Each year, the sports platform Strava publishes its summary report and reveals the figures for sports practice around the world. For France, it is walking that is experiencing the greatest development.
Strava, the sports social network, is close to 100 million users (95 million at the end of 2021) and continues to see its community grow, with 2 million new subscribers to the platform each month on average. To do what? Share their sport there and follow other practitioners, known or anonymous athletes, who share the same passion. As a result, statistics on his performance and the total count of his hours spent pedaling, running, doing yoga or even walking.
With all this data – no less than 1.8 billion activities recorded over the last 12 months and 33 billion kilometers traveled in 2021 -, Strava draws up its “Year in Sport” report every year, which shows the evolution of sports practices all over the world but also only in France. While running and cycling remain the two predominant activities, walking has boomed this year.
The rise of walking
“Walking has become a popular activity around the world and at all ages, explains Strava. In a context of continuing restrictions linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, the desire to take an active break during the day has never been so strong. ” If, in 2019, only 3% of French Strava users recorded a ‘walking’ activity, they were 5% in 2020 and double, 10%, in 2021. In France, the cumulative weekly duration of these activities is 3.2 hours. Far from being negligible then.
Especially since this activity is often combined with other sports, such as cycling or running. 20% practice both, 41% cycle and 46% run in addition to walking. Note that women who run and cycle record 2.4 times more steps than men. Far from being a harmless sporting activity, walking allows you to adopt a certain discipline on a daily basis. Thus, Strava points out that cyclists and runners who walk are 16.1% more likely than others to be still active after six months.
Running and cycling remain the two kings sports on Strava
3.8 billion kilometers were covered, sneakers on, in 2021 all over the world, including 296.4 million kilometers for French athletes. By bike, no less than 16 billion kilometers have been swallowed by Strava users, including 993.9 million kilometers in France.
In France, the average running distance is 9.1 km for men and 7.3 km for women for sessions that last on average around 50 minutes. By bike, the average distance is 32.4 km for men and of 21 km for women for outings of 1h10 to 1h30 on average.
It should also be noted that the past year was an opportunity for athletes to improve their performance after a blank year in 2020 in terms of official events. Strava points out that “among the runners who joined us in 2020, they were 1.8 times more likely to set new personal bests (5 km, half marathon, etc.) this year than last year. ” Finding a bib and a training target certainly provided sufficient motivation to improve the lap times.
Finally, a last interesting trend concerns the mountains in winter. Strava points out that due to many ski resorts partially or completely closed in 2021, “Downhill skiing and snowboarding are down 37% compared to the last season (Oct 2019 – Sep 2020), unlike ski touring and cross country skiing, which have exploded. “ Cross-country skiing and ski touring have thus increased by a factor of 2.5 compared to the winter season 2019-2020. Even without ski lifts, the mountain remains a formidable playground … and sport.
Florence Santrot is the editor of aufeminin. Geek and athletic, she has a particular appetite for tech and fitness / outdoor subjects. When she is not behind her screen, she runs …