Sports in France !!!!

The French "national" sport, is football (soccer).

The most-watched sports in France are football (soccer), rugby union, basketball, cycling, sailing and tennis.

France is notable for holding the football World Cup in 1998, for holding the annual cycling race Tour de France, and the tennis Grand Slam tournament Roland Garros, or the French Open.

Football

It is the most popular sport in France with 2,146,752 licensed players (2005 statistics). The FIFA, french for Federation Internationale de Football Association, has also been founded in France. The Ligue 1, the top national club competition is the biggest sport league in the country with an average attendance of 21,576 spectators per game for 380 games in the 2005/2006 season. Football in France is governed by the national body French Football Federation (FFF). The FFF organizes both the men's and women's national teams. France hosted the 1998 FIFA World Cup, which the national football team won.

Handball

There are over 300,000 licensed handball players in France, and the handball national team is one of the most watched and supported along with the football and the rugby union ones.

Basketball

Basketball is also a popular team sport with 447,942 licensed players (2005 statistics).

Formula 1



The Renult Team

The Grand Prix Racing (Formula 1) was also invented in France in 1946

Olympic Games

The modern Olympics were invented in France, in 1894.

Rugby union

Rugby union was first introduced in the early 1870s by British residents. While football is definitely the most popular sport, rugby union is especially popular around Toulouse, the French Basque country, and Languedoc. 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 fifth french team sport in the terms of licensed players with 235,675 licensed players (2005).

The national side competes annually in the Six Nations Championship and are the current champions. France has been to every Rugby World Cup since its inception in 1987, and has been a runner-up on two occasions. France will be hosting the next World Cup, the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

Rugby league

Rugby league (rugby à 13 or jeu à 13) has been played in France since the 1930s. As with rugby union, the heartland of the game is the south of the country.

Tennis



Rafel Nadal 4 time winner of  Roland Garros. "The King of the Clay"

Tennis is the second french sport for the number of licensed players with 1,054,513 licensed tennis players in France (2005). France holds the tennis Grand Slam tournament Roland Garros.

Cycling



France holds the annual cycling race Tour de France, which takes place each July and lasts for three weeks. The overall leader of the race wears a yellow jersey called the maillot jaune.

Sailing

Professional sailing in France is centred 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 coast. Other significant events include the Solitaire du Figaro, Mini Transat 6.50, Tour de France a Voile and Route de Rhum transatlantic race. France has been a regular competitor in the Americas Cup since the 1970s.

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 licenced with the Federation Française de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FFPJP). The FFPJP is the 4th largest sports féderation in France.

Parkour

Developed in France, parkour ("art du déplacement") is a physical activity that is difficult to categorize. It is definitely not an extreme sport, but an art that resembles self-defense on 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, but move in a way that is the least energy-consuming and simultaneously the most direct. In addition, since parkour's unofficial motto is être et durer (to be and to last), efficiency also involves avoiding injuries, short and long-term.

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.