take up

元フランス代表のテュラムが女子サッカーW杯の応援に行き，FIFA.comのインタビューに答えました。

Do you think that people’s attitudes are changing?
Things started to change some time ago, but for it to really accelerate you need exposure. We need to encourage children to take up sports. In order to get girls interested in sport – and for their parents to allow them to get involved – we need role models. The players at this World Cup are becoming role models for youngsters, even for boys who still have certain prejudices. Beyond that, I don’t think we should make comparisons between men’s and women’s football, because ultimately they are one and the same sport. Above all, football is about emotion; that’s what we look for and that’s why we love this sport. There are huge amounts of emotion during a football match, and that’s the same regardless of whether there are boys or girls on the pitch.
http://www.fifa.com/womensworldcup/news/newsid=1475665/index.html
ここで注目しているのがtake upです。この句動詞は「手で持ち上げる」が原義ですが，そこから派生して「再び始める」や「〈物〉を取り上げる」，「〈事〉を趣味として始める」という意味になりました（『ジーニアス英和辞典』第4版，大修館書店）。LDOCEには，to become in a new activity and spent time doing itと定義付けがされています。ここから，take upは「興味のあることを始め，それに時間を費やす」という一連の過程を意味する句動詞だと分かります。（Sugiuchi）