuilding or yoga (22%), aquatic activities (20%) and cycle or motorized sports (18% ).

The preferred setting is the outdoors for 47% of practitioners, including 36% in the wild and 11% in the city, the gym for 29% and the house for 18%.

61% of French people opt for independent practice, 24% practice in a club or association and 8% in a commercial structure.

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