"More sport is being played in Switzerland today than ever before," exults the Federal Office of Sport in the introduction to the report "Sport Switzerland 2020". A good half of the population aged 15 and over are very active sportsmen and sportswomen, while the proportion of inactive people has fallen from 21% to 16%. Of these, some are no longer able to take part in sport due to physical complaints, while a third would like to do so again.
What is interesting from the mountain bikers' point of view is where this sport stands in comparison to others: in 11th place in the popularity rankings, just ahead of football, but behind gymnastics and gymnastics. 7.9 percent cite mountain biking as one of the sports they practise regularly. Based on figures from the Federal Statistical Office, it can be calculated that around 580,000 people in Switzerland regularly ride a mountain bike.

25 percent more mountain bikers

Surprisingly, hiking is at the top of the list. A whopping 56.9 percent of over 12,000 respondents regularly go on long walks. Cycling follows in second place with 42 percent, although mountain bikers are not counted here - as the only subgroup of cyclists.
The average age of the mountain bike community has also risen, from 41 in 2014 to 45 this year. It is not too bold to assume that this increase is due to e-mountainbikes, which are bringing older people to the trails. On the other hand, the proportion of women mountain bikers has fallen: Six years ago it was 29 percent, now only 24 percent. Apparently, more men than women have discovered the mountain bike during this time.
Interesting in this context is another activity, the winner of this survey, so to speak: yoga and Pilates have almost doubled their share since the last report in 2014, from 7.1 to 12.9 percent - although the proportion of women practising yoga has also fallen, from 88 to 80 percent.
Two further figures show the intensity with which bikers pursue this sport. On average, they pedal 25 days a year. However, only 2 percent call mountain biking their main sport - three quarters of all bikers do not even describe themselves as such. Nevertheless, there are still a lot of us.