Football, tennis and rugby. Here is the podium in number of sports licensees registered in 2022 in Occitanie. It’s actually the Top 5 which may surprisesince horse riding and pétanque complete the table, while athletics, gymnastics or even volleyball do not appear in the Top 10.
Horse riding, pétanque and golf, little publicized and yet popular
The riders are like this twice as numerous as swimmers, in clubs. And there are three times more tennis players than basketball players, seven times more than volleyball players.
If we must distinguish between the number of licensees and the number of practitioners in the broader sense, we will also observe that little-publicized sports like shooting (25,000 licensees in Occitanie13th regional discipline) or sailing (16,000 licensees, 16th regional discipline) have more club subscribers than certain sports that one might think are more popular such as volleyball (15,000 licensees) or even cycling which has 21,000 licensees combined those of cycling and cycle tourism.
Rugby and pétanque in force in Occitanie
What must be read between the lines of these figures are also the Occitan specificities. LFootball remains the queen discipline, but it is proportionately less hegemonic in Occitania that it cannot be across the whole country. To a lesser extent, we also practice gymnastics, athletics or basketball less around Toulouse and Montpellier than elsewhere in France.
Conversely, two disciplines are over-represented in Occitania. First rugby obviously with a rate of twelve licenses per thousand inhabitants, more than twice the national average which places Oval as the ninth sport represented only. Rugby union has 76,000 members in the region, we can also add the 6,000 Occitan rugby players.
Then, pétanque with again a fifth regional place while it only ranks 13th nationally. We can also mention the craze around tennis, horse riding, handball and even hiking which are proportionally more successful in the 13 Occitan departments than elsewhere in France.
Horse riding, 4th sporting discipline in Occitania ahead of handball, judo and basketball. © Radio France – Corentin Bemol
Recent craze for swimming and golf
INSEE also sought to make a comparison between before and after Covid by comparing the figures for 2022 to those for 2017. Several disciplines have thus observed a real jump in registrations. This is particularly the case of swimming which has recorded a 27% increase in the number of licensees in Occitania in five years, a discipline that has until now been slightly behind, but which enjoys strong appeal among children and women.
Coming in behind are gymnastics, horse riding and hiking – the sport where girls outnumber boys. Golf, shooting, tennis and rugby have also seen their numbers increase from 12% to 15% in Occitan clubs in five years.
Other federations suffered a significant downsizing after the pandemic, between 15 and 20% losses, such as combat sports (taekwondo, judo), dance or gym, which involve contact or a strict health protocol. Judo and gymnastics can, however, bank on the future since the average age of licensees is less than 10 years old, which makes them the two “youngest” disciplines in the region, unlike hiking. and cycle tourism, whose practitioners registered in clubs are on average 65 years old and over.
The Table tennis has also declined since 2017 in Occitanie, but it should regain color thanks to the media interest of the Lebrun brothers in Hérault, who will undoubtedly be very visible during the Olympic Games.
To listen
Broadcast on 10/17/2023
Rugby World Cup: 8% increase in licensees in clubs in Occitanie
2024-04-16 10:53:16
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