Sport in Australia

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Sport is an important part of Australia that dates back to the early colonial period. The first of the country's mainstream sports to become organised and established were cricket, Australian rules football, rugby league, rugby union, tennis, association football and basketball. Sport has shaped the Australian national identity through events such as the Melbourne Cup and the America's Cup.

Australia has a number of professional sport leagues, including the Australian Football League (AFL) and AFL Women's (Australian rules football), National Rugby League (NRL) and NRL Women's (rugby league), Super Rugby Pacific (Australia/New Zealand) (Rugby Union), the National Basketball League and the Women's National Basketball League, A-League Men and A-League Women (soccer), the Australian Baseball League (baseball), the Big Bash League (cricket), Women's Big Bash League (cricket) and Sheffield Shield (cricket), Suncorp Super Netball and the Supercars Championship (touring car racing). Attendance for the AFL in 2019 was more than 7.5 million,[1] while the NRL drew just over 4 million people for the 2023 season. Rugby league in Australia had a cumulative television audience of over 174 million in 2023, while the AFL had 142 million viewers.[2] Australia has seven former world number 1 squash players, along with a history of success in squash at the Commonwealth Games.

Historically, rugby league and rugby union have been the more popular football codes in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland, while Australian rules football has been more popular in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia.

As a nation, Australia has competed in many international events, including the Olympics and Paralympics. The country has also twice hosted the Summer Olympics in Melbourne (1956) and Sydney (2000), as well as the Commonwealth Games on five occasions. A third Olympics will be held in Brisbane in 2032.

The city of Melbourne is famous for its major sports events and has been described as the 'sporting capital of the world',[3] and one of its stadiums, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, is considered the home of Australian rules football and one of the world's premier Cricket grounds. After the United States, which is considered the greatest sporting nation in the world, Australia is considered one of the best sports nations in the world.[4][5][6][7]

  1. ^ "AFL Tables – Crowds 2019". afltables.com. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  2. ^ "State of the Game 2023: NRL & NRLW TV Ratings, Attendances, Social Media, Memberships and Finance". 3 October 2023.
  3. ^ "Melbourne named world's sporting capital". 20 April 2016.
  4. ^ "Top 10 Greatest Sports Countries".
  5. ^ "Greatest Sporting Nation". Greatest Sporting Nation.
  6. ^ "Olympics medal table by country". Statista.
  7. ^ "1,000 times gold – The thousand medals of Team USA – Washington Post". The Washington Post.