Just under four out of ten French people (37%) say they are looking forward “very much” or “a little impatiently” to the Paris Olympics that will be held from July 26 to August 11, according to a Viavoice poll released on Monday at the Assises du Journalisme in Tours.

Conversely, 57% of those polled are looking forward with “little” or “no impatience” to the major sporting event being held in Paris for the first time in a century. Interest in the Paralympic Games is even less pronounced, with only 30% of those surveyed looking forward to them. The study was carried out online from February 29 to March 4 for France Télévisions, Radio France, France Médias Monde, and Ouest-France, among a sample of 1,001 people, representative of the population aged 18 and over living in mainland France, according to the quota method. Even among respondents who “regularly keep up to date with sport and its news”, enthusiasm remains rather measured, with 55% looking forward to the Olympic Games, and 45% to the Paralympic Games.

Soccer the most closely followed sport

The findings are part of a wider survey on public opinion’s relationship with sports journalism, the central theme of the Assises organized in Tours from Monday to Saturday, the Olympic year. According to the survey, less than half of those polled (45%) regularly keep up to date with sports and related news, 35% “rarely”, while 20% “never” follow sports. 61% of men surveyed say they keep up to date with sports on a regular basis, compared with 30% of women. Unsurprisingly, the most closely followed sport is soccer, cited by 43% of the 353 respondents who follow a particular sport on an almost daily basis, well ahead of rugby (15%) and tennis (7%).

This post is originally from L’Équipe