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Running goes ‘viral’ in once sports-shy France

Running has become the fastest growing segment of the sports market in France, with the French - and particularly the Parisians - ever keener to hit the road for a jog.

Running goes 'viral' in once sports-shy France
A runner in central Paris. Photo: AFP
The epitome of Gallic beauty, French film star Catherine Deneuve — probably clouded in a haze of cigarette smoke — once scoffed at the idea of working out, saying: “I am not American.”
   
But in recent years the country which produced reams of analysis over former President Nicolas Sarkozy's love of jogging has rapidly caught onto the idea of what is known in French as “le running”.
   
Nowhere is this more evident than in Paris where, as the spring sun emerges, so have hordes of runners thundering through leafy parks and even the streets — where anyone trying to jog would once have been immediately identified as an American tourist.
   
“It's true that the French are slightly behind Anglo-Saxon countries on the need to get themselves in shape,” said Thomas Godard, business unit manager for sports brand Adidas in the country.
   
But the company has noted “a genuine explosion of running in France,” where it is the fastest-growing segment of the sports market with double-digit growth.
   
A recent study ordered by the French Athletics Federation (FFA) showed 9.5 million citizens — roughly one in five adults — run “more or less
regularly,” the body's president Bernard Amsalem told AFP.    
 
All over the world running has undergone somewhat of a revolution in recent years.
   
No longer the sport of an individual male loping along in a faded tracksuit perhaps aiming for a marathon, it is increasingly a group activity accompanied by fashionable, brightly coloured clothes and high-tech smartphone accessories and applications to track your progress.
   
“Today running has become what we call a 'hit' sport, it is trendy,” says Godard.
 
Fun runs 
 
Fresh from a run in the Bois de Vincennes — a massive park in eastern Paris where joggers sometimes appear to outnumber picnickers — Nicolas Rolin, 34, says he has noticed the sudden leap in people taking up the sport, even in his own group of friends.
   
He only began running last September, and told AFP he feels the surge in less daunting races of 5km or 10km (six miles) and fun runs has made the sport “more accessible”.
   
From the Colour Run — where runners are doused in coloured powder — to a race around the Versailles castle with participants dressed as princesses and knights, the fun run craze shows the sport's evolution into a pleasure-seeking social activity that is not just about competition.
   
“It's also free!” said Rolin's fiancee Clio Comparelli who took up the sport a month ago to get in shape for their wedding.
   
Cost is an important point explaining the running surge, experts say, with gyms in Paris often charging exorbitant prices.
   
In a nod to Paris's status as a running hub, Adidas chose the French capital to launch a novel social-media driven concept known as the Boost Battle Run.
 
Eleven different neighbourhoods of the capital have organised into teams with their own emblems, and compete not only in races, but online, with judges counting the most hashtags and social media activity.
   
In one year, 13,000 people have signed up.
   
“Running is a viral sport, we start running because our friends run, running is increasingly becoming a team sport,” said Godard.
 
Intellect prized over sport
 
When he was president, Sarkozy's forays onto the street in running shorts were of great interest to the French.
   
“Is running right-wing?” the Liberation newspaper asked in a 2007 editorial, pondering the sport's focus on performance and individualism and Renaissance humanists' advice that one should receive a balanced physical and intellectual education.
   
While Amsalem said there are now 9,000 races a year in France, he admits that being sporty for individual reasons — whether fitness, weight control or wellbeing — is not particularly French.
   
Physical activity in French schools is “sidelined, there are often children whose parents exempt them from doing sport because they consider it is not important, that other subjects should be prioritised.”
   
“It is the Anglo-Saxons who have the sports culture because they have a school system which perfectly integrates sport. In France we don't have the same culture so today it seems as if there is an shift.”
   
“It has become a genuine social phenomenon.”
   
Sports sociologist Patrick Mignon agreed that “sport in France is considered as something secondary, there is always a lot of conflict within
schools to find a place for sport.”
   
He notes it is in the past decade that running has become an “activity of the masses” in France.
 
– Women catching up –
 
Godard from Adidas said that in the United States a key running trend was that women were now the main driver of the sport.
   
“They run more, they spend more,” he said.
   
In France the opposite is still true, with 53 percent of male runners to 47 percent of women according to the FFA study, but they are rapidly catching up.
   
Michelle Abbou, 55, is an accountant who began running two years ago to combat severe depression after her mother's death.
   
Now a self-proclaimed addict, even she is surprised at her compatriots' sudden propensity for working up a sweat in full view, such as along the famed shopping avenue the Champs-Elysees.
   
“You see runners in the street, before you would never ever see people jogging in the street… especially on the Champs-Elysees.”
 

CRIME

Spain women’s World Cup players demand more heads roll as Rubiales in court

The crisis within Spanish football deepened Friday as the women's World Cup winners demanded more heads roll at its scandal-hit RFEF federation whose disgraced ex-boss appeared in court on sexual assault charges.

Spain women's World Cup players demand more heads roll as Rubiales in court

Just hours after Luis Rubiales was quizzed by a judge for kissing midfielder Jenni Hermoso, all but two of Spain’s 23 World Cup players said they would not don the national shirt without deeper changes within the RFEF, demanding its current interim head also resign.

The statement came as the squad’s new coach Montse Tome was to announce the lineup for two upcoming UEFA Women’s Nations League matches against Sweden and Switzerland, which was promptly postponed, federation sources said.

“The changes put in place are not enough,” said a statement signed by 39 players, among them 21 of the 23 World Cup winners.

Demanding “fundamental changes to the RFEF’s leadership”, they called for the “resignation of the RFEF president” Pedro Rocha, who took over as interim leader when FIFA suspended Rubiales on August 26.

But the federation insisted Rocha would “lead the transition process within the RFEF until the next election”, insisting any changes would be made “gradually”.

A federation source said a leadership election could take place early next year.

“This institution is more important than individuals and it’s crucial it remains strong. We’ll work tirelessly to create stability first in order to progress later,” Rocha said in the statement.

Despite a string of recent changes, the federation remains in the hands of officials appointed by Rubiales, and the players are demanding structural changes “within the office of the president and the secretary general”.

Brought to court by a kiss

The bombshell came after days of optimism within the RFEF that the players would come round after it sacked controversial coach Jorge Vilda, appointed Tome in his stead and pledged further changes, not to mention Rubiales’ long-awaited resignation on Sunday.

On August 25, 81 Spain players, including the 23 world champions, had started a mass strike saying they would not play for the national team without significant changes at the head of the federation.

Earlier on Friday, Rubiales appeared in court where he was quizzed by Judge Francisco de Jorge who is heading up the investigation into the kiss, which sparked international outrage and saw him brought up on sexual assault charges.

At the end of the closed-door hearing, in which Rubiales repeated his claim that the kiss was consensual, the judge ordered him not to come within 200 metres of Hermoso and barred him from any contact with the player.

At the weekend, the 46-year-old had described the kiss as “a spontaneous act, a mutual act, an act that both consented to, which was… 100 percent non-sexual” in an interview with British broadcaster Piers Morgan.

Hermoso, 33, has insisted it was not, describing it as “an impulsive, macho act, out of place and with no type of consent on my part”.

Speaking to reporters outside court, Hermoso’s lawyer Carla Vall said they were “very satisfied” with the hearing.

“Thanks to this video, everyone can see there was no consent whatsoever and that is what we will demonstrate in court.”

Allegations of coercion

Hermoso herself will also testify before the judge at some stage, who will then have to decide whether or not to push ahead with the prosecution. No date has been given for her testimony.

The complaint against Rubiales, which was filed by the public prosecutors’ office, cites alleged offences of sexual assault and coercion.

Under a recent reform of the Spanish penal code, a non-consensual kiss can be considered sexual assault, a category which groups all types of sexual violence.

If found guilty, Rubiales could face anything from a fine to four years in prison, sources at the public prosecutors’ office have said.

In their complaint, prosecutors explained the offence of coercion related to Hermoso’s statement saying she “and those close to her had suffered constant ongoing pressure by Luis Rubiales and his professional entourage to justify and condone” his actions.

At the hearing, Rubiales also denied coercion.

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