Background. Walking sports provide inclusive and accessible opportunities for sport participation. There is, however, a paucity of research pertaining to participation in such sports. This study aimed to examine walking sport participation among Australian adults, and explore potential predictors of walking sports enjoyment.
Methods. An online survey assessed walking sport participation and enjoyment, and barriers and motives to such participation. Physical activity behaviour (and motivations) were also assessed. Data were summarised descriptively, and linear regression was used to ascertain predictors of walking sport enjoyment.
Results. The sample incorporated 294 walking sport participants (Mage= 62.9±10.5 years). Our findings indicate that Australian walking sport participants are typically female (60.1%), aged  60 years (54.7%), in married/ de facto relationships (73.4%), reside in higher socio-economic status areas (SEIFA 5; 85.0%), and sufficiently active (i.e. 150mins of activity per week; 91.0%). The most frequently reported barrier to walking sport participation was physical health (19.7%), while fun/ enjoyment (90.5%) was the most prominent motive. The regression analyses indicated that gender (being female; β = 0.17, p = .011), older age ( 60 years; β = -0.21, p = .016) and intrinsic motivation for physical activity (β = 0.23, p = .009) are important determinants of walking sport enjoyment.
Conclusions. Efforts to foster enjoyment of walking sports is important. Tailoring walking sport offerings to subpopulations (e.g., older adults) may be critical to enhancing enjoyment in such sports. Future research should examine the value of walking sport offerings in supporting active lifestyles among inactive or sedentary subpopulations.