Sport in Canada

A wide variety of sports are played in Canada. Ice hockey, referred to as simply hockey in the country, is Canada's official winter sport and continues to be the most popular sport and one in which teams representing the country have had the most international success. Conversely, soccer although widely played by school-aged Canadians and those in the immigrant community has never become popular enough as a spectator sport for an entirely local professional league to be maintained in the country, although Canada participates of the United Soccer Leagues with a number of teams, and will join the MLS in 2007 with an expansion team in Toronto.

Canada's northern proximation certainly affects which sports Canadians choose to play or watch. The country has always placed far better in the medal standings of the Winter Olympics than the Summer Olympics. Next to hockey, curling is quintessentially Canadian, especially in rural areas of the country, though on the whole it is not as popular as hockey or other major North American sports. Canadian national teams win 40 to 60 per cent of international curling competitions.

Baseball, basketball, and American football and their offshoots are very popular participation and spectator sports. Softball is a popular recreational sport, as is three-on-three and other forms of pick-up and street basketball. Canadian football, with a large domestic fan-base, is the country's own brand of football. Canadian and American football highly resemble each other and share common origins; indeed, both codes can trace their provenance to a series of games between Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and McGill University (Montreal, Quebec) in 1874. However, Canadian football has evolved separately from its American counterpart and retains several key differences. For an in-depth overview, see Comparison of Canadian and American football.

Lacrosse, with First Nations origins, is Canada's oldest sport and official summer sport (see below), although relatively few Canadians play or follow the sport. Other popular sports in the country include both open-wheel and stock car auto racing, golf, tennis, swimming, both on and off-road cycling, skateboarding, snowboarding, alpine skiing, volleyball, rugby union, professional wrestling, horse racing, rodeo in western Canada, figure skating, boxing, triathlon, and track and field.

The Lou Marsh Trophy recognizes Canada's top athlete; a list of Canada's Athletes of the 20th Century was published in 1999.

Official sports

Canada is a nation with two official sports. Since its founding, and until 1994, the official sport was lacrosse, a sport invented by Aboriginal peoples.

In 1994, First Nations groups objected to a government bill that proposed establishing solely ice hockey as Canada's national sport, arguing that it neglected and obliterated recognition of the game of lacrosse, a uniquely Native contribution. In response, the House of Commons amended the bill "to recognize hockey as Canada's National Winter Sport and lacrosse as Canada's National Summer Sport." On May 12, 1994, in Bill C-212, ice hockey joined lacrosse as official sports of Canada.

Prominent sports

Olympics

Canada has competed at every Olympic Games, except for the first games in 1896 and the boycotted games in 1980. Canada has previously hosted the games twice, at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, and Vancouver is scheduled to host the 2010 Winter Olympics. A number of Olympic competitors for Canada have competed for Canada over the years.

At the summer games, the majority of Canada's medals come from the sports of athletics, aquatics (swimming, synchronized swimming and diving), rowing and canoeing/kayaking. In the post-boycott era (since 1988), Canada's medal total ranks 19th, with the highest rank of 11th in 1992 and the lowest of 24th in 2000.

At the winter games, Canada is usually one of the top nations in terms of medals won. Canada is traditionally strong in the sports of ice hockey, figure skating, and speed skating (especially the short track variation), and every Canadian men's and women's teams have won curling medals since the sport was added to the Olympic program.

Ice hockey

The National Hockey League (NHL) is the world's premier professional ice hockey league. Of its thirty teams, six are Canadian: the Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, and Vancouver Canucks. The Canadian NHL presence peaked with eight teams in the mid-1990s, before the Quebec Nordiques relocated to Denver, Colorado in 1995 and the Winnipeg Jets relocated to Phoenix, Arizona in 1996. Hockey Night in Canada is the longtime national Saturday night television broadcast of NHL games featuring Canadian teams. Hockey Canada is the sports official governing body in Canada and member of the International Ice Hockey Federation.

Junior hockey (age level between 16 and 20 years old) is hugely popular in the country. The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League, and Western Hockey League form the Canadian Hockey League of top level or 'Major Junior A Tier 1' hockey.

National teams:

Lacrosse

The National Lacrosse League, a fledgling indoor lacrosse league, is the world's only professional lacrosse league, with franchises in Canada and the United States. The Canadian Lacrosse Association is the sports governing body in Canada.

Curling

The Canadian Curling Association is the sports's governing body in Canada. The Tim Hortons Brier is the national men's championship. The Scott Tournament of Hearts is the national women's championship. It is estimated that there are about 1.3 million curlers in Canada, which makes up about 94% of the curlers in the world. Curling is most popular in the prairie provinces with the most competitive teams in recent years coming from the province of Alberta. However, curling as a degree of popularity across the country. For instance, Quebec which is not a traditional hot bed of curling won the most recent (2006) Brier.

Canadian football

The Canadian Football League is the longtime professional league for Canadian football. Teams compete for the Grey Cup. The Canadian Junior Football League is a Canadian football league for amateur players ages 18 to 22.

Baseball

The Toronto Blue Jays have been a Major League Baseball club since 1977. From 1969 to 2004 the Montreal Expos were also a Canadian based MLB club. A number of Canadians have played in the major leagues. Canadian Larry Walker was National League MVP for the 1997 season. Jason Bay was the first Canadian to win rookie of the year honors in 2004. Canada had it's own baseball league, the Canadian Baseball League, which only lasted one season (2003) before folding, although there is talk of a revival since the Expo's move. Canada participated in the 2006 World Baseball Classic, in which it upset Team USA in first-round play.^* which some people in Canada call the miracle on dirt. (coined off the phrase Miracle on Ice for the 1980 U.S.A Olympic Hockey team)

See: Canadian national baseball team

Basketball

Basketball has become a popular spectator sport in parts of Canada in recent years, especially in Ontario. The National Basketball Association expanded into Canada in 1995 with the addition of the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies. The Grizzlies moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 2001, but the Raptors continue to draw healthy crowds at the Air Canada Centre. 2005 & 2006 NBA Most Valuable Player Steve Nash is from British Columbia and has played in international competitions for Canada. Their have also been talks of various people in Vancouver are considering bringing a team back to the city. they tried bidding for the New Orleans Hornets to play in Vancouver at least until New Orleans recovered fron Hurricane Katrena, but that had a outside chance of working, but now talks have been swreling that the Portland Trailblazers are in financel trouble and some people in Vancouver are considering buying there just hoping that no one will come and buy the struggling franchise.

Also, a less well-known fact is that basketball was invented by a Canadian. James Naismith (born in Almonte, Ontario) was the Canadian physical education instructor who invented basketball in 1891. (Although, the U.S. patent #1,718,305 was granted to G.L. Pierce on June 25, 1929 for the "basketball" used in the game.)

Soccer

Soccer is one of the country's most played recreational sports, particularly as a school sport. The sport's official governing body in the country is the Canadian Soccer Association. Whereas the national women's team is competitive internationally (Finished 4th place in FIFA Women's World Cup 2003, and 2nd place in FIFA U-20 Women's World Championship 2002), the national men's team struggles (Played one world cup, 1986 FIFA World Cup, withdrew in 1962).

Canada hosted the FIFA U-16 World Championship 1987. Canada will host the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, to be played in the cities of Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Victoria and Vancouver in 2007. It is to be largest FIFA event ever hosted by Canada.

Auto racing

The Canadian Grand Prix is Canada's Formula One race. Champcar (which is similar to F1) races are also held in the Canadian cities of Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton in 2005.

CASCAR is the country's governing body for amateur and professional stock car racing. As there is also some interest in NASCAR, the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) formed NASCAR Canada in partnership with TSN. Canada is NASCAR's largest market outside the US.

Golf

Canadian Professional Golf Tour

Tennis

The Canada Masters tennis tournament.

Australian Football

Canada is home to the Ontario Australian Football League, one of the largest Australian Rules Football leagues outside of Australia. Canada holds the record for the largest attendance for an AFL/VFL match held outside of Australia (in 1987 32,789 people attended a VFL match held at Vancouver, Canada between Melbourne Demons and Sydney Swans - see Australian rules football attendance records). Subsequent Aussie Rules matches in both Vancouver and Toronto have drawn similarly large crowds.

AFL Canada

Rugby Union

The sport is governed by Rugby Canada. Canada is categorised as a 'Second Tier' nation in rugby by the International Rugby Board and the national team have qualified for all five Rugby World Cups. British Columbia is something of a stronghold as it does not have quite as a severe climate than the rest of the country.

Cricket

See Main Article Canadian cricket team

Although Cricket doesn't enjoy high popularity in Canada as the game does in other counties of the British commonwealth, Canada is none the less an associate state of international Cricket, and has a team that tries out for the Cricket World Cup (Made it in 1979, 2003, 2007). In 2001 the ICC Trophy Tournament was held in Canada with Toronto hosting the finals. http://www.canadacricket.com/

Governance

Federal and provincial governments are both actively involved in sports; as each has areas of jurisdiction which overlap sports. Sport Canada generally directs (or at least co-ordinates) federal activity in sports. While the federal government generally tries to take a leadership role in areas of international competition (where its jurisdiction is clearest) some provinces, especially Quebec, are actively involved in sports at all levels, even with elite international athletes. Provinces less interested, will often focus on student athletics, as it falls more clearly in an area of provincial jurisdiction (that being education).

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Sport in Canada