EXCLUDED EUROPE 1 - The top 10 most practiced sports in France in 2022

Dimitri Vernet, edited by Romain Rouillard 06:20, February 13, 2023

The Alpine Ski Worlds in France have opened a period of major sporting events in France, with the Rugby World Cup in 2023 and the Paris Olympics 2024. A period intended to promote sport in France.

Europe 1 offers you an inventory of sports practice in France, by revealing to you, exclusively, the ranking of the sports which attracted the most licensees in 2022. According to the organization of the federations, this census sometimes corresponds to the year 2022, sometimes in the 2021-2022 season. 

French sport resisted Covid-19

In the context of a pandemic, the various sports federations saw their number of licensees drop in 2021, raising fears of the worst.

But the 2022 results are positive and the figures have almost returned to pre-Covid standards.

A big sigh of relief for all the structures. 

At the microphone of Europe 1, Brigitte Henriques, president of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee, evokes "great satisfaction".

And recalls that “many things have been put in place to allow the various federations to get out of this period of Covid. The objective now is to perpetuate this dynamic.

Football, the number one sport 

Unsurprisingly, football has once again ruled the roost in 2022. With 2,130,054 members, the French Football Federation largely dominates the ranking, followed, like last year, by tennis and horse riding.

Two federations which record record figures, an increase compared to 2020. On the tennis side, there are 1,019,597 licensees (+5% compared to 2020) and 692,000 for horse riding, which represents an increase of 14%. 

>>

- Football, rugby, handball, French sport surrounded by business and controversy

Indoor sports are also experiencing excellent momentum.

Logically, more affected than the others during the Covid-19 crisis, the Basketball, Judo and Handball Federations have managed to improve their disappointing figures for 2021. On the side of the orange ball, there is a 32% increase in the number of licensees (678,482), against 34% for handball (456,086) and 25% for judo (462,838).

The oval ball is not popular

Lower in this ranking, come golf, swimming, paddle sports and finally rugby in tenth position, which has only 303,048 licensees in 2022, i.e. half as many as horse riding.

A very surprising place, given the popularity of the oval ball in France.

"Rugby pays for the success of other team sports", analyzes Brigitte Henriques.

Taking a step back, the president of the CNOSF still sees the glass half full.

"The number of licensees is progressing, especially in women's rugby. It's going in the right direction".

Athletics is also experiencing difficulties since the discipline only attracts 302,492 practitioners in 2022. The Federation must carry out real substantive work to attract the 12 million runners in France.

>>

- "You can be an athlete and a disabled person": in Paris, a whole day dedicated to disabled sport

Finally, the first non-Olympic sports federation is that of petanque and Provençal games which brought together 263,275 members last year.

School sports

All these Federations share the same challenge: to convince and attract young people who, for the most part, discover the different disciplines at school.

The school sports federations, the sports union for primary education, the national union for school sports and the general sports union for free education try to direct children towards the practice of sport.

They recorded 2,923,815 licensees in 2022, up from 2020. 

A record 2022-2023 season?

At the end of this survey, we also found that the first figures for the 2022/2023 season were up sharply.

The French Rugby Federation, for example, already has 306,281 licensees, more than last season's total.

For Brigitte Henriques, this increase is the result of the "Pass'Sport system, an aid which has benefited 1 million children" as well as "the work of the various federations which have succeeded in attracting new licensees". 

According to her, the Olympics "will leave a legacy for the federations" which should boost the numbers for at least the next two years.