Like most countries in the world, France has a passion for sports. Sports in France play a very significant role in the community as they are very common among the locals. France also has a very rich history in sporting. The most common sports in this country include football, judo, tennis, basketball, rugby, handball, sailing, cycling, ice hockey, and motorsports just to mention a few. Sporting activities are not only limited to the locals as tourists and people visiting the country can also take part in the different sports, recreation, and fitness options available in the country.
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8 Most Popular Sports In France
Football
Football, or soccer as it is called in the United States, is one of the most popular sports in France. France has the distinction of being one of only three nations to have won back-to-back major tournaments, like the FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Football Championships, and FIFA Confederations Cup.
Tennis
France hosts one of the major world tennis tournaments in Paris: Roland Garros. The last French winner was Yannick Noah in 1983, now he is a famous French singer. I don’t know if one day a French will win it again and Facebook pages like “La Fédération de Loose” tease a lot of the French tennis men and women about being bad.
For your information, the son of Yannick Noah plays in the NBA league: Joakim Noah. France has a lot of good tennis players but none of them are in the world’s top 5 either men or women. France won the Davis Cup ten times and won it for the last time in 2017.
Rugby in France
This sport was introduced into the country in the 1870s by people from Britain. The sport flourished in the southern region of France. In 1895, rugby divided itself to form the rugby league and the rugby union, and the rugby clubs in France stayed aligned with the Home Nations clubs. Rugby league is a sport played by two teams each made up of 13 players on a rectangular field. Rugby union, on the other hand, is made of 15 players on each team.
Rugby union is more common in the country especially in the southern region in areas such as Catalonia, Toulouse, and the French Basque country. The clubs take part in the local club competition. The clubs also take part in the European Rugby Challenge Cup, the European knock-out competitions, and the European Rugby Champions Cup.
Cycling
Everyone is familiar with the Tour de France, one of the most important cycling tournaments in the entire world. The three-week-long race is widely followed by audiences from different countries, and participating or winning is one of the biggest achievements a cyclist can dream of. Because there is an incredibly strong cycling culture in the country, it is not surprising to think that this is one of the most important sports in France.
Sailing in France
France is most of the times used as the beginning point for sail races. Sailing is mostly focused on short-handed/single-handed ocean racing. The main pinnacle of this sport is the Vendée Globe single-handed across the globe race which commences every 4 years and it begins at the French Atlantic. There are other sailing races that people can participate in. These include the Solitaire du Figaro, and the Route du Rhum races.
Basketball
France is the country with the highest number of foreign players in the NBA league (The USA and Canada are not foreign countries). Unfortunately, in Europe France does not have at least a team to compete in the EuroLeague.
On the other hand, the National team is a really competitive team, the last big success was winning against the team USA in the World cup of 2019 in the quarter-final.
Judo-jujitsu
France had and has great sportsmen in this sport. David Douillet was one of the best in the heavy category (2 times Olympic champion / 4 times World champion / 1 time Europe champion) but right now the French sportsman Teddy Riner is just impressive with all the sports titles that he won and might win in the future (2 times Olympic champion / 10 times world champion / 5 times Europe champion)
Ice hockey in France
This is a rather common sport in France, particularly in the Rhȏne-Alpes area and in the towns of Amiens, Tours, and Rouen. This sport is governed by Fédération Française de Hockey sur Glace (FFHG) which translates to the French Ice Hockey Federation. This body oversees the Ligue Magnus which is the state’s championship league in the country.
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