Active mobility and outdoor sport in Pontevedra as a socio-sport contrast in the Spanish context
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v80.119387Keywords:
Gender, outdoor sport , sociology of sports, sports practice settings, sport managementAbstract
Introduction: the promotion of active cities placed walking mobility and the sporting use of public space among the priorities of health, mobility and sport policies. However, walking and practising outdoor sport did not constitute equivalent dimensions.
Objective: the study descriptively examined the contrast between everyday active mobility and sports practice settings in Pontevedra, within the recent Spanish context.
Methodology: a secondary quantitative, descriptive-comparative study was conducted, based on national studies on sport habits, the Spanish Survey of Sport Habits and the 2024 Report on sport habits in the municipality of Pontevedra. Indicators of walking mobility, regular sport participation, practice setting, gym membership, club membership, supervised practice, gender and perceived barriers were analysed.
Results: the results showed that Pontevedra presented high levels of walking mobility and weekly sport participation above the Spanish and Galician reference values. However, sport participants reported practising more frequently in indoor settings than outdoors. The indoor/outdoor ratio reached 1.64 in Pontevedra, compared with 0.49 in Spain and 0.60 in Galicia.
Discussion: the results were interpreted in dialogue with literature that differentiates physical activity domains and practice settings, and that warns that walkability does not necessarily guarantee the sporting appropriation of outdoor space.
Conclusions: it is concluded that a walkable city is not necessarily a city whose sport practice is mainly oriented towards outdoor settings. Active mobility, regular sport participation and actual practice settings should be analysed as related but non-interchangeable dimensions.
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