[아시아경제 호남취재본부 신동호 기자] It was found that many Gwangju citizens avoid sports activities due to lack of time.
Kim Tae-jin, a member of the Seo-gu district of Gwangju Metropolitan City, said on the 1st that 59.9% of the reasons for not participating in sports activities for the past year were ‘lack of available time for physical activity’ as the number one reason for not participating in sports activities at all in the past year.
Lack of interest in sports activities (37%), poor access to sports facilities (32.9%), health problems (32.5%), absence of accompanying participants (32.3%), lack of athletic skills (24.2%), cost burden (20.4) %) and lack of physical education programs (16.5%).
Rep. Kim argued, “We need to establish various policies, such as visiting gym programs that office workers can easily participate in during lunchtime.” He also argued that “a social atmosphere such as ensuring proper lunch time and reducing working hours should be created.”
On the other hand, Gwangju citizens’ regular daily physical activity performance scored 2.98 out of 5, which is the lowest among 17 metropolitan cities.
This is lower than the national average of 3.14 points in 17 cities and provinces. In particular, in the category of not performing at all, 20.5% showed a whopping 11.6% higher than the national average of 8.9%.
However, whether it is a sports facility near a major living area (home, school, work, etc.) was 95.1%, 4.7% higher than the national average of 90.4%, ranking 4th among 17 metropolitan cities, showing the opposite result from regular physical activity.
In addition, frequently used sports facilities include private sports facilities (31.2%), other sports facilities (16.5%), public sports facilities (15.4%), private facilities (5.2%), school sports facilities (3.5%), workplace sports facilities (0.9 %) followed.
This contrasted with the national sports facilities usage type, which showed the highest number of public sports facilities (22.1%), followed by private sports facilities (20.6%) and other sports facilities (14.9%).
The most frequently participated events were walking with 36.1% (1st to 3rd place sum), climbing (12.5%), bodybuilding (12.5%), golf (including ground and park) (12.2%), yoga and Pilates (9.2%) %), bicycle (7.1%), gymnastics (6.4%), swimming (5.7%), badminton (5.0%), table tennis (4.5%), and soccer (4.3%).
Rep. Kim said, “We will expand various sports policies for daily life that increase Gwangju citizens’ participation in sports and take the lead so that working people can make a healthier and more vibrant city.”
Reporter Dong-ho Shin from Honam Reporting Headquarters [email protected]
