Fédération Française d’Athlétisme is doubling down on its data-driven strategy, turning early criticism into scale: its paid health certification tool, the PPS (Parcours Prévention Santé), has now surpassed one million downloads.
The milestone, announced during the Run Expérience event in Paris, comes alongside a steady base of 340,000 licensed members. Initially controversial due to its €5 fee—required for participation in official races such as half marathons and marathons—the PPS has proven not to be a barrier to entry.
Instead, it has become a powerful data acquisition channel. According to federation leadership, the tool enables direct engagement with runners beyond traditional license holders, expanding the federation’s reach into the broader recreational running market.
That ambition is set to deepen with the upcoming launch of MyDataRun, a centralized data platform aggregating results from all certified races over the past 20 years. While comparisons to Strava are inevitable, the federation is positioning the product as a data utility rather than a social network.
The move reflects a broader shift: federations are no longer just governing bodies but data ecosystems. With an estimated 13 million regular runners in France—and 2.3 million competitive participants in 2025 alone—the race for user ownership is accelerating.