Lockdown Effect – Urban Indians claim to play and practice Cycling and Running most: WEF-Ipsos Global views on exercise and team sports

Lockdown Effect, according to the WEF-Ipsos Global Views on exercise and team sports survey, Cycling (31%), running (28%), fitness (23%), swimming (13%) and soccer (9%), have emerged as Urban Indians’, most practiced/ played sports in a week. For global citizens, the top played sports were Fitness (20%) and running (19%).Interestingly, majority of global citizens (70%) and urban Indians (81%) polled claimed to be fairly happy with the life they lead. The markets most happy with their lives were Saudi Arabia (91%), China (90%), Netherlands (85%) and the US (83%). 

Incidentally, 52%  of Urban Indians polled said they would like to practice more sports than they currently do. 

Barriers to practicing sports, liked

For Urban Indians, the biggest barriers were lack of time (43%), weather too hot/ too cold (25%), lack of people I know personally (e.g., friends) to play or practice sports with (23%), lack of facilities, where I live (22%), lack of money (17%) and do not want to play sports (14%). 

“Tokyo 2020 has gotten us a few medals in our kitty. Since India is seeing a renewed focus on Sports, these barriers if addressed, can harness the existing talent in the country. Interestingly, if we see, the sports Indians conventionally love watching and the ones they practice (cycling, running etc.) there is a disconnect. That can be explained as during the lockdown and due to being locked in, Urban Indians have adopted fitness habits to offset the impact of the sedentary lifestyles that they have been thrown into and there is a spike in adoption of cycling, running, walking and fitness habits,” says Amit Adarkar, CEO, Ipsos India.