Sport in Australia - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Australia has a long sporting history dating back to the mid 1800s. By the 1920s, a number of sports were being played by both men and women, including cricket, badminton, judo, swimming, tennis, netball, lacrosse, golf, hockey and various codes of football.

Many Australians participate in sport, including association football (soccer), athletics, Australian rules football, baseball, basketball, cricket, cycling, golf, gymnastics, horse racing, motor racing, netball, rugby league, rugby union, shooting, swimming, tennis and tenpin bowling. Australia's climate lends itself to some sports, such as swimming, more than others, such as snowboarding.

There are a number of professional sport leagues in Australia, including the A-League

A-League

The A-League is the top Australasian professional football league. Run by Australian governing body Football Federation Australia , it was founded in 2004 following the folding of the National Soccer League and staged its inaugural season in 2005–06. It is sponsored by Hyundai Motor Company...

, ANZ Championship

ANZ Championship

The ANZ Championship is the pre-eminent netball league in the world. The competition is held annually between April and July, comprising 69 matches played over 17 weeks. It is contested by ten teams, five from Australia and five from New Zealand...

, the Australian Football League

Australian Football League

The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

(AFL), the National Basketball League

National Basketball League (Australasia)

The National Basketball League, also known as the iiNet NBL Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in Australasia....

, National Rugby League

National Rugby League

The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...

(NRL), Super Rugby, the W-League

W-League

The USL W-League is a national women's soccer league in the United States on the 2nd level of women's soccer in the United States soccer pyramid, alongside the Women's Premier Soccer League and below Women's Professional Soccer....

and the Women's National Basketball League

Women's National Basketball League

The Women's National Basketball League is the pre-eminent women's professional basketball league in Australia. It currently is composed of ten teams. The league was founded in 1981 and is the women's counterpart to the National Basketball League...

. Attendance for some of these leagues over the course of a single season tops one million spectators in leagues like the AFL and NRL. The media plays an important part in Australia's sporting landscape. Many sporting events are televised or are covered by the radio. The government has anti-siphoning laws to protect free-to-air stations. Beyond televising live events, there are many sport television shows, sport talk shows on the radio, magazines dedicated to sport, and extensive newspaper coverage. Australian sport has also been the subject of Australian made films such as The Club and The Final Winter
The Final Winter
The Final Winter is an Australian drama film released in 2007. It was directed by Brian Andrews and Jane Forrest and produced by Anthony Coffee, and Michelle Russell, while independently produced it is being distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was written by Matthew Nable who also starred as the...

.

As a nation, Australia has competed in many international events including the Olympics and Paralympics, the Commonwealth Games

Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 and takes place every four years....

and sport specific events like the FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...

and the Cricket World Cup

Cricket World Cup

The ICC Cricket World Cup is the premier international championship of men's One Day International cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council , with preliminary qualification rounds leading up to a finals tournament which is held every four years...

. The country has a large number of national teams in sports such as association football (soccer), basketball, hockey, netball, rugby league, rugby union, softball, water polo and wheelchair rugby. Women's sport first really began in Australia in the 1880s. Netball is one of the most popular women's sports in the country. Competitive disabled sport exists in Australia, with the country having a national women's deaf association football (soccer) team, and competing in major events such as the Summer and Winter Paralympics.

1800s

The first Australian cricket team which played overseas was the 1868 Aboriginal cricket tour of England

1868 Aboriginal cricket tour of England

The Australian Aboriginal cricket team in England in 1868 was a side composed of Australian Aborigines which toured England between May and October of that year, thus becoming the first organised group of Australian cricketers to travel overseas...

. The Australian team which toured England in 1948 was nicknamed The Invincibles

The Invincibles (cricket)

The Australian cricket team in England in 1948 was captained by Don Bradman, who was making his fourth and final tour of England. The team is famous for being the first Test match side to play an entire tour of England without losing a match. This feat earned them the nickname of The Invincibles,...

and was captained by Donald Bradman

Donald Bradman

Sir Donald George Bradman, AC , often referred to as "The Don", was an Australian cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time...

. In recent years the Australia team has been captained by Allan Border

Allan Border

Allan Robert Border AO is a former Australian cricketer. A batsman, Border was for many years the captain of the Australian team. His playing nickname was "A.B.". He played 156 Test matches in his career, a record until it was passed by fellow Australian Steve Waugh...

, Mark Taylor

Mark Taylor (cricketer)

Mark Anthony Taylor, AO is a former Australian cricket player and Test opening batsman from 1988–1999, as well as captain from 1994–1999, succeeding Allan Border...

, Steve Waugh

Steve Waugh

Stephen Rodger "Steve" Waugh, AO is a former Australian cricketer and fraternal twin of cricketer Mark Waugh. A right-handed batsman, he was also a successful medium-pace bowler...

, Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting

Ricky Thomas Ponting , nicknamed Punter, is an Australian cricketer, a former captain of the Australian cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day International cricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very...

, and currently Michael Clarke

Michael Clarke (cricketer)

Michael John Clarke is an Australian cricketer. He was appointed captain of the Test and ODI teams on 30 March 2011. Nicknamed 'Pup', he is a right-handed batsman, and occasional left-arm orthodox spin bowler...

.

As early as the 1820s, there are reports of Rugby games being played at Barrack Square in the city between the army and the crews of visiting ships. Rugby Union formally began in Australia with the formation of the first clubs, the oldest of which is the Sydney University Club, formed in 1864.By 1874 there were enough clubs to form a Sydney Metropolitan competition and in that year the Southern Rugby Union was established. In 1892 the Southern Rugby Union of New South Wales and the Northern Rugby Union of Queensland (formed in 1883) became New South Wales and Queensland Rugby Unions respectively.

Representatives from these two unions combined in 1899 when an Australian team played its first Test series - against a visiting team from the British Isles. Four tests were played, Australia winning the first test at the Sydney Cricket Ground 13-3. The second test in Brisbane and the third and fourth Sydney were won by the British Isles who took out the series. Without a national jersey, the Test matches in New South Wales were played in blue jerseys and in Queensland in maroon - both with the Australian Coat of Arms on their chests. In 1903 Australia and New Zealand played a single test at the Sydney Cricket Ground in front of a crowd of 30,000. This was the beginning of intense rugby rivalry between the two nations. The crowd had grown to almost 50,000 at the same venue when Australia played New Zealand in 1907.

Rugby was the most popular sport in both New South Wales and Queensland. In 1907 there were movements within Rugby about creating a breakaway competition and playing under the Northern Union (laser renamed 'Rugby League

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

') Rules. In 1908 the first Australian Rugby League

Rugby league

competition started, which is now the NRL. Over the next few years the new sport Rugby League

Rugby league

took over as the dominate sport in New South Wales and Queensland.

The VFA

Victorian Football League

The Victorian Football League which evolved from the former Victorian Football Association , taking its new name as from the 1996 season, is the premier Australian rules football league in Victoria The Victorian Football League (VFL) which evolved from the former Victorian Football Association...

is formed in Melbourne in 1877.

Australia's first lawn tennis court was built on Garden Island

Garden Island, New South Wales

Garden Island is an inner-city locality of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located to the north-east of the Sydney central business district, north of the suburb of Potts Point....

on Sydney Harbour in 1880. It is still in use.

The first recorded association football (soccer) game took place in Hobart on 10 May 1879 when the Cricketers Football Club played a scratch match. The first recorded inter-club match took place a month later when the Cricketers took on New Town FC on 7 June. The oldest existing club is Balgownie Rangers, founded in 1883, which still competes in the Illawarra

Illawarra

Illawarra is a region in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is a coastal region situated immediately south of Sydney and north of the Shoalhaven or South Coast region. It encompasses the cities of Wollongong, Shellharbour, Shoalhaven and the town of Kiama. The central region contains Lake...

regional league.

Athletics Australia

Athletics Australia

Athletics Australia is the National Sporting Organisation recognised by the Australian Sports Commission for the sport of athletics in Australia....

(AA) was created in 1897, with men's and women's associations amalgamating in 1978.

The family of "Swimming Professor" Richmond Theophillus "Dick" Cavill (1884–1938) contributed significantly to the development of the sport of swimming: his son Arthur is credited by some with originating the Australian crawl

Front crawl

The front crawl, forward crawl, or freestyle is a swimming stroke usually regarded as the fastest of the four front primary strokes. As such, the front crawl stroke is nearly universally used during a freestyle swimming competition, hence the synonymously used term "freestyle". It is one of two...

stroke, which now predominates in "freestyle" swimming races. Another son, Sydney, was the originator of the butterfly stroke

Butterfly stroke

The butterfly is a swimming stroke swum on the breast, with both arms moving simultaneously. The butterfly kick was developed separately, and is also known as the "dolphin kick"...

. Youngest son Richmond Theophilus was the first to use the crawl in a competition, winning 100 yards State championship in 1899 and in England, in 1902, he was the first to swim 100 yards in under a minute.

Eight clubs break away from the VFA to form the VFL

Australian Football League

The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

in 1896.

1900s

The first Badminton

Badminton

Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...

competition in Australia

Badminton Australia

Badminton Australia is the top governing body for badminton in Australia. It is committed to promoting the awareness and development of badminton within Australia and is also responsible for the management of international badminton relations + events...

was played in 1900.

Judo

Judo

is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...

was first demonstrated in Australia in 1906.

The Australian Rugby League

Australian Rugby League

The Australian Rugby League is the governing body for the sport of rugby league in Australia. It is made up of state bodies, including the New South Wales Rugby League and the Queensland Rugby League...

(ARL) was founded in 1907 as the governing body for the sport of rugby league in Australia.

The first Australia-wide association football (soccer) body was the Commonwealth Football Association, formed in 1912, although this folded two years later.

1920s

Following World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, in 1921, the Australian Soccer Association was formed which superceeded the defunct Commonwealth Football Association which folded in 1914. The first international association football (soccer) match Australia competed in was a friendly match against New Zealand in Dunedin

Dunedin

Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...

on 17 June 1922.

In 1922, a committee in Australia investigated the benefits of physical education for girls. They came up with several recommendations regarding what sports were and were not appropriate for girls to play based on the level of fitness required. It was determined that for some individual girls that for medical reasons, the girls should probably not be allowed to participate in tennis, netball, lacrosse, golf, hockey, and cricket. Football was completely medically inappropriate for girls to play. It was medically appropriate for all girls to be able to participate in, so long as they were not done in an overly competitive manner, swimming, rowing, cycling and horseback riding.

Dick Eve

Dick Eve

Richmond Cavill "Dick" Eve was an Australian diver who competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics.In 1924 he won the gold medal in the plain high diving competition. He also competed in the 3 metre springboard event and finished fifth.-External links:**...

won Australia's first Olympic diving gold medal in 1924.

1940s

Australian women's sports had an advantage over many other women's sport organisations around the world in the period after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Women's sport organisations had largely remained intact and were holding competitions during the war period. This structure survived in the post war period. Women's sport were not hurt because of food rationing, petrol rationing, population disbursement, and other issues facing post-war Europe.

Canoeing and Kayaking Australia was founded in 1947
ref>MenuID=AC_Information/93/0/,Australian_Canoeing_History/69/0/ Canoeing and Kayaking Australia - History with Australians winning 15 Olympic medals.

1950s to present

In 1960 the Australian Soccer Associationwas suspended from FIFA for the poaching of players from overseas. In 1961 the Australian Soccer Federation (ASF) was formed. The federation is now known as Football Federation Australia

Football Federation Australia

Football Federation Australia is the governing body for the sport of football in Australia. Before 1 January 2005, it was known as the Australian Soccer Association , which succeeded Soccer Australia in this role in 2003...

. Australia's first national association football (soccer) competition, the National Soccer League

National Soccer League

The National Soccer League is the former national association football competition in Australasia, overseen by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977, until its demise in 2004...

was founded in 1977, this was superceeded by the A-League

A-League

in 2005.

On 26 November, 2011 Brisbane Roar FC broke the 74 year old record for the longest unbeaten run in Australian national football codes. The Previous record of 35 games undefeated, was equalled with a come from behind 2-1 win over Newcastle Jets in Newcastle and was then beaten a week later in Brisbane where they defeated Perth Glory 4-0.

Participation

There are 34,000 athletes, officials and coaches currently registered with the Athletics Australia

Athletics Australia

Athletics Australia is the National Sporting Organisation recognised by the Australian Sports Commission for the sport of athletics in Australia....

. A 2007 estimate claimed that Australian football had 615,549 participants, Basketball has become one of the most popular participation sports in Australia. In Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

, and Melbourne, particularly, it has more participants than any other sport.

Association football (soccer) is the only code of football that appears in the Australian top ten sports and physical recreational Activities by participation.

Australia's warm climate and long coastline of sandy beaches and rolling waves provide ideal conditions for water sports such as swimming

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

. The majority of Australians live in cities or towns on or near the coast, and so beaches are a place that millions of Australians visit regularly.

Australia receives ronald in the Australian Alps

Australian Alps

The Australian Alps are the highest mountain ranges of mainland Australia. They are located in southeastern Australia and straddle the Australian Capital Territory, south-eastern New South Wales and eastern Victoria...

and parts of Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

, and has indoor ice rink

Ice rink

An ice rink is a frozen body of water and/or hardened chemicals where people can skate or play winter sports. Besides recreational ice skating, some of its uses include ice hockey, figure skating and curling as well as exhibitions, contests and ice shows...

s in many cities. As a result, Australians are able to participate in a wide variety of winter sport

Winter sport

A winter sport is a sport which is played on snow or ice. Most such sports are variations of skiing, ice skating and sledding. Traditionally such sports were only played in cold areas during winter, but artificial snow and ice allow more flexibility...

s, including skiing

Skiing

Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....

, snowboarding

Snowboarding

Snowboarding is a sport that involves descending a slope that is covered with snow on a snowboard attached to a rider's feet using a special boot set onto mounted binding. The development of snowboarding was inspired by skateboarding, sledding, surfing and skiing. It was developed in the U.S.A...

, cross-country skiing

Cross-country skiing

Cross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...

, biathlon

Biathlon

Biathlon is a term used to describe any sporting event made up of two disciplines. However, biathlon usually refers specifically to the winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting...

, freestyle skiing

Freestyle skiing

Freestyle skiing is form of skiing which used to encompass two disciplines: aerials, and moguls. Except the two disciplines mentioned earlier Freestyle Skiing now consists of Skicross, Half Pipe and Slope Style...

(including aerial skiing and moguls), ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

, curling

Curling

Curling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a...

, short track speed skating

Short track speed skating

Short track speed skating is a form of competitive ice speed skating. In competitions, multiple skaters skate on an oval ice track with a circumference of 111.12 m...

and figure skating

Figure skating

Figure skating is an Olympic sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform spins, jumps, footwork and other intricate and challenging moves on ice skates. Figure skaters compete at various levels from beginner up to the Olympic level , and at local, national, and international competitions...

. Australia has Olympic programs for some of these sports. Australia has little or no facilities for ski jumping

Ski jumping

Ski jumping is a sport in which skiers go down a take-off ramp, jump and attempt to land as far as possible down the hill below. In addition to the length of the jump, judges give points for style. The skis used for ski jumping are wide and long...

, and the ski runs are mostly too short for the faster competitive alpine skiing events like Super-G and Downhill

Downhill

Downhill is an alpine skiing discipline. The rules for the Downhill were originally developed by Sir Arnold Lunn for the 1921 British National Ski Championships....

. There are no bobsleigh tracks (used for bobsleigh

Bobsleigh

Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of two or four make timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sled that are combined to calculate the final score....

, luge

Luge

A Luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine and feet-first. Steering is done by flexing the sled's runners with the calf of each leg or exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Racing sleds weigh 21-25 kilograms for singles and 25-30 kilograms for doubles. Luge...

and skeleton

Skeleton (sport)

Skeleton is a fast winter sliding sport in which an individual person rides a small sled down a frozen track while lying face down, during which athletes experience forces up to 5g. It originated in St. Moritz, Switzerland as a spin-off from the popular British sport of Cresta Sledding...

) within Australia (the nearest one is in Japan), although Australia competes in slide events overseas, and there is a bobsleigh push track in the Docklands in Melbourne.

Sport	Total Participation	Year	Participation % For 1998/1999 data, the number used is the ABS corrected participation rate.	Year
Association football (soccer)			7.7%	1998/1999
Athletics	34,000	2006
Australian rules	615,549	2007	20.1%	1998/1999
Baseball	57,000	2003
Basketball	1,000,000	2010	10.2%	1998/1999
Cricket			11.7%	1998/1999
Cycling			3.4%	1998/1999
Golf			9.9%	1998/1999
Gymnastics	120,000	2011
Horse racing			3.9%	1998/1999
Motor car racing			3.5%	1998/1999
Netball			3.8%	1998/1999
Rugby league			10.7%	1998/1999
Rugby union			5.4%	1998/1999
Shooting	120,000	2007
Swimming			18.0%	1998/1999
Tennis			3.9%	1998/1999
Tenpin bowling			3.8%	1998/1999

Professional sport

There are several professional and semi-professional sport leagues in Australia. They include the A-League

A-League

, ANZ Championship

ANZ Championship

, the Australian Football League

Australian Football League

The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

, the National Basketball League

National Basketball League (Australasia)

The National Basketball League, also known as the iiNet NBL Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in Australasia....

, National Rugby League

National Rugby League

, the National Wheelchair Basketball League, Super Rugby, the Women's National Basketball League

Women's National Basketball League

, and the Women's National Wheelchair Basketball League. Beyond that, there is professional horse racing and motor sport.

The National Basketball League

National Basketball League (Australasia)

The National Basketball League, also known as the iiNet NBL Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in Australasia....

was formed in 1978 and is Australia's top professional basketball competition. In its most recently completed season in 2010–11

2010–11 NBL season

The 2010–11 National Basketball League is the thirty-third season of competition since its establishment in 1979. A total of 9 teams will contest the league. The regular season will be played between October 2010 and April 2011, followed by a post-season involving the top four. The schedule was...

, it had eight teams in the country, plus one team in New Zealand

New Zealand Breakers

The New Zealand Breakers are a professional basketball team competing in the Australasian National Basketball League. The Breakers joined the NBL for the 2003/04 season as one of two expansion clubs. The club is based in the city of Auckland, New Zealand and play their home games at the North...

.

Throughout its history, horse racing has become part of the Australian culture and has developed a rich and colourful language

Australian and New Zealand punting glossary

The Australian and New Zealand punting glossary explains some of the terms, jargon and slang which are commonly used and heard on Australian and New Zealand racecourses, in TABs, on radio, and in the horse racing media...

. The most famous racehorses of Australia's turf include the New Zealand bred Carbine

Carbine

A carbine , from French carabine, is a longarm similar to but shorter than a rifle or musket. Many carbines are shortened versions of full rifles, firing the same ammunition at a lower velocity due to a shorter barrel length....

, Phar Lap

Phar Lap

Phar Lap was a champion Thoroughbred racehorse whose achievements captured the public's imagination during the early years of the Great Depression. Foaled in New Zealand, he was trained and raced in Australia. Phar Lap dominated Australian racing during a distinguished career, winning a Melbourne...

, and Tulloch

Tulloch (horse)

Tulloch was a Thoroughbred racehorse, who is regarded as one of the three finest racehorses in Australian racing history...

, the Australian bred Bernborough

Bernborough

Bernborough was an outstanding Australian-bred Thoroughbred racehorse who competed from 1941 to 1946. He carried heavy weights to victory in a sequence of 15 consecutive wins that included the Doomben 10,000 carrying 10 stone 5 pounds....

, Gloaming

Gloaming (horse)

Gloaming was an outstanding Thoroughbred racehorse, owned, trained, and based in New Zealand. He set many records which includes the Australasian record of 19 successive wins, many in Principal Races. Gloaming was unusual that he was a champion who won many major races in both Australia and New...

and Kingston Town

Kingston Town

Kingston Town was an outstanding Australian bred Thoroughbred racehorse who won a record three Cox Plates and 11 other Group One races in a career spanning from 1979 to 1982...

plus the British bred Makybe Diva

Makybe Diva

Makybe Diva is a British-bred, Australian-trained Thoroughbred who became the first racehorse to win the famed Melbourne Cup on three occasions: 2003, 2004, and 2005. In 2005, she also won the Cox Plate. Makybe Diva is the highest stakes-earner in Australasian horse racing history, with winnings...

. Harness racing

Harness racing

Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait . They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, although racing under saddle is also conducted in Europe.-Breeds:...

is another code of horse racing in Australia. Standardbred horses either trot, in a diagonal gait, or more usually pace (in a lateral gait), along with 8-12 other horses and drivers on a circular racing track over 600 to 1,400 metres. One of the most successful pacers in Australia was the New Zealand bred, Cardigan Bay

Cardigan Bay

Cardigan Bay is a large inlet of the Irish Sea, indenting the west coast of Wales between Bardsey Island, Gwynedd in the north, and Strumble Head, Pembrokeshire at its southern end. It is the largest bay in Wales....

who won 82 races in all and was the first Standardbred horse to earn (US) one million dollars or more.

Spectatorship

In the 2006/2007 season, Melbourne Victory

Melbourne Victory

Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, that plays in the A-League....

averaged 27,728 people to their home matches throughout the season. The 2009-10 regular season was considerably lower. In 2008, the Australian Football League

Australian Football League

The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

had a cumulative attendance of 7,083,015, a record for the competition and an average attendance of 38,295. In 2010, the National Rugby League

National Rugby League

's premiership set a record for regular season attendance to NRL matches.

Leagues/Tournaments	Total spectatorship	Year	Average match attendance	Year
A-League			8,752	2010/2011
Australian Football League	7,139,272	2011	36,425	2011
Horse racing	2,000,000	2002/2003
National Basketball League	547,021	2010/2011	4,031	2010/2011
National Rugby League	3,465,851	2011	17,243	2011
Rugby League State of Origin	186,607	2011	62,202	2011
Women's National Basketball League	77,944	2010/2011

Amateur sport

Amateur sport is often organised top down by national federations. These organisations include Athletics Australia

Athletics Australia

Athletics Australia is the National Sporting Organisation recognised by the Australian Sports Commission for the sport of athletics in Australia....

and Swimming Australia

Swimming Australia

Swimming Australia is the peak governing body for competitive swimming in Australia. The body currently has approximately 90,000 registered members nationally in 1100 clubs across the country, which includes swimmers, coaches, officials, administrators and volunteers...

Sport media

Media coverage of Australian sport and athletes predates 1876. The first all Australian sport publication, The Referee, was first published in 1886 in Sydney. The major newspapers for sport coverage in the country include The Courier Mail and The West Australian
The West Australian
The West Australian is the only locally-edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia, and is owned by ASX-listed Seven West Media . The West is published in tabloid format, as is the state's other major newspaper, The Sunday Times, a News Limited publication...

.

the 1967 NSWRFL season's grand final

Grand Final

Grand Final is a predominantly Australian sport term used to describe a match that decides a league champion.It originated in Victoria and South Australia and has become specifically significant Australian culture...

became the first football grand final of any code to be televised live in Australia. The Nine Network

Nine Network

The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...

had paid $5,000 for the broadcasting rights.

SBS

Special Broadcasting Service

The Special Broadcasting Service is a hybrid-funded Australian public broadcasting radio and television network. The stated purpose of SBS is "to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect...

and FoxSports are two of the most important television networks in Australia in terms of covering all Australian sports, not just the popular professional leagues. Administrators for less popular spectator sports, such as basketball and netball, believe that getting additional television and newspaper coverage is fundamental for the growth and success of their sports going forward.

Anti-siphoning laws in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

regulate the media companies' access to significant sporting events. In 1992, when the country experienced growth in paid-subscription media, the Parliament of Australia

Parliament of Australia

The Parliament of Australia, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It is bicameral, largely modelled in the Westminster tradition, but with some influences from the United States Congress...

enacted the Broadcasting Services Act that gave free-to-air broadcasters preferential access to acquire broadcasting rights to sporting events. The anti-siphoning list is a list of major sporting events that the Parliament of Australia has decided must be available for all Australians to see free of charge and cannot be "siphoned off" to pay TV where people are forced to pay to see them. The current anti-siphoning list came into effect in 2006 and expires 31 December 2010. The Minister for Communications can add or remove events from the list at his discretion. There are currently ten sports on the anti-siphoning list plus the Olympic and Commonwealth Games. Events on the anti-siphoning list are delisted 12 weeks before they start to ensure pay TV broadcasters have reasonable access to listed events, if free-to-air broadcasters decide not to purchase the broadcast rights for a particular event. Any rights to listed sporting events that are not acquired by free-to-air broadcasters are available to pay TV. For multi-round events where it is simply not possible for free-to-air networks to broadcast all matches within the event (e.g. the Australian Open) complementary coverage is available on pay television. The Federal Government is obliged by legislation to conduct a review of the list before the end of 2009. The current anti-siphoning list requires showing listed sports on the broadcaster's main channel.

Sport is widely televised in Australia. The table below contains ratings information for 2011 matches and television shows for the National Rugby League

National Rugby League

and the Australian Football League

Australian Football League

The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

and other sporting events.

2011 OzTem Five Television Ratings
Match	Network	Air date	OzTam Five city Live	Sydney	Melbourne	Brisbane	Adelaide	Perth
2011 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 2011 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 The 2011 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 was an Australian touring car motor race for V8 Supercars. The race was on Sunday, 9 October 2011 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia and was Race 20 of the 2011 International V8 Supercars Championship...	Channel 7	9-Oct-11	1212000	384000	302000	287000	153000	86000
2011 NRL Grand Final 2011 NRL Grand Final The 2011 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the NRL's 2011 Telstra Premiership season. It was played between the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and the New Zealand Warriors on the afternoon of Sunday, 2 October, and it was the first time the two sides have met in a...	Nine	2-Oct-2011	2027000	1021000	347000	524000	48000	87000
2011 NRL Grand Final 2011 NRL Grand Final The 2011 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the NRL's 2011 Telstra Premiership season. It was played between the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and the New Zealand Warriors on the afternoon of Sunday, 2 October, and it was the first time the two sides have met in a... Presentation	Nine	2-Oct-11	1548000	893000	***	511000	60000	84000
2011 AFL Grand Final 2011 AFL Grand Final The 2011 Australian Football League Grand Final was an Australian rules football match, played to determine the premiers of the 2011 season. It was contested between the Collingwood Football Club and the Geelong Football Club....	Ten	1-Oct-11	2595000	258000	1367000	308000	297000	365000
2011 AFL Grand Final 2011 AFL Grand Final The 2011 Australian Football League Grand Final was an Australian rules football match, played to determine the premiers of the 2011 season. It was contested between the Collingwood Football Club and the Geelong Football Club.... Post Match Presentation	Ten	1-Oct-11	2106000	187000	1114000	257000	276000	271000
2011 AFL Grand Final 2011 AFL Grand Final The 2011 Australian Football League Grand Final was an Australian rules football match, played to determine the premiers of the 2011 season. It was contested between the Collingwood Football Club and the Geelong Football Club.... Pre Game	Ten	1-Oct-11	1932000	141000	1096000	229000	204000	262000
2011 AFL Grand Final 2011 AFL Grand Final The 2011 Australian Football League Grand Final was an Australian rules football match, played to determine the premiers of the 2011 season. It was contested between the Collingwood Football Club and the Geelong Football Club.... Pre Match Entertainment	Ten	1-Oct-11	1405000	800000	863000	151000	147000	164000
The Footy Show (rugby league) season final	Nine	29-Sept-11	973000	152000	507000	116000	128000	71000
2011 Singapore Grand Prix 2011 Singapore Grand Prix The 2011 Singapore Grand Prix, formally the 2011 Formula 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix, was a Formula One motor race that was held on 25 September 2011 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore. It was the fourteenth round of the 2011 Formula One season, and the twelfth time the Singapore...	OneHD	25-Sept-11	280000	55000	84000	50000	40000	52000
2011 Brownlow Medal 2011 Brownlow Medal The Brownlow Medal is the most prestigious individual award in Australian rules football. The award was presented on Monday, 26 September, in the week before the 2011 AFL Grand Final.-Leading votegetters:...	Channel 7	26-Sept-11	1130000	16000	743000	6000	156000	210000
Rugby League Final Series Pf2	Nine	24-Sept-11	1174000	619000	274000	274000	4000	2000
Ten’s AFL Finals 2011: 2nd Prelim. Final Geelong V West Coast	Ten	24-Sept-11	1095000	57000	556000	79000	118000	284000

The table below gives an idea as to the viewing audience.

League	Aggregate audience	Year	Total television viewers	Year	Average per game	Year
National Basketball League National Basketball League (Australasia) The National Basketball League, also known as the iiNet NBL Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in Australasia....			6,061,679	2010/2011	33,815	2010/2011
National Rugby League National Rugby League The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...	128,500,000	2009
Women's National Basketball League Women's National Basketball League The Women's National Basketball League is the pre-eminent women's professional basketball league in Australia. It currently is composed of ten teams. The league was founded in 1981 and is the women's counterpart to the National Basketball League...			1,352,096	2010/2011

Rugby league had the highest aggregate television ratings of any sport in 2009 and 2010. Also, in a world first, the Nine Network

Nine Network

broadcasted free-to-air

Free-to-air

Free-to-air describes television and radio services broadcast in clear form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscription or one-off fee...

the first match of the 2010 State of Origin series

2010 State of Origin series

The 2010 State of Origin series was the 29th year that the annual best-of-three series of interstate rugby league football matches contested between the Queensland and New South Wales representative teams was played under 'State of Origin' selection rules...

live in 3D

3D television

A 3D television is a television set that employs techniques of 3D presentation, such as stereoscopic capture, multi-view capture, or 2D-plus-depth, and a 3D display – a special viewing device to project a television program into a realistic three-dimensional field.- History :In the late-1890's,...

around the country.

There are a number of Australian sport films. They include The Club. The film was based on a play produced in 1977, in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

. It has been in the senior English syllabi for four Australian states for many years. The film was written by David Williamson, directed by Bruce Beresford

Bruce Beresford

Bruce Beresford is an Australian film director who has made more than 30 feature films over a 40-year career.-Early life:...

and starring John Howard

John Howard (Australian actor)

John Howard is an Australian stage and screen actor. Howard is best known for his appearances in the film The Club, and the television series SeaChange, Always Greener, All Saints and Packed To The Rafters.-Film:Howard's first role was in 1978's My Boys Are Good Boys, in a minor role...

, Jack Thompson

Jack Thompson (actor)

Jack Thompson, AM is an Australian actor and one of the major figures of Australian cinema. He was educated at University of Queensland, before embarking on his acting career. In 2002, he was made an honorary member of the Australian Cinematographers Society...

, Graham Kennedy

Graham Kennedy

Graham Cyril Kennedy, AO was an Australian radio, television and film performer, often called Gra Gra and The King of Australian television.-Childhood:...

and Frank Wilson

Frank Wilson (Australian actor)

Frank Edward Wilson was an Australian film, stage and television actor; musical comedy singer and director; and television game show and variety host.-Early life:...

. Another Australian sport film is The Final Winter
The Final Winter
The Final Winter is an Australian drama film released in 2007. It was directed by Brian Andrews and Jane Forrest and produced by Anthony Coffee, and Michelle Russell, while independently produced it is being distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was written by Matthew Nable who also starred as the...

, released in 2007. It was directed by Brian Andrews and Jane Forrest and produced by Anthony Coffee, and Michelle Russell, while independently produced it is being distributed by Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

. It was written by Matthew Nable

Matthew Nable

Matthew Nable is an Australian television and film writer, actor, author and former professional rugby league footballer. After playing in the Winfield Cup Premiership for the Manly-Warringah and South Sydney clubs during the 1990s, he wrote and starred in the rugby league-centred drama The Final...

who also starred as the lead role 'Grub' Henderson. The film, which earned praise from critics, focuses around Grub who is the captain of the Newtown Jets

Newtown Jets

The Newtown Jets are an Australian rugby league football club based in Newtown, a suburb of Sydney's inner west. They currently compete in the NSWRL Premier League competition, having left the top grade after the 1983 NSWRFL season...

football

Rugby league

team in the early 1980s and his determination to stand for what rugby league traditionally stood for while dealing with his own identity crisis.

Sport is popular on the radio. This Sporting Life

This Sporting Life (radio program)

This Sporting Life was a culturally iconic Triple J radio comedy programme, created by award-winning actor-writer-comedians John Doyle and Greig Pickhaver, who performed as their characters Roy and HG. Broadcast from 1986 to 2008, it was one of the longest-running, most popular and most successful...

was a culturally iconic Triple J

Triple J

triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...

radio comedy programme, created by award-winning actor-writer-comedians John Doyle

John Doyle (comedian)

John Partick Doyle AM is an award-winning Australian actor, writer, radio presenter and comedian.-Early life:Doyle was born in Lithgow, New South Wales in 1953 into a music-loving, Catholic household with three sisters and a brother. His mother was a business woman and father a railway fettler...

and Greig Pickhaver

Greig Pickhaver

alt=Greig Pickhaver|thumb|In May 2010Greig Pickhaver AM is an actor, comedian and writer, who forms one half of the Australian sports comedy duo Roy and HG...

, who performed as their characters Roy and HG

Roy and HG

Roy & HG is an Australian comedy duo, comprising Greig Pickhaver in the role of "H [Harry] G Nelson" and John Doyle as "'Rampaging' Roy Slaven". Their act is an affectionate but irreverent parody of Australia's obsession with sport. Their characters based on archetypes in sports journalism: Nelson...

. Broadcast from 1986 to 2008, it was one of the longest-running, most popular and most successful radio comedy programmes of the post-television era in Australia. IT was the longest-running show in Triple J's programming history, and commanded a large and dedicated nationwide audience throughout its 22-year run. 2KY

2KY

2KY is a commercial radio station based in Sydney, broadcasting throughout New South Wales and Canberra on a network of over 140 narrowcast transmitters as well as the main 1017 AM frequency in Sydney. 2KY broadcasts live commentary of thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing...

is a commercial radio station based in Sydney, broadcasting throughout New South Wales and Canberra on a network of over 140 narrowcast transmitters as well as the main 1017 AM frequency in Sydney. 2KY broadcasts live commentary of thoroughbred, harness

Harness racing in Australia

Harness racing, also colloquially known as trotting, is an important spectator sport in Australia, with large amounts of money wagered annually with bookmakers and the Totalisator Agency Board . In Australia there are 91 harness racing tracks, which hold over 1,900 meetings annually...

and greyhound racing. Over 1500 races are covered each week, including the pre and post race form

Form (horse racing)

----In horse racing, the form of a horse is a record of significant events including its performance in previous races. The form may identify the horse's sire, dam and wider pedigree...

and TAB

Totalizator Agency Board

Totalisator Agency Board in Australia and New Zealand, universally shortened to TAB, is the name given to monopoly totalisator organisations. All were originally government owned...

betting information.

There are a number of Australian sport magazines. One is the AFL Record

AFL Record

The AFL Record is the official program available at Australian Football League matches. The publication began as the Football Record in Melbourne, Australia in April 1912, making it one of the oldest magazines in Australia....

. The magazine is published in a sports magazine style format. Eight different versions, one for each game, are published for each weekly round, 60,000 copies in total, and Roy Morgan Research

Roy Morgan Research

Roy Morgan Research is an Australian market research company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria; it was founded in 1941 by Roy Morgan ; its Executive Chairman today is his son, Gary Morgan....

estimates that the Record has a weekly readership of over 200,000. As of 2009, the week's records are published and are able to be viewed in an online magazine

Online magazine

An online magazine shares some features with a blog and also with online newspapers, but can usually be distinguished by its approach to editorial control...

format. Another Australian sporting magazine is Australia's Surfing Life

Australia's Surfing Life

Australia's Surfing Life is a monthly magazine about surfing published in Australia. It features articles about surf trips in Australia and overseas, surfing technique, board design and wetsuits....

, a monthly magazine about surfing

Surfing

Surfing' is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore...

published in Australia

Australia

. It features articles about surf trips in Australia and overseas, surfing technique, board

Surfboard

A surfboard is an elongated platform used in the sport of surfing. Surfboards are relatively light, but are strong enough to support an individual standing on them while riding a breaking wave...

design and wetsuit

Wetsuit

A wetsuit is a garment, usually made of foamed neoprene, which is worn by surfers, divers, windsurfers, canoeists, and others engaged in water sports, providing thermal insulation, abrasion resistance and buoyancy. The insulation properties depend on bubbles of gas enclosed within the material,...

s. The magazine was founded in 1985.

International competitions

Each year, Athletics Australia conducts the Australian Championships

Australian Championships in Athletics

The Australian Athletics Championships or Australian Open Track and Field Championships are held annually to determine Australia's champion athletes in a range of athletics events. The championships are the primary qualification trial for athletes wishing to compete at the Olympic Games,...

and the Athletics Grand Prix Series

Athletics Grand Prix Series

The Australian Athletics Tour, formerly the Athletics Grand Prix Series is a series of annual Australian track and field competitions which is held from February to April...

, which are the main avenues for Australian athletes to qualify for the Olympic Games

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

, Commonwealth Games

Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 and takes place every four years....

and World Championships

IAAF World Championships in Athletics

The World Championships in Athletics is an event organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations . Originally, it was organised every four years, but this changed in 1991, and it has since been organised biennially.-History:...

Each year Australia competes in various Rugby League

Rugby league

and Rugby Union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

international competitions. Rugby League

Rugby league

events include the Four Nations

Rugby League Four Nations

The Rugby League Four Nations is an annual rugby league football tournament run in partnership between the Australian Rugby League, Rugby Football League and New Zealand Rugby League representing the top three nations in the sport: Australia, England and New Zealand. A fourth partner, France,...

and the Rugby League World Cup

Rugby League World Cup

The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league competition contested by members of the Rugby League International Federation . It has been held nearly once every 4 years on average since its inaugural tournament in France in 1954...

. Rugby Union

Rugby union

events include The Rugby Championship and the Rugby Union World Cup.

Till 2011, Australia has won the Cricket World Cup

Cricket World Cup

four out of the ten times it has been held. Australia dominated world cricket from the mid-90's to the end of the 2000s, but with retirement of many leading players they have dropped to 5th in the test rankings below India, South Africa, England and Sri Lanka. They have appeared in every world cup final from 1996 to 2007, and has been undefeated in world cup matches where they have gone on to win every single world cup match they have since played except for tying South Africa in the 1999 semi-final. This winning streak which spanned 4 World Cups and 34 games came to an end in March 2011 when they were defeated by Pakistan at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo by 4 wickets.

Australia has generally been a world power in Olympic swimming since the 1956 Melbourne Olympics: swimmers like Dawn Fraser

Dawn Fraser

Dawn Fraser AO, MBE is an Australian champion swimmer. She is one of only two swimmers to win the same Olympic event three times – in her case the 100 meters freestyle....

, Kieren Perkins

Kieren Perkins

Kieren John Perkins OAM , is a former Australian professional swimmer. One of the world's best-ever long-distance swimmers, he won two Olympic gold medals in 1992 and 1996 in the 1500-metre freestyle, and a silver medal in 2000....

and Ian Thorpe

Ian Thorpe

Ian James Thorpe OAM , nicknamed the Thorpedo and Thorpey, is an Australian swimmer who specialises in freestyle, but also competes in backstroke and the individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the most won by any Australian, and with three gold and two silver medals, was the most...

have taken multiple gold medals.

The Australian accociation football (soccer) team appeared at the FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup

for the first time in 2006

2006 FIFA World Cup

The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...

and again in 2010

2010 FIFA World Cup

The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010...

. In their debut world cup appearance at the 2006 FIFA World Cup

2006 FIFA World Cup

, the Socceroos surprised many by reaching the Round of 16, losing 1-0 in injury time to the eventual champions Italy. Australia are four time winners and two otime runner-up of the OFC Nations Cup

OFC Nations Cup

The OFC Nations Cup is an international association football tournament held among the Oceania Football Confederation member nations. It was held every two years from 1996 to 2004; before 1996 there were two other tournaments held at irregular intervals, under the name Oceania Nations Cup...

before moving to the Asian Football Confederation

Asian Football Confederation

The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football in Asia. It has 46 member countries, mostly located on the Asian continent. However, due to the disputed boundary of Europe and Asia, nations such as Russia and Turkey which are located mostly in geographic Asia are...

in 2006. Australia first appeared in the AFC Asian Cup

AFC Asian Cup

The AFC Asian Cup is an international association football tournament run by the Asian Football Confederation . It is the second oldest continental football championship in the world after Copa América. The winning team becomes the champion of Asia and automatically qualifies for the FIFA...

in 2007

2007 AFC Asian Cup

The Asian Football Confederation's 2007 AFC Asian Cup finals were held from July 7 to July 29, 2007. For the first time in its history, the competition was co-hosted by four nations: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The tournament was won by first-time champions Iraq, who defeated Saudi...

and were runners up in 2011

2011 AFC Asian Cup

The 2011 AFC Asian Cup finals were held in Qatar on 7–29 January 2011. It was the fifteenth time the tournament has been held, and the second time it has been hosted by Qatar, the other being the 1988 AFC Asian Cup...

. Australia will host the 2015 AFC Asian Cup

2015 AFC Asian Cup

The 2015 AFC Asian Cup will be the 16th edition of the AFC Asian Cup. The finals will be hosted by Australia and held from the 4 to 26 January 2015.-Host selection:...

.

Seven has exclusive Australia

Australia

n free-to-air

Free-to-air

, pay television, online and mobile telephony

Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

broadcast rights to the 2008 Summer Olympics

2008 Summer Olympics

The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...

in Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

. The live telecast of the XXIX Olympiad was shared by both the Seven Network and SBS Television. Seven broadcast the opening and closing ceremonies and mainstream sport's including swimming

Swimming (sport)

, athletics, rowing

Rowing (sport)

Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...

, cycling

Cycling

Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Persons engaged in cycling are cyclists or bicyclists...

and gymnastics

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...

. In stark contrast, SBS TV

SBS TV

SBS One is a national public television channel in Australia. Launched on 24 October 1980, it is the responsibility of SBS's television division, and is available nationally...

provided complementary coverage focused on long-form events such as football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

, road cycling

Road cycling

Road cycling is the most widespread form of cycling. It includes recreational, racing, and utility cycling. Road cyclists are generally expected to obey the same rules and laws as other vehicle drivers or riders and may also be vehicular cyclists....

, volleyball

Volleyball

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

, and table tennis

Table tennis

Table tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...

National teams

Sport	Team (link to team / event)	Nickname (link for origin)	Name sponsor
Rugby union Rugby union Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...	Men's test Australia national rugby union team The Australian national rugby union team is the representative side of Australia in rugby union. The national team is nicknamed the Wallabies and competes annually with New Zealand and South Africa in the Tri-Nations Series, in which they also contest the Bledisloe Cup with New Zealand and the...	Wallabies Wallaby A wallaby is any of about thirty species of macropod . It is an informal designation generally used for any macropod that is smaller than a kangaroo or wallaroo that has not been given some other name.-Overview:... .	Qantas Qantas Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport...
	Women's Australia women's national rugby union team The Australia national women's rugby union team, also known as the Wallaroos, are the national women's rugby union team of Australia. The Wallaroos have competed at three Women's Rugby World Cups in the past; in 1998, 2002, 2006 and the current 2010 event.Australian women have been playing rugby...	Wallaroo Wallaroo A Wallaroo is any of three closely related species of moderately large macropod, intermediate in size between the kangaroos and the wallabies. The name "wallaroo" is a portmanteau of wallaby and kangaroo. The term is not generally used by Australians... s	Paper to Paper
Rugby league Rugby league Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...	Men's test	Kangaroo Kangaroo A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus, Red Kangaroo, Antilopine Kangaroo, Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo. Kangaroos are endemic to the country... s	VB
	Women's Women's Rugby League World Cup The Women's Rugby League World Cup is an international tournament for women to determine the best Rugby League playing nation in the world. It was first held in 2000 in Great Britain coinciding with the men's Rugby League World Cup, and will next be contested in Australia in 2008 as part of the...	Jillaroos Women's rugby league Women's Rugby League is the female-only version of the game rugby league football. There are currently clubs for female only participation running in Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand which are overseen by the various individual organizations of those separate countries and internationally...
	Wheelchair rugby Wheelchair rugby Wheelchair rugby, , is a team sport for athletes with a disability. It is currently practiced in over twenty countries around the world and is a Paralympic sport....	Paralympic Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games are a major international multi-sport event where athletes with a physical disability compete; this includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and Cerebral Palsy. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which are held immediately following their...	Steelers (official) Wheelabies (unofficial)
Association football (soccer)	Men's	Socceroos	Qantas Qantas Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport...
Association football (soccer)	Women's Australia women's national association football team The Australia women's national association football team, nicknamed the Matildas , represents Australia in international women's association football and is governed by Football Federation Australia . The team has regularly qualified for both the Women's World Cup and the Olympics although has won... (incl. Olympic)	Matildas (from Waltzing Matilda Waltzing Matilda "Waltzing Matilda" is Australia's most widely known bush ballad. A country folk song, the song has been referred to as "the unofficial national anthem of Australia".... )	Westfield
Futsal Futsal Futsal is a variant of association football that is played on a smaller pitch and mainly played indoors. Its name is a portmanteau of the Portuguese futebol de salão and the Spanish fútbol de salón , which can be translated as "hall football" or "indoor football"...	National team Futsal in Australia In Australia, Futsal is conducted under the auspices of the National Futsal Commission of Football Federation Australia and State/Territory based futsal associations.Australia has played in all five FIFA Futsal World Cups.-History:...	Futsalroos	Qantas Qantas Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport...
Gridiron (American football American football American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by... )	National team	Australian Outback Outback The Outback is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia, term colloquially can refer to any lands outside the main urban areas. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush".-Overview:The outback is home to a... — formerly Australian Cyclones (1999), Australian Bushranger Bushranger Bushrangers, or bush rangers, originally referred to runaway convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities... s (1997)
Netball Netball Netball is a ball sport played between two teams of seven players. Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. By 1960 international playing rules had been standardised for the game, and the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball ...	National team Australia national netball team The Australia national netball team, commonly known as the Australian Netball Diamonds, represent Australia in international netball tests and competitions. The team was formed in 1938 and played in the first international game of netball, against New Zealand...	Diamond Diamond In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions... s
Swimming Swimming (sport) Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...	Olympic Swimming at the Summer Olympics Swimming has been a sport at every modern Summer Olympics. It has been open to women since 1912. Along with track & field athletics and gymnastics it is one of the most popular spectator sports at the Games and the one with the largest number of events.... , Paralympic Swimming at the Summer Paralympics Swimming has been contested at every Summer Paralympics. At the first games, the 1960 Paralympics, 62 swimming events were held in distances of 25 and 50 metres, plus a 3×50 metre relay for men. Since then, swimming at the Paralympics has grown to 140 events covering distances from 50 to 400... , and World Championships	Dolphin Dolphin Dolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in 17 genera. They vary in size from and , up to and . They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly eating... s	Telstra Telstra Telstra Corporation Limited is an Australian telecommunications and media company, building and operating telecommunications networks and marketing voice, mobile, internet access and pay television products and services....
Softball Softball Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...	Men's Softball Australia Australia's softball history began in 1939 when Gordon Young, Director of Physical Education in NSW, began to promote the game in schools and colleges. In 1942, during World War II, US army sergeant William Duvernet organised softball as a recreation for US nurses stationed in Victoria. Another...	Aussie Steelers
	Women's (Olympic Softball at the Summer Olympics Softball was introduced as an Olympic sport for women in the 1996 Summer Olympics. On July 11, 2005, the IOC voted to drop baseball and softball from the Olympic program for 2012, a decision that was reaffirmed on February 9, 2006... / World's ISF Women's World Championship The ISF Women's World Championship is a fastpitch softball tournament for women's national teams held every four years by the International Softball Federation . The number of teams in the tournament began at five in its inaugural event in 1965, went to a high of 28 for the 1994 edition , and now... )	Aussie Spirit
Water polo Water polo Water polo is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores more goals. Game play involves swimming, treading water , players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing into a...	Men's	Shark Shark Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago.... s
	Women's Australia women's national water polo team The Australian national women's water polo team represents Australia in women's international water polo competitions and is controlled by Australian Water Polo Incorporated. It is currently organised into the Asia/Oceania regional group.-History:...	Stingers Stingers Stingers was an Australian police drama television series. It ran for eight seasons on the Nine Network before it was canceled in late 2004 due to declining ratings and the late timeslot Channel Nine gave the program...
Basketball Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...	Men's Australia national basketball team The Australian national basketball team is the men's basketball side that represents Australia in international competitions. The team is known in Australia as the Boomers, an Australian slang term for Kangaroo. Australia is ranked 9th in the world and finished 7th at the 2008 Beijing Olympic...	Boomers Kangaroo A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus, Red Kangaroo, Antilopine Kangaroo, Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo. Kangaroos are endemic to the country...	Golden Star
	Women's Australia women's national basketball team The Australia Women's National Basketball Team is the women's National Basketball team for Australia. They won Gold at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games 2006 defeating New Zealand's Tall Ferns in the final match with a score of 77–39. They then followed it up with a gold medal at the 2006 FIBA...	Opal Opal Opal is an amorphous form of silica related to quartz, a mineraloid form, not a mineral. 3% to 21% of the total weight is water, but the content is usually between 6% to 10%. It is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most... s	Jayco
	Intellectual disability (men)	Boomerang Boomerang A boomerang is a flying tool with a curved shape used as a weapon or for sport.-Description:A boomerang is usually thought of as a wooden device, although historically boomerang-like devices have also been made from bones. Modern boomerangs used for sport are often made from carbon fibre-reinforced... s
	Intellectual disability (women)	Pearl Pearl A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other... s
Wheelchair basketball Wheelchair basketball Wheelchair basketball is basketball played by people in wheelchairs and is considered one of the major disabled sports practiced. The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation is the governing body for this sport. It is recognized by the International Paralympic Committee as the sole...	Men's	Rollers
	Women's	Gliders
Cycling Bicycle racing Bicycle racing is a competition sport in which various types of bicycles are used. There are several categories of bicycle racing including road bicycle racing, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX, bike trials, and cycle speedway. Bicycle racing is recognised as an Olympic sport...	World Championships UCI World Championships The Union Cycliste Internationale organises UCI World Championships to determine world champion cyclists. These take place annually and are organized around nations rather than trade teams.... /World Cup UCI World Cup The UCI Road World Cup was a season-long road bicycle racing competition comprising ten one-day events. The competition was inaugurated in 1989, and replaced the Super Prestige Pernod International. In the first three years, the competition was sponsored by Perrier...	Cyclones	Toshiba Toshiba is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
Field hockey Field hockey Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...	Men's Kookaburras (hockey) The Australia national field hockey team are the Australia's national men's hockey team, and one of the nation's most successful top level sporting teams. They are the only Australian team in any sport to receive medals at the last five Summer Olympic Games , and have placed in the top four in...	Kookaburra Kookaburra Kookaburras are terrestrial kingfishers native to Australia and New Guinea. They are large to very large, with a total length of . The name is a loanword from Wiradjuri guuguubarra, and is onomatopoeic of its call... s
	Women's Hockeyroos The Australia women's national field hockey team are Australia's national women's hockey team.Having played their first game in 1914,they are one of Australia’s most successful sporting teams, boasting three Olympic Gold...	Hockeyroos	None for 2007 (ANZ for 2004 Olympics Field hockey at the 2004 Summer Olympics Field Hockey at the 2004 Summer Olympics was held at the Olympic Hockey Centre located within the Helliniko Olympic Complex. The competitions for both men and women was split into two groups with the top two teams after the preliminary rounds progressing through to the semi-finals.-Men's... )
Ice hockey Ice hockey Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...	Men's Australian national ice hockey team The Australian men's national ice hockey team is the national ice hockey team for Australia. As of 2010 the Australian team are ranked 34th...	Mighty Roos (after The Mighty Ducks The Mighty Ducks The Mighty Ducks is the first film in The Mighty Ducks trilogy, produced by Avnet–Kerner Productions and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and originally released on October 2, 1992. In the UK and Australia, the film was titled Champions... )
Lacrosse Lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...	Men's World Lacrosse Championship The World Lacrosse Championship is the world championship for international men's field lacrosse. From its inception in 1967 through the 2006 event, it was sanctioned by the International Lacrosse Federation...	Shark Shark Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago.... s
Box lacrosse Box lacrosse Box lacrosse, also known as indoor lacrosse and sometimes shortened to boxla, LAX or simply box, is an indoor version of lacrosse played mostly in North America. The game originated in Canada, where it is the most popular version of the game played in contrast to the traditional field lacrosse game...	Men's World Indoor Lacrosse Championship The World Indoor Lacrosse Championship is an international box lacrosse tournament that is held every four years an is sponsored by the Federation of International Lacrosse . First held in 2003, the tournament was sponsored by the International Lacrosse Federation until 2008, when the ILF became...	Boxaroos
Bowls Bowls Bowls is a sport in which the objective is to roll slightly asymmetric balls so that they stop close to a smaller "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a pitch which may be flat or convex or uneven...	Men's	Jackaroo Jackaroo -Vehicle:* Holden Jackaroo, an Australian 4WD utility or wagon for rough ground * Thruxton Jackaroo, a 1950s British four-seat biplane-Other:* Buddy Williams , known as the yodeling jackaroo... s — a pun on jack, the target ball
	Women's	Sapphire Sapphire Sapphire is a gemstone variety of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide , when it is a color other than red or dark pink; in which case the gem would instead be called a ruby, considered to be a different gemstone. Trace amounts of other elements such as iron, titanium, or chromium can give... s
Orienteering Orienteering Orienteering is a family of sports that requires navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain, and normally moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a specially prepared orienteering map, which they...	National team	Boomerang Boomerang A boomerang is a flying tool with a curved shape used as a weapon or for sport.-Description:A boomerang is usually thought of as a wooden device, although historically boomerang-like devices have also been made from bones. Modern boomerangs used for sport are often made from carbon fibre-reinforced... s
Handball Team handball Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team...	Men's Australia national handball team The Australia national handball team is the national handball team of Australia and is controlled by the Australia Handball Federation. The team is considered the best in the Oceania region.-Current roster:, source: The team is coached by Taip Ramadani....	Crocodile Saltwater Crocodile The saltwater crocodile, also known as estuarine or Indo-Pacific crocodile, is the largest of all living reptiles... s
	Women's World Women's Handball Championship The World Championship in team handball for women has been organized by the International Handball Federation since 1957.- Championships :- Overall medal count :- Participation history :-Largest winning margin:Source: - External links :*...	Redbacks
Ultimate Frisbee	Open	Dingo Dingo The Australian Dingo or Warrigal is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to... s
	Women's	Firetails Beautiful Firetail The Beautiful Firetail is a common species of estrildid finch found in Australia. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 1,000,000 km². The species inhabits temperate shrubland habitats in Australia...
	Mixed	Barramundi Barramundi The Barramundi , also known as Asian Seabass, is a species of catadromous fish in family Latidae of order Perciformes. The native species is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific region from the Persian Gulf, through Southeast Asia to Papua New Guinea and Northern Australia. Known in Thai... s

Women's sport

While not being urged to avoid competition, women had few opportunities to compete in sport in Australia until the 1880s. After that date, new sporting facilities were being built around the country and many new sport clubs were created.
Netball is the most popular women's team participation sport in Australia. In 1985, there were 347,000 players. In 1995, there were over 360,000 Australian netball players. Throughout most of Australia's netball history, the game has largely been a participation sport; it has not managed to become a large spectator sport. In 2005 and 2006, 56,100 Australians attended one to two netball matches. Of these, 41,600 were women. 46,200 attended three to five netball matches, with 34,400 of those spectators being women. 86,400 attended six or more netball matches, with 54,800 spectators being female. Overall, 188,800 people attended netball matches, with 130,800 being female. In 2005 and 2006, netball was the 10th most popular spectator sport for women with Australian rules football (1,011,300), horse racing (912,200), rugby league (542,600), motor sports (462,100), rugby union (232,400), association football (soccer) (212,200), harness racing (190,500), cricket (183,200) and tennis (163,500) all being more popular. The country set an attendance record for a netball match with a record crowd of 14,339 at the Australia–New Zealand Netball Test held at the Sydney SuperDome game in 2004.

In 1940, a study of 314 women in New Zealand and Australia was done. Most of the women in the study were middle class, conservative, Protestant and white. The study found that 183 participated in sport. The ninth most popular sport that these women participated in was billiards, with 3 having played the sport. The sport was tied with croquet

Women's croquet in Australia

, billiards, chess

Women's chess in Australia

In 1940, a study of 314 women in New Zealand and Australia was done. Most of the women in the study were middle class, conservative, Protestant and white. The study found that 183 participated in sport. The ninth most popular sport that these women participated in was chess, with 3 having played...

, fishing

Women's fishing in Australia

, field hockey

Women's field hockey in Australia

Field hockey has been played by women in Australia since 1901. By 1907, there were clubs in several states including New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, and Victoria. Women's field hockey was eventually represented by the Australian Institute of Sport, though the amount of support it...

, horse racing

Women's horse racing in Australia

, squash

Women's squash in Australia

, table tennis

Women's table tennis in Australia

and shooting.

Disabled sport

The Deaf Matildas are the Australian women's national deaf association football (soccer) team. Their first major tournament was the Deaflympic Games held in Australia in 2005.

Australia sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
2008 Summer Paralympics
The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games, the thirteenth Paralympics, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to September 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao....

in Beijing

Beijing

. The country sent 121 officials and 170 athletes in 13 sports to Beijing. It was the country's largest ever Paralympic delegation. The delegation's chef de mission was Darren Peters. Australia sent 11 competitors to compete in two disciplines at the 2010 Winter Paralympics
2010 Winter Paralympics
The 2010 Winter Paralympics, officially the X Paralympic Winter Games, or the 10th Winter Paralympics, were held in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia, Canada from March 12 to 21, 2010. The Opening Ceremony took place in BC Place Stadium in Vancouver and the Closing Ceremony in Whistler...

in Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The delegation also consisted of 3 sighted guide

Sighted guide

A sighted guide is a person who guides a person with blindness or vision impairment.-Paralympic Games:At the Paralympic Games there are various classifications of athletes with a visual impairment....

s and 17 support staff. This was the largest delegation Australia had sent to a Winter Paralympics.

External links

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