Sport gets an primary place in the West Indies. From young age, children are encouraged to practice or introduced to different sports. Martinican men as women often practice sports from running and team sports. In practice and in terms of licensees, football/soccer is the first sport on the island, but sports such as athletics, basketball, handball, cycling or swimming prominently in number of subscribers.
If you want to talk about originality in Martinique, you should absolutely treat racing of round skiffs that are very successful with the public. The gigs, wooden boats built for fishing were also used by fishermen who engaged the challenges of given course.
Years after years, the hype about these races increases, companies saw a way of marketing and local visibility are now sponsoring a skiff that would display their brand. Then, thereafter, the Société des Yoles Rondes has structured the round skiffs races, and became responsible for organizing the Tour of Martinique. For twenty years, gigs unleashed passions. You should go to a stage of the Tour de Martinique des Yoles Rondes to view it.
Another popular sport, football/soccer is more up in the Caribbean than in metropolitan France. Almost all the men of the island regularly follow a team of French championship and despite the distance and time difference does not miss a television broadcast of their favorite team. Gradually, women were initiated by their companions, husbands, friends to the sport and have a taste. The importance of football/soccer is such that when displaying a great match, streets and other public spaces are often deserted.
Younger, football is a social elevator and dedicated to their passion, idol (s) once Henry, Anelka or Thuram players of Caribbean or West Indian origin and now Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, international icons make it the most popular sport among young people.
Some managed to emerge from the shadows to integrate professional clubs (Emmanuel Rivière at Saint-Etienne, Johan Hartock at Lyon and Frédéric Piquionne at Nîmes Olympique). The team sports (handball, basketball or rugby and volleyball) are also followed. Basketball met a great success with fans that followed the performance of African-American champions like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Shaquille O'Neal assiduously. The most famous player from Martinique who played for NBA was Ronny Turiaf.
Tennis and swimming are also popular where performance tennis Gael Monfils tennis player with Caribbean origins and Coralie Balmy, swimmer formed Martinique followed at major competitions. Athletics first sport before in terms of licensees, has lost its luster but still in the most popular sports on the island.
In addition, the performance of Jamaicans, another island in the Caribbean can win new licensees who dream by Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, Veronica Campbell or Shelly-Ann Fraser.
Finally, cycling is also a major sports on the island and Tour of Martinique is one of the highlights each year. Played along with the Tour de France, it is common to see the audience follow along, the exploits of Thomas Voeckler product of the local school in the Tour de France.
Since then, the various doping cases on the Tour de France have strongly impacted the interest of cycling at the national level.
Among the major sporting events of the year there is of course the Tour de Martinique des Yoles Rondes (round skiffs) but also the Tour Cycliste de la Martinique (cycling event) or the international half-marathon of Fort-de-France. The ball sports played locally remain at the amateur level and the local teams cannot claim the rise in national division because of the distance which separates the island from the metropolis.
In football, however, the Martinican teams participate in the Coupe de France and can therefore face French professional clubs. This was also the case of Club Franciscain beaten by national professional clubs.
Note that the selection of Martinique, called the Matininos regularly participates as a selection in the Gold Cup Nations Cup of CONCACAF, the federation of North America. However, it cannot compete in the World Cup as the island is not a nation.
In Martinique, it is necessary to dissociate the practice of the sport from the popularity of these. If skiff racing is the most popular sport, in practice ball sports remain the one with the most licensees along with athletism.
Credit photo: semimartinique.com
