The FF Archery has just passed the mark of 70,000 licensees this Wednesday, October 16.
A record number. Last year at the same date, it had 60,383, currently an increase of 15.9% of its practitioners.
The Olympic and Paralympic Games effect continues in this new sports season. With the silver medal of the men’s team with Baptiste Addis, Thomas Chirault and Jean-Charles Valladont and the bronze medal of Lisa Barbelin, archery recorded a spectacular jump in its number of licensees.
Since the start of the school year, the increase has continued for archery, which records several hundred new archers every day within its clubs. Faced with this significant influx of new members, clubs are organizing themselves to meet demand and welcome practitioners in the best conditions. There is still time to discover archery in one of our structures.
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Creating licenses
Since 1is September 2024, archery clubs recorded 19,319 first-time graduates against
14,479 in 2023, which represents an increase of 33.4% new licensees.
We also observe an increase in the share of adults (U21 to Senior 3) in licenses. They currently represent 70.94% of licensees for the current season compared to 68.25% a year ago (+2.69 pts).
Another interesting fact from this post-JOP season, the return of former licensees. As of October 16, 4,099 licensees (5.9% of the workforce) are former archers who were not licensed in 2024 and are returning to archery for this 2025 season.
Distribution by sex
The male/female distribution of licensees continues its progression in recent years with an increase of the share of women who now account for 36% of the population of archers (+4.4 points over the last 2021-2025 Olympics).
Beyond the trend, we can evoke a “Lisa Barbelin” effect, since women even account for 44% of license creations in 2025. For comparison, in the 2017 season which followed the Rio Games and Jean-Charles Valladont’s silver medal, the creation of women’s licenses was 34%.
Practitioners with disabilities
Among the 70,000 licensees, a little more than 1,000 (1,012 as of 10/16/24) declared themselves to be disabled at the time of their license, i.e. 11% more than the previous season. This data is declarative and is not exhaustive of the practice of para-archery in clubs.
Geographic distribution
Certain territories are doing well. The increase is more marked in some regions and in particular in a corridor which goes fromwest of Île-de-France to Brittany.
Unsurprisingly, Île-de-France, which hosted the archery events of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, is benefiting from the dynamic. The region is already at 94% of the number of licenses registered at the end of last season. Pays de la Loire (97%), Brittany (94%) and Centre-Val de Loire (93%) are among the most dynamic regions.
