| Summary: | Around the sports world, a considerable shift and trend reversal from organized club-based sportsengagement to unorganized forms of sport participation, also known as informal sports, is taking place. As a result, Swedish communities allocate funds from tight budgets for informal sports facilities and encourage investments due to concerns that fewer children and young people are active in sports clubs and that physical activity is no longer seen as an obvious part of leisure activities. However,previous research shows that such interventions often fail to effectively engage the sedentary and inactive target demographic, instead offering additional opportunities for individuals who are already physically active to engage in sports. When the pandemic broke out and authorities recommended avoiding shared indoor spaces many chose to spend their new found free time outdoors in recreational areas. This study's aim was to generate knowledge about engagement in informal sports in recreational areas and its relation to individuals’ sports backgrounds. During four observation occasions a participatory observation study was conducted to obtain a broader picture of the various individuals who visits a recreational area in a city in northern Sweden. The results suggest that sports background and athletic experience play a significant role in determining who visits the recreational area for informal sports. These visitors are not a societal group that policymakers should be concerned about in terms of promoting a healthy lifestyle.
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