MOST POPULAR SPORTS IN FRANCE

Football: The French Football Federation counts 2 320 625 members.

The national championship is the “Ligue 1” and the leader of this championship has been the team of “Lyon” for the 7 last years.

Many French footballers are famous, like Thierry Henry, Franck Ribery, or Zinedine Zidane and Michel Platini. Most of them started their careers in France and then, played abroad.

The French football team won the world cup in 1998 and  the European cup in 1984 and 2000.        

 Tennis: The French tennis federation counts 1 094 593 members.

The most emblematic French tournament is “Roland Garros”. It’s one of the four tournaments of the big slam. The matches are played on a hard court.

France has many famous tennis players, like Richard Gasquet, Joe-Wilfried Tsonga, Gilles Simon, and Yannick Noah who won Roland Garros in 1983. Amélie Mauresmo is the best French woman tennis player.

Swimming: it is a popular sport in France, notably thanks to the French’s champions: Laure Manaudou, Alain Bernard, Amaury Leveaux, …

At the moment, there is a debate about the new swimming-suits Jacket and Speedo: records fall in turn with these new swimming-suits…

Rugby: The French rugby federation counts 285 376 members.

The French rugby players who are famous are: Jean Baptiste Elissalde, Lionel Beauxis, Yannick Jauzion, Sébastien Chabal, …

After the world cup that took place in France in 2007, rugby had an important development.

The French team won the Six Nations Tournament 32 times.

It’s a sport that is mainly masculine.

Horse-riding: The French horse-riding federation counts 553 560 members.

It’s not a very famous sport in France for its media diffusion but many children want to do horse-riding.

In many bars, we can bet on horses to win money, for example: the PMU.

This sport consists in taking up and aiming a horse.

Judo: The French judo federation counts 550 382 members.

The most famous French judoka is David Douillet, who was a big champion: he won 2 gold medals at Atlanta Olympic games in 1996 and at Sydney’s in 2000, he was 4 times the world champion.

It’s a martial art whose origins are Japanese.

There are different graduations: white belt, yellow, orange, green, brown, black and finaly the red belt. You win these belts when you win a competition.

Basketball: The French basketball federation counts 457 121 members.

The most famous French players are Tony Parker, Boris Diaw and Joachim Noah. They are playing basketball in the mytic American championship: the NBA.

It’s a collective sport that is played with 5 players in each team.

In 1948, the French team won the gold medal at the London Olympic games.

 Skiing: it’s the symbol of  winter sports!

In France, there are lots of big ski resorts like: Val d’Isère, La Plagne, Les Arcs, Valloire, Tignes, Chamonix, Les Ménuires, Courchevel …

France has got big champions as Carole Montillet who won the gold medal in 2002 at the Salt Lake’s Olympic games; Antoine Deneriaz who won the gold medal of descent in 2006 at the Turin’s Olympic games; and, a young skier, Jean-Baptiste Grange, who won the slalom’s Globe of Crystal in 2009!There are also Franck Piccard, Luc Alphand, Jean-Luc Crétier. And of course, Jean-Claude Killy (double world champion in 1966 and 3 olympic titles in 1968) and Marielle and Christine Goitschel.

Golf:  The French federation counts 383 949 members.

This sport was considered as a snobbish sport for a long time but more and more people begin to play golf! This is not extremely popular in France though.

Golf is played with a club and you must put the ball in a hole.

Thomas Levet, Jean-François Remesy are famous French player as was Arnaud Massy.

Handball: The French handball federation counts 367 047 members

There are lots of famous French players: Nikolas Karabatic, Daniel Narcisse, Luc Abalo, Michael Guigou, Tierry Omeyer and finaly Jackson Richardson.

The French team won the world cup in: 1995, 2001 and 2009!

They won the European championship in 2006 and the Olympic games in 2008.

The French women’s team won the world cup in 2003.

It’s a collective sport and a contact sport wich is played with 7 players in a team.

The present team is called: “Les Experts”.

Petanque: The French pétanque federation counts 362 867 members.

The French players are considered as the best players in the world.

Originally, this sport was a French Provençal game.

It’s a very famous sport in France with the well-known expression: “Tu tires ou tu pointes?!”.

It is a sport and also a hobby played mainly by old men.

Sailing, gymnastics, canoe-kayak, walking, karate, table-tennis, athletics… are also very popular in France.

TRADITIONAL SPORTS

There are many traditional sports in France such as:

- the “pelote basque” : a sport which is played with a ball and a “chistera” a kind of          basket. (South West)

- the traditionnal basque sports.

- the “gouren” a breton sport, it’s a wrestling sport.

- the “palet breton”.

                                                   FRENCH STADIUMS

The national French stadium is “Le stade de France”, the biggest stadium in the country with 80 430 seats. It’s near St Denis and receives people for big events like: the final of a big cup, an athletics tournament, matches of the French football or rugby team, etc…and even concerts sometimes.

There are many famous stadiums in France especially the stadium of the big teams of football, for example: the “Parc des Princes” PSG’s stadium, “Geoffroy-Guichard” St Etienne’s stadium, “Gerland” Lyon’s stadium,…