Almost three months after the Paris Olympic Games, we know which disciplines recorded the largest increase in members in France. And there are surprises.
The French, as we know, loved the Olympic and Paralympic Games organized in their country last summer. According to analyzes by France Télévisions, the host broadcaster, the able-bodied competition reached scores never before approached, since nearly 60 million inhabitants (out of a country of 68 million) followed the event. Sports clubs expected that this fervor would generate vocations, and they were not wrong: the various sports federations noted a sharp increase in the demand for licenses at the start of the school year.
Among the sports favored by the French, we obviously find swimming, driven by the exploits of Léon Marchand. The new national idol became the most successful athlete at the Paris Olympics this summer with four individual titles and a bronze medal in the relay (4×100 meter medley).
Marchand did very well.Keystone
But the increase in licensees is not proportional to the results of French athletes since swimming clubs have only welcomed 9% additional members.
It is less, for example, than shooting (+10%), athletics (+11%), volleyball (+13%) or even archery (+16%).
Table tennis was also widely followed during the competition thanks to the results and the personality of the Lebrun brothers. However, it only shows “an” increase of 20%, less than badminton (23%). No Tricolore obtained a medal in the discipline during the Olympics, but we must undoubtedly see the effects of the Paralympic tournament here.
This is what Yohan Penel, president of the French Badminton Federation, thinks.
“There is undoubtedly a Paralympic Games effect. We were lucky enough to obtain three great medals, with significant media exposure. We clearly feel that there is a Charles Noakes effect (editor’s note: Paralympic champion) on French badminton.”
Source: France Info
Thanks in particular to Charles Noakes, more than 200,000 French people have registered with badminton clubs since the start of the school year. Getty Images Europe
Fencing recorded a slightly greater increase (+25%). but the sport that has made the most spectacular leap is…triathlon, with 32% of members and more than 10,000 additional new members! However, it is the discipline which has generated the most controversy, particularly due to the quality of the water of the Seine or the strong current of the river.
We can therefore wonder if this bad buzz has not given visibility to the triathlon, allowing it to gain popularity despite everything, because as the former French journalist Léon Zitrone said: “Let people speak well of me or bad, it doesn't matter. The main thing is that people talk about me!”
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