Young Czechs also have a rather negative or lax attitude to sport. Credit: Freepik.
Prague, Aug 8 (CTK) – 6% of young people aged 16 to 30 in the Czech Republic do no sport at all, and 18% do sport less than once a month, according to an analysis by the Czech Council for Children and Youth (CRDM) released to CTK by its spokeswoman Sona Polakova yesterday.
Moreover, most young Czechs have an indifferent or negative attitude to sport, according to the analysis based on the Lifestyle 2022 study, conducted by the Kantar agency on a sample of 1,181 respondents.
“Young people most often do sport once or twice a week. Almost a quarter of them participate in sports activities less than once a month,” the analysis says.
27% of young people are engaged in sports once or twice a week, while another 22% exercise three to four times a week, 9% do sport almost daily, and a similar number avoid sport completely, the researchers found.
Young Czechs also have a rather negative or lax attitude to sport.
About 35% say that although they know that sport is good for their health, they “do not particularly enjoy exercise” and engage in it only occasionally. Around one-fifth of the respondents do not like sport, and of these, 12% even avoid it.
On the contrary, 43% of young people declared a positive attitude to physical exercise, and 17% of them said it was an integral part of their lives.
According to the survey, men prefer to exercise more than women. About half of the male respondents said they enjoy their sporting activities and movement. 38% of women feel the same way about sport.
Men are also more likely to exercise than women, as 37% of men and 25% of women do sport at least three or four times a week.
Women, on the other hand, are more likely than men to track their sport performance through the various available mobile apps and sports watches and wristbands which count steps walked, track movement speed, and measure heartbeat.
The researchers also found differences in attitudes to exercise in relation to level of education.
University and college graduates are more engaged in sports; nearly 70% of them do some sport at least once or twice a week. This figure drops to 53% of primary school and apprentice school graduates.
The Czech School Inspectorate, together with other institutions, recently carried out physical condition testing in schools. The results of young people from the secondary school second grade, aged around 17, showed that 15% of them were not in sufficient physical condition. Primary school children fared slightly better.
The government’s Health 2020 and Sport 2025 concepts focus on increasing the physical activities of Czechs. However, their goals are not being fulfilled, said Czech Sports Union (CSU) chairman Miroslav Jansta. He warned that the Czech Republic was lagging behind other European countries in ensuring sports education and care for physical literacy of the population.
The Czech Council for Children and Youth brings together around 100 organisations with approximately 250,000 members altogether, including scouts, young pioneers, firefighters and youth hiking clubs.
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