Brighton’s favorite sports

In my free time, I go to the gym 4 times a week and I play volleyball twice a week, so you could say I am very interested in sports. And of course, I am also interested to know what type of sports people like to do in other countries.

Because of my sports addiction, I went through the city of Brighton asking some random people what kind of sports they do, why they do them and, if any, what sport is the official sport of Brighton.

At first it was really hard finding some people doing sports or a person who wanted to talk to me. But it was summer… so my luck changed when I got to the beach.

Being social while doing sports

On my way along the beach in Brighton, I found two guys playing basketball. So I went to the court and started chatting to them.

Murillo told me he is from Australia. He loves surfing there and he plays a lot of football too. Murillo said he feels better when he is regularly doing some sports. For him, basketball and table tennis are what Brighton is all about, because there are courts at the beach. But he confessed he only gave these examples because he is not able to surf here in Brighton.

James, the other guy, is really sporty. He plays rugby for the Brighton team, he plays Cricket and he enjoys going to a boxing club in his leisure time. James said that he practices these sports because of the social life. Through playing sports, he made a lot of new friends and learned a lot about himself. He thinks football is the sport of Brighton because it’s very popular and a lot of people play it.

Work-life balance

After walking a bit more, I reached Brighton’s sister city, Hove. That’s where I met two sporty women.

The first woman I met was Kat. She loves cycling in her free time. She considers cycling as a balance for her working life and she loves to visit new areas and look at the landscape. Kat told me that she doesn’t think there is any one sport that defines Brighton. After a bit of probing she mentioned the “paddle around the pier” which took place on the 6^th and 7^th of July. She remembered that there is a Museum next to the pier called “Brighton Fishing Museum”, which she suggested I visited.

The last one person I talked to was Erika. She goes to the gym 3 times a week and she loves swimming. For her, fitness is a great balance to her working life too and she feels better when she does sports. She told me that she thinks the sports court on the beach is very characteristic of Brighton, because the city is very cosmopolitan and at the courts you can find a lot of people from different countries playing together.

So, finally, what sport is “so Brighton”?

Because of those many different suggestions, I am not able to say what sport totally is the official sport of Brighton and I definitely don’t want to decide by myself. But… with so many eclectic residents and so many different people playing sports in Brighton, maybe every type of sport can be just a little bit like Brighton.

About the author

My name is Anna and I am an intern from Austria. In Austria, I attend business school, where I study things like business administration and accounting. When I am not at school, you are likely to find me at the gym or playing volleyball.