Australian Studies

1
Australian Studies

• Culture Sports Lifestyle

2
Sports

• Sport plays an important part in Australian
  culture, assisted by a climate that favours
  outdoor activities 23.5 Australians over the
  age of 15 regularly participate in organised
  sporting activities.

3
Sports

• At an international level, Australia has strong
  teams in cricket, field hockey, netball, rugby
  league, rugby union and international rules
  football, and it performs well in cycling,
  rowing, and swimming.

4
Sports

• Nationally, other popular sports include
  Australian rules football, horse racing, soccer,
  and motor racing.

5
Sports

• Australia has participated in every summer
  Olympic Games of the modern era, and every
  Commonwealth Games.

6
Sports

• Australia hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics in
  Melbourne and the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney,
  and has ranked among the top six medal-takers
  since 2000.

7
Sports

• Australia has also hosted the 1938, 1962, 1982,
  and 2006 Commonwealth Games.

8
Sports

• Other major international events held in
  Australia include the Grand Slam Australian Open
  tennis tournament, international cricket matches,
  and the Formula One Australian Grand Prix.

9
Sports

• Viewing televised sport is popular the
  highest-rating television programs include the
  summer Olympic Games, State of Origin, and the
  grand finals of the National Rugby League and
  Australian Football League.

10
Athletics (Track and field)

• Athletics is a minor sport in Australia, with
  around 34,000 athletes, officials and coaches
  currently registered with the national
  association.

11
Australian rules football

• Australian rules football is played in all
  Australian states and territories. The game is
  commonly known as football, "footy", "Aussie
  rules".

12
Australian rules football

• It is the most popular football code in
  Australia, and in 2008 AFL games had a cumulative
  attendance of 7,083,015, a record for the
  competition and an average attendance of 38,295.

13
Australian rules football

• AFL games have the fourth highest average
  attendances in the world, for the peak national
  competitions in all football codes.

14
Baseball

• Baseball, like many mainstream American sports in
  Australia experienced a surge of popularity in
  the early 1990s with the formation of the
  Australian Baseball League.

15
Basketball

• The National Basketball League was formed in 1978
  and is Australia's top professional basketball
  competition. It now has ten teams in the country,
  plus one team in New Zealand.

16
Cricket

• Cricket has a long history in Australia and is
  the most popular, and is played on local,
  national and international levels.

17
Cricket

• It is Australia's national summer sport and
  unlike the various football codes, enjoys
  consistent support from people in all parts of
  Australia.

18
Cricket

• The Australia national cricket team was the
  winner of the first Test match, and is today
  regarded as the leading international team in
  world cricket, having been the unquestionably
  dominant team for most of the 2000s.

19
Golf

• Australia is a long-standing power in golf and
  has one of the highest numbers of golf courses
  per capita in the world.
• At 31 December 2007 Australia had twelve men in
  the top one hundred of the Official World Golf
  Rankings, placing it behind only the United
  States and slightly ahead of the United Kingdom.

20
Horse racing

• Horse racing in Australia is administered by The
  Australian Racing Board, with each States
  Principal Racing Authority agreeing to abide by,
  and to enforce the Australian Rules of Racing.

21
The Melbourne Cup

• The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major annual
  thoroughbred horse race and is billed as The race
  that stops a nation.

22
Motorsport

• Motorsport is a popular spectator sport in
  Australia, although there are relatively few
  competitors compared to other sports due to the
  high costs of competing.

23
Netball

• Netball has the highest level of participation of
  any sport amongst women in Australia.

24
Rugby league

• The Australian Rugby League (ARL) is the
  governing body for the sport of rugby league
  football in Australia.

25
Rugby union

• The first recorded game of Rugby football in
  Australia was on 25 July 1839.

26
Soccer (Association football)

• Soccer (Association football) is a popular
  participation sport in Australia and is becoming
  increasingly popular at national and
  international levels.

27
Softball

• 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.

28
Swimming

• Swimming is a very common and popular sport in
  Australia as a recreational activity as well as
  in competitive racing events.

29
Tennis

• One of the four tennis Grand Slams is played in
  Australia, the Australian Open held in Melbourne.

30
Winter Sports

• Australia receives snow in the Australian Alps
  and parts of Tasmania, and has indoor ice rinks
  in many cities.