In a week, on Sunday November 10, the 10th edition of the Vendée Globe, created in 1989, will start in Les Sables-d'Olonne. But over the years, the interest of the French in this round-the-world race seems to be growing. crumbling as shown by a survey carried out by Odoxa for Winamax and RTL.
During the 2016 and 2020 editions, 47 and 48% of them declared that they planned to follow the race. A few days before the start of the 2024 edition, they are only 35%, or 12 and 13 points less than in 2016 and 2020. In detail, 5% of French people plan to follow the race on a daily basis, 15% at least once a week and 15% less often.
The only former winner present for this edition, Yannick Bestaven is the one who left the least impression on the French of the entire list (3%). He is well ahead of Michel Desjoyeaux (24%), the only double winner, Armel Le Cléac'h (19%), Titouan Lamazou (16%) and François Gabart (13%).
The majority of French people (58%) nevertheless believe that the Vendée Globe is the most difficult sailing race in the world. To participate, you must therefore bring together a certain number of qualities that the French widely recognize, and still as much compared to 2020, in these sailors: adventurers (89%), courageous (89%) without being crazy (49% ). On a human level, the French appreciate the sympathy of Vendée Globe sailors (83%) and 62% praise their modesty.
For this edition, the ranking of the favorites of the French who intend to follow the race is very tight: Jérémie Beyou (17%) is very slightly ahead of Sam Davies (16%), Charlie Dalin (15%), Yannick Bestaven (13%), Louis Burton (9%), Yoann Richomme (7%), Damien Séguin (6%) or Thomas Ruyant (5%).
But if interest in the real race seems to be diminishing, this is not the case with the virtual Vendée Globe which offers you the opportunity to guide your boat around the world from the comfort of your sofa through depressions and anticyclones. 7% of French people have already participated in this type of game for a sailing race and 7% plan to do so this year. That is to say, almost 3.5 million people are potential virtual sailors.
These games appeal more to young people (15% of those under 35) and could therefore allow the real race to attract this new audience and therefore offer new perspectives for a race which mainly attracts older people and therefore the rating crumbles over editions.
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