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Sport is an important part of Australia that dates back to the early colonial period. Australian rules football, rugby league, rugby union, association football, cricket and tennis are among the earliest organised sports in Australia. Sport has shaped the Australian national identity through events such as the Melbourne Cup and the America's Cup. Australia also holds the record for the largest attendance at a Rugby Union match with almost 110,000 spectators watching the Wallabies play the All Blacks in 2000.[1]
There are a number of professional sport leagues in Australia, 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 attracted more than 7.5 million people to games,[2] while the NRL draws just over 3 million people in a single season.
Historically, rugby league and rugby union football codes have been more popular than Australian rules football in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland, whereas Australian rules football has been more popular in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Australia boasts 7 former world number one squash players, along with a history of success in the Commonwealth Games.
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, and a sixth Commonwealth Games across rural Victoria state in 2026.
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 regarded as the greatest sports nation in the world, Australia is considered one of the best sports nations in the world.[4][5][6][7]
- ^ "Rugby union's largest crowd".
- ^ "AFL Tables - Crowds 2019". afltables.com. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
- ^ "Melbourne named world's sporting capital". 20 April 2016.
- ^ "Top 10 Greatest Sports Countries".
- ^ "Greatest Sporting Nation". Greatest Sporting Nation.
- ^ "Olympics medal table by country". Statista.
- ^ "1,000 times gold – The thousand medals of Team USA – Washington Post". The Washington Post.