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Winners ...
... and Losers:
Inline skating once again slipped in popularity last year, dropping to 24th on the list of favorite sports in the United States, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association. However, the decline was the smallest in years for inline, suggesting that the number of skaters may be leveling off. The trade association estimates that 16.49 million people over the age of five skated at least once last year in the United States. That's a drop of 4.9 percent — or 860,000 skaters — from the previous year, when 17.35 million people buckled on inline skates, according to the trade association's estimates. But it's less than half the number of skaters (1.9 million) who left the sport in 2004. Inline skating has been on the decline in the United States since the late-1990s, even as it has grown in Asia and Europe. At its peak, in 1998, about 32 million Americans skated, but many quit at the end of the inline fad, and others abandoned the sport due to fear of injury.
Inline skating is not the only "fitness" sport to experience a decline in 2005. According to SGMA, the number of swimmers, cross-country skiers and fitness walkers all dropped. (See sidebar above.) But several other fitness sports grew, including jogging (up 1.3 percent to 37.8 million) and mountain biking (up 21.2 percent to 6.5 million). | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Latest headlines: • Lewis, Gunther Make U.S. Team • Growing Skating One Kid at a Time | |||||||||||||||||||||
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