Sport in France
Sport plays an important role in French society and the country has a strong sporting history. The most-watched sports in France are football and rugby union.
Contents |
[edit] Football
Football is the most popular sport in France with 2,225,595 licensed players in 2009.[1] Ligue 1 is the French professional league for association football clubs. It is the country's primary football competition and serves as the top division of the French football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of [[promotion and rel 2. The most successful club in the French first division history is AS Saint-Étienne with 10 championships (last one in 1981), followed by the 2010 champion, Olympique de Marseille with 9 titles and FC Nantes with 8 titles.
The Coupe de France is the premier knock-out cup competition in French football. The Coupe de la Ligue is the second major cup competition in France. The Trophée des champions is played each July as a one-off match between the Coupe de France winners and the Ligue 1 champions.
Only one French club, Olympique de Marseille, has won the UEFA Champions League in [[19 93 UEFA Champions League
[edit] Motorsport
France holds an annual Ice racing Championship at the end of each year, called the Andros Trophy.
[edit] Handball
There are 392,761 licensed handball players in France as of 2009.[2] The French National team is currently World Champion and European Champion. They also won the 1995 and 2001 World Men's Handball Championship, the 2006 European Men's Handball Championship and the 2008 Olympic Games Tournament.
The women won the 2003 World Women's Handball Championship.
[edit] Basketball
As of the 2010–11 season, 18 French citizens have played in the NBA in the USA and Canada. Twelve are currently playing, most notably San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker, with three NBA titles to his credit; Charlotte Bobcats forward Boris Diaw; and Chicago Bulls forward Joakim Noah, also notable for his college career at the University of Florida in which he starred on a team that won two NCAA titles with the same starting lineup.
The sport has overtaken rugby union in terms of licenced players, implying that basketball might have surpassed its popularity in France.
[edit] Rugby union
Rugby union (rugby à 15 or jeu à 15) was first introduced in the early 1870s by British residents. While football is much more popular nationally, rugby union is predominant around Toulouse, the French Basque country and Catalonia. Elite French clubs participate in the domestic club competition - the Top 14. Clubs also compete in the European knock-out competition, the Heineken Cup. It is the ninth largest French team sport in the terms of licensed players with 262,000 licensed players (2007).
The national side competes annually in the Six Nations Championship. France has been to every Rugby World Cup since its inception in 1987, and has been a runner-up on three occasions. France hosted the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
[edit] Rugby league
[edit] Tennis
Tennis is the twelfth most popular French sport in terms of the number of licensed players with 1,054,513 licensed tennis players in France (2005). France holds the tennis Grand Slam tournament Roland Garros. France's current stars include Richard Gasquet, Gaël Monfils, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Marion Bartoli, and Aravane Rezaï. Other stars from the past include Yannick Noah (father of Joakim Noah), Amélie Mauresmo, and Mary Pierce.
[edit] Cycling
France holds the annual cycling race Tour de France, which takes place each July and lasts for three weeks which has been won by 21 different French cyclists in its 96 year history.
[edit] Sailing
Professional sailing in France is centered on singlehanded/shorthanded ocean racing with the pinnacle of this branch of the sport being the Vendee Globe singlehanded around the world race which starts every 4 years from the French Atlantic.
[edit] Pétanque
Pétanque is mostly played in the South of France. Pétanque is not considered as a sport by many northern Frenchmen though the international federation is recognized by the IOC. [1] [2]. Professional players play the very competitive form of Pétanque which is called Pétanque Sport, under precise rules. The competitive form is played by about 480,000 persons licensed with the Federation Française de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FFPJP). The FFPJP is the 4th largest sports federation in France.
[edit] Parkour
Developed in France, parkour ("art du déplacement") is a physical activity that is difficult to categorize. It is an art that resembles self-defense and martial arts. According to the founder David Belle, the spirit of parkour is guided in part by the notions of "escape" and "reach," that is, the idea of using quick thinking with dexterity to get out of difficult situations.
An important characteristic of parkour is efficiency. The basic meaning of this is that a traceur must not merely move as fast as he can, Bur's unofficial motto is être et durer (to be and to last), efficiency also involves avoiding injuries, short and long-term.
[edit] Table football
Table football (babyfoot) is a very popular pastime in bars and in homes in France, and the French are the predominant winners of worldwide table football competitions.
[edit] Orienteering
Orienteering is a reasonably popular sport in France; it is regulated by the Fédération Française de Course d'Orientation (FFCO) .[3]
[edit] Ice hockey
Ice hockey is a fairly popular sport in France, especially in the Rhône-Alpes region and in the cities of Rouen, Amiens and Tours. The governing body is the FFHG which administeres the national championship, Ligue Magnus (founded in 1907). The national team is currently ranked in the top 20 in the IIHF World Ranking.
[edit] Cricket
Cricket is a developing sport is France. Some reports point that cricket was invented in France. However, the sport is relatively unknown due to inadequate media coverage. In fact, the 1900 Olympic games, the only one where cricket was played, featured bitter rivals England and France taking on each other. A rematch of the two teams is said to take place just before the 2012 Olympics.
[edit] References
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2010) |
[edit] External links
|
||||||||||||||
