Approximately 5 million of the 17 million people in the Netherlands are registered to one of the 35,000 sports clubs in the country. About two thirds of the population older than 15 years participates in sports weekly.[1]
Football is the most popular sport in the Netherlands, with field hockey and volleyball as the second and third most popular team sports. Speed skating, cycling, tennis and golf are the four most widely played individual sports.[2] A number of native Dutch sports are also practiced, such as fierljeppen (Polsstokverspringen), beugelen, kaatsen, klootschieten, kolven and korfball.
Organization of sports began at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Federations for sports were established (such as the speed skating federation in 1882), rules were unified and sports clubs came into existence. A Dutch National Olympic Committee was established in 1912. Thus far, the nation has won 356 medals at the Summer Olympic Games and another 147 medals at the Winter Olympic Games.
An influential figure in Dutch sport was Pim Mulier. In 1879 he founded the first rugby and football club in the Netherlands, he was involved in forming the first tennis club in 1884, established the predecessor of the Royal Dutch Football Association five years later, and introduced field hockey in 1896. He also introduced bandy. His hometown Haarlem and the English Bury Fen Bandy Club played the first international match.
- ^ (in Dutch) Sport in Nederland Archived 2008-01-15 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ (in Dutch) sport.nl (Figures are from 2005) Archived 2007-08-12 at archive.today</=177 (in Dutch) Fitplein]