Cycling & Running Sees Boost In Participation

New participation figures published by Sport England have showed a strong growth in running and cycling but a decline in other major sports, including football and swimming.?

Overall the figures show that 6,938,000 people now take part in a sporting activity at least three times a week.??

The survey shows that regular participation is now 123,000 closer to the Government’s aim to get one million people playing more sport by 2012/13.
 
Weekly participation in athletics has grown by over 263,000 over the past two years, mainly due to the growing network of informal running groups across the country.

??Over the same period, cycling’s numbers are up by almost 100,000 whilst netball’s participant numbers are up by over 26,000, an increase of a fifth in the size of the sport in two years.?

However, there has been a decreased amount of people participating in the only sports with more than two million weekly participants – swimming and football.??

Sport England’s Chief Executive, Jennie Price, said: ‘It would be fair to describe today’s results as a mixed bag. It’s good to see a wide range of sports – from individual pursuits like running to small team sports like lacrosse – demonstrating that, with the right approach, increasing grassroots participation is a realistic ambition.’

??’What is concerning, however, is that a number of major sports have yet to deliver, despite significant levels of investment. They now urgently need to demonstrate their ability to grow participation in their sport and prove they can make a significant contribution to sport at the grassroots level.’