Kronoparken is a multicultural area with more than 100 different nationalities. Since we know that girls with a foreign background participate less in sport than girls with Swedish background do, we think it would be interesting to examine what kind of thoughts and experiences young girls on Kronoparken has about sport.  The purpose of this study is to examine what the girls think about the activities that are offered today. We also want to examine their thoughts about sport and gender issues.

Since the aim is to identify the girl’s experiences around current activities and find out what ideas they have to improve this, we think a qualitative method is best suited. We have chosen to do interviews with two focus groups. The selection consists of 17 girls from fourth grade at Kronoparken.

The results showed that girls now participated in soccer, basketball and so called drop-in sports outside school hours. This was also the only activities they knew that they could participate in at Kronoparken. Several of the girls lacked a place to learn swimming in the area. Other sports that were requested were gymnastics, dance, badminton, tennis and volleyball. The majority of the girls preferred to play sports with other girls and not with boys. They also meant that more girls probably would like to participate in sports if there were better opportunities to play with only girls.

Our conclusion is that the girls in fourth grade generally have a very positive attitude to sport and physical activity. They explain that they feel joy, that they are learning new things and do meet a lot of new friends. But the boys do not pass the ball often enough and they are sometimes giving hurtful comments. They also seem to take sport much more seriously, and that is why the girls prefer activities without boys. This is their experiences both during leisure activities and school sports.