Sports in Canada
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Sports in Canada consist of a wide variety of games. The roots of organized sports in Canada date back to the 1770s. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey and lacrosse. Other major professional games include curling, basketball, baseball, soccer, and football. Great achievements in Canadian sports are recognized by numerous "Halls of Fame" and museums, such as Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.
Canada shares several major professional sports leagues with the United States. Canadian teams in these leagues include seven franchises in the National Hockey League, as well as three Major League Soccer teams and one team in each of Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association. Other popular professional competitions include the Canadian Football League, National Lacrosse League, the Canadian Premier League, and the various curling tournaments hosted by Curling Canada. Canadians identified hockey as their preferred sport for viewing, followed by soccer and then basketball.
Swimming was the most common, reported sport by over one-third (35 percent) of Canadians in 2023. This was closely followed by cycling (33 percent) and running (27 percent). The popularity of specific sports varies across racialized groups; in general, the Canadian-born population was more likely to have participated in winter sports such as ice hockey (the most popular young adult team sport), skating, skiing and snowboarding, compared with immigrants, who were more likely to have played soccer (most popular youth team sport), tennis or basketball. Sports such as golf, volleyball, badminton, bowling, and martial arts are also widely enjoyed at the youth and amateur levels.
Canada has enjoyed success both at the Winter Olympics and at the Summer Olympics—though, particularly, the Winter Games as a "winter sports nation"—and has hosted several high-profile international sporting events such as the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, the 2010 Winter Olympics, the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, the 2015 Pan American Games and 2015 Parapan American Games. The country is scheduled to co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup alongside Mexico and the United States.