For decades, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association has polled Americans on which sports and activities they participate in and how often. The result is the Topline Participation Report, an annual survey that goes into amazing detail on 126 different sports and activities ranging from basketball to birdwatching. By tracking those rates — both those who participate casually and those who participate regularly in a given sport or activity — SFIA has a wealth of data, including which of those sports and activities are on the rise and which are declining. They can also break down those stats by age, gender and demographics, a bevy of information that any sports event organizer or destination should be interested in digesting.
Some of the headlines from this year’s report: Americans are moving more than they ever have, some 250 million people reporting at least some level of activity in something, which is a record. And yet, most are still not meeting the minimum recommended threshold of moderate physical activity. And pickleball? It’s rise to the top over the past few years is no joke and continues to position the sport as the fastest-growing in the United States by participation. We’ll get into why that is and what it means for the future, as well as many other aspects of this wide-ranging report with Jenny Karn, the senior director for SFIA who played a key role in this year’s research.
And we’ll also explore SFIA’s new 2034WARD initiative, which aims to take advantage of the mega events headed to North America over the next decade to inspire the next generation to try new sports.
In this episode, Karn breaks down SFIA’s take on the report and which sports could be the next to capture the attention of the American public.
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