The year is coming to an end, and it is time to take stock. And after this particularly sporting year, marked by the Paris Olympic Games this summer, the French were questioned about their vision of the last twelve months on a sporting level in the latest sports barometer from Odoxa for Winamax and RTL.
Asked who, according to them, deserves the title of “sportsman of the year”, the 1005 French people questioned were a large part (44%) citing the same name: that of Léon Marchand, quadruple Olympic champion this summer in the basins. The Toulouse man is ahead of another, namely Antoine Dupont (12%), whose already immense popularity has only grown since his Olympic title with the French rugby sevens team. In third position, we find Teddy Riner (12%).
In the rest of the ranking, Kylian Mbappé, second last year, is only in fifth place, behind table tennis player Félix Lebrun, cited by 8% of those questioned. The Real Madrid striker is ahead of Florent Manaudou and para-triathlete Alexis Hanquinquant, gold medalist at the Paralympic Games. On this subject, 61% of French people declared after the competition that they had discovered para-athletes that they will now follow.
A tighter ranking among women
Among women, and despite a bitter-tasting bronze medal at the Olympic Games, Clarisse Agbégnénou was named by 20% of French people as the best sportswoman of the year, as in 2023. Those surveyed preferred to retain her gold medal obtained in the team judo competition at the Olympics and placed him ahead of triathlete Cassandre Beaugrand, gold medalist in Paris (16%) and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, also champion Olympic, by mountain bike.
However, among sports fans, who represent 584 people among all those surveyed, it was “PFP” which was cited the most (20%), ahead of Agbégnénou and Beaugrand, both at 19%.
Football relegated to the background
As the survey shows, the Olympic and Paralympic summer will have particularly marked the French in 2024. 72% of them give the Olympic Games as the most memorable sporting event of the year, ahead of the Paralympic Games (38 %) and the Tour de France, tied with the Six Nations tournament (18%). Among sports fans, the top 2 remains the same, with greater interest in the Six Nations Tournament (26% compared to 19% for the Tour de France).
For its part, the Euro football tournament, which still saw the French team finish in the semi-finals despite laborious performances, is only relegated to sixth place among the most notable sporting events of the year. , with only 12% of French people citing it among their three most important sporting moments.
