Sport in Canada
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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. Lacrosse, with First Nations origins, is Canada's oldest sport and official summer sport (see below), one of the fastest growing sports in all of North America. Conversely, Association Football (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 in the United Soccer Leagues with several teams, and will join Major League Soccer in 2007 with an expansion team in Toronto.
Canadian football is Canada's second favourite spectator sport, and is followed by 19% of the country.[1] Its popularity is on the rise since the turn of the century, especially in Southern Ontario, where attendance at football games has doubled in the past five years. The Grey Cup is Canada's biggest single sporting event, and is watched by a significant portion of the country. Canadian football has a long a rich history, and has become a large part of Canada's national identity.
Canada's northern location 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 for spectating as hockey or other major North American sports. However, curling is played by more Canadians than any other sport. Canadian national teams win 40 to 60 per cent of international curling competitions.
Baseball and its 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.
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.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] Prominent sports
[edit] 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 athletes 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.
[edit] 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:
[edit] Lacrosse
Lacrosse, dubbed "the fastest game on two feet," was named Canada's National Game by Parliament in 1859. Lacrosse is now the official summer sport of Canada.Of all the sports programs, lacrosse is the fastest growing for both boys and girls," said Tass Filledes, assistant director of the MIAA and its executive. 81 percent of the lacrosse competition consists primarily of box lacrosse; field lacrosse and inter-crosse make up the rest. According to the CLA over 200,000 men and women of all ages participate in lacrosse. The game is associated with colleges, universities and secondary schools. In 2007 Canada, the Halifax Metro Centrevia will host the World Indoor Lacrosse Championship.
The Canadian Lacrosse Association (l'Association canadienne de crosse), founded in 1925, is the governing body of lacrosse in Canada. It conducts national junior and senior championship tournaments for men and women in both field and box lacrosse. It also participated in the inaugural World Indoor Lacrosse Championship in 2003.
The National Lacrosse League is a professional box lacrosse league, with franchises in Canada and the United States.
The Canadian Lacrosse Association is the sports governing body in Canada.
The 2006 World Lacrosse Championship was held in London, Ontario. The Canadians led by John Grant beat the United States 15-10 in the final to break a 28-year US winning streak.
Widely regarded as the best lacrosse player of all time, Gary Gait was born in Victoria, British Columbia and has won every possible major lacrosse championship.
[edit] Curling
The Canadian Curling Association is the sports's governing body in Canada. The Tim Hortons Brier is the national men's championship, and 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 has a degree of popularity across the country. For instance, Quebec, which is not a traditional hotbed of curling, won the most recent (2006) Brier.
[edit] Canadian football
The Canadian Football League is the longtime professional league for Canadian football. It is the second most popular sports league in Canada,[2] and a large part of Canada's national identity. Teams compete for the Grey Cup. The Canadian Junior Football League is a Canadian football league for amateur players ages 18 to 22. High schools, colleges and universities in Canada also play the Canadian version of gridiron football.
[edit] Baseball
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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. The Blue Jays were the first non-American team to ever host a World Series Game (in 1992) and the only non-American team to win the World Series (back to back in 1992 and 1993). The Blue Jays actually had the highest attendance in the Major Leagues from the late-1980s and the early 1990s.
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 honours in 2004.
Canada had its own baseball league, the Canadian Baseball League, which only lasted one season (2003) before folding, although there is talk of a revival since the Expos' move. Canada participated in the 2006 World Baseball Classic, in which it upset Team USA in first-round play.[1] which some people in Canada call the "Miracle on Dirt" (a play on the phrase Miracle on Ice for the 1980 US Olympic Hockey team).
See: Canadian national baseball team
[edit] 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. The 2005 & 2006 NBA MVP Steve Nash is from British Columbia and has played in international competitions for Canada.
Basketball's inventor, James Naismith, was Canadian; born in Almonte, Ontario, he was working as a physical education instructor in Massachusetts when he created the game in 1891.
[edit] Golf
Golf is a widely-enjoyed recreational sport in Canada, and the country boasts several highly-rated courses. The Royal Canadian Golf Association is the governing organization, and has over 1,600 associated member clubs and over 300,000 individual members.[3] The RCGA also conducts the only PGA Tour and LPGA tour events in Canada, and it also manages the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame.
Canadian Professional Golf Tour, once known as the "Peter Jackson Tour" is an organization that runs a series of tournaments for professional players, some of which are conducted outside Canada.
For information on notable Canadian golfers, see Category:Canadian golfers.
[edit] Association Football (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.
- Further information: Soccer in Canada
[edit] Auto racing
The Canadian Grand Prix Formula One auto races have been conducted every year since 1967, and since 1978 the races have been conducted at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec. The track was named for Canada's first Grand Prix driver, the late Gilles Villeneuve, whose son Jacques won the Formula One championship in 1997.
Champ Car (formerly "CART"), another major open-wheel racing series, held races in the Canadian cities of Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton in 2005 and 2006. They have also held races in Vancouver, and in 2007 the Montreal event will be moved to Mont-Tremblant. Several Canadians have starred in Champ Car racing, most notably Jacques Villeneuve and Paul Tracy, who won the series championships in 1995 and 2003 (respectively).
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.
[edit] Tennis
- The Canada Masters tennis tournament.
[edit] Bowling
The sport of bowling takes several forms in Canada, including ten-pin and lawn bowling, but most notably Canada has its own version; Five-pin bowling, which was invented in Toronto. Five-pin is played in all parts of Canada, but not played in any other country.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
- Further information: Rugby union in Canada
[edit] Cricket
See Main Article Canadian cricket team
- Although cricket doesn't enjoy high popularity in Canada as the game does in other countries in the Commonwealth of Nations, Canada is nonetheless an associate state of international cricket, and has a team that tries out for the Cricket World Cup (Made it in 1979, 2003, 2007). Ottawa has many cricket clubs for people of all ages. In 2001 the ICC Trophy Tournament was held in Canada with Toronto hosting the finals. http://www.canadacricket.com/
[edit] 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).
[edit] See also
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- National Sport School - The first Canadian high school designed exclusively for Olympic calibre athletes.
