Australian athletics celebrates AusPlay Survey

Australian athletics is celebrating the release of the AusPlay Survey by the Australian Sports Commission today, with the sport, including runners and joggers, boasting the largest participation base of any national sporting organisation.

Highlighting that more than three million Australians are regularly pounding the pavement or taking part in traditional athletics offerings in clubs and at school, the AusPlay Survey identifies significant opportunity for athletics to foster a meaningful connection with all Australians, for life.

“The AusPlay Survey published by the Australian Sports Commission today highlights an impressive level of participation in athletics through jogging and running, which reinforces the strategy of Athletics Australia and its member associations to engage with this expanding base now and into the future,” James Selby, the General Manager, Program Development, said.

“Our event sanctioning program iRun and our partnership with parkrun Australia are designed to provide quality opportunities for the millions of joggers and runners that participate in athletics each and every week, with safe and high-quality events hosted across the country more regularly and in more locations.”

Of the individuals surveyed, more than 74% of adults that listed athletics as their most regularly participated in sport stated that their physical and mental health and fitness was their key motivation.

“The health of the nation can be impacted if Australian athletics continues to increase its engagement with the expanding athletics community of joggers and runners,” Selby added.

“With so many respondents detailing improved physical and mental health and fitness as their key motivation, we have an obligation to work alongside our member associations, state and federal government agencies across health and sport, event organisers and recreational running partners to improve the offering in an effort to improve the wellbeing of Australia more broadly.”

For more information on the AusPlay Survey, which highlights participation data for the sport sector, please click here.