What Are Three Popular Sports in Australia?
What are three popular sports in Australia? The answer, of course, depends on who you ask and what you consider popular.
Rugby
If you ask most people to name three popular sports in Australia most would name Rugby as one of the three. Rugby is huge in Australia and is the most watched sport on television. Many people believe that rugby is the roughest and demanding of all team sports. It is also referred to as football, league, and footy.
The Australian Rugby League governs the sport and has 16 teams from New Zealand, Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales, and the Australian Capital Territory. One of the biggest events is the State of Origin, which is a three game tournament between Queensland and New South Wales. During the year, there are also All Star games, City vs. Country Origin, and the NRL Grand Final.
The Australian Kangaroos is one of the most successful teams and is the team who represents Australia internationally. The Rugby League World Cup was established in 1954 and Australia has won it 8 times out of the 11 times that it has been staged so far. The years they won are: 1957, 1968, 1970, 1977, 1988, 1992, 1995 and 2000.
Cricket
Research was done to find the most interesting sports in Australia for adults that live in capital cities. The number one choice was cricket. Other sports listed included swimming, tennis, football, soccer, and rugby.
Some people would argue that cricket is the most popular sport in Australia. It is the national summer sport and is played on local, national, and international levels. People in all parts of Australia support and enjoy cricket. The Australia national cricket team has done extremely well internationally, winning the Cricket World Cup four times out of the nine it has been held. Competitions on the national level are the Sheffield Shield, the Ranger One Day Cup, and the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash competitions.
Indoor cricket is also very popular and has more than 100 cricket centers and 200,000 people participating. Australia is dominating the world in indoor cricket, winning the Indoor World Cricket Cup every time since it started. It was held in 1995, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007, and 2009.
Horse Racing
Thoroughbred horse racing is one of the highest attended sports in Australia. More than $12 billion are bet annually. The horse racing industry provides jobs for 250,000 people. Most of the races are flat races run on turf, but there are hurdle and steeplechase races in Victoria and South Australia.
Major races are the Melbourne Cup, VRC Oaks, Caulfield Cup, W. S. Cox Plate, and the Golden Slipper Stakes. The Melbourne Cup is the major race and is called “The race that stops a nation.” It is a race for three-year-olds and over, is 3200 m long, and is the richest two mile handicap race in the world. It is held on the first Tuesday in November at Flemington Racecourse.
The most famous racehorse in Australia is Phar Lap who raced from 1928 to 1932. He won the 1930 Melbourne Cup. A famous horse in harness racing was Cardigan Bay, who won 82 races and was the first horse to win over a million dollars. A famous steeplechaser was Crisp, who was nicknamed The Black Kangaroo. Makybe Diva was the only horse ever to win the Melbourne Cup three times.