New sports and exercise fads are making inroads, but the old mainstays of swimming, walking, bowling and fishing remain the most popular forms of recreation and fitness among Americans, a new survey says.
Swimming emerged as the favorite activity: 94,371 people did it regularly last year, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association's 1998 study of 102 sports and fitness activities. Walking (80,864) came in second, followed by bowling (50,593) and freshwater fishing (45,807).
Individually, however, these sports fluctuated in popularity:
- Walking was down 6.2 percent between 1997 and 1998 but up 34 percent since 1987.
- Despite its high ranking on the list of recreational favorites, bowling dropped 5 percent during the last year, but it was up 5.8 percent from 1987.
- Fishing gained 3.6 percent from 1997 to 1998, but it had dropped 9 percent since 1987.
The sporting goods association had no comparative figures for recreational swimming.
The most dramatic increases in participation were in-line skating, up 581 percent, and mountain biking, up 469 percent since 1987.
In individual recreation categories, walking beat stretching, running and jogging as the top non-equipment fitness activity. Lifting free weights rated No. 1 among fitness-equipment users - ahead of treadmills and stationary cycling.
Basketball is the favorite team sport, but martial arts is the most popular contact sport - beating wrestling and boxing.
Among cold-weather sports, downhill skiing and snowmobiling still ranked ahead of the growing sport of snowboarding, which was making steady gains - up 158 percent since 1990. Downhill skiing was down 43 percent during that same period.
Tent-camping was more popular than camping in a recreational vehicle.
The 1998 study was made from 25,000 households nationwide, with a 2 percent to 3 percent margin of error.
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