List of sports
The following is a list of sports/ games, divided by category.
According to the World Sports Encyclopaedia (2003), there are 8,000 indigenous sports and sporting games.[1]
Physical sports
Acrobatic sports
- Breakdancing
- Competitive dancing
- Dancesport
- Dragon dance and Lion dance
- Figure skating
- Freerunning
- Gymnastics
- High kick
- Parkour
- Pole sports
- Stunt
- Trampolining
- Winter guard
Air sports
- Gliding
- Hang gliding
- Human powered aircraft
- Model aircraft
- Parachuting
- Paragliding
- Paramotoring
- Ultralight aviation
Archery
- Field archery
- Flight archery
- Gungdo
- Indoor archery
- Kyūdō
- Mounted archery
- Popinjay
- Run archery
- Target archery
Ball games
Ball-over-net games
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Europei_di_pallavolo_2005_-_Italia-Russia.jpg/300px-Europei_di_pallavolo_2005_-_Italia-Russia.jpg)
Basketball family
Bat-and-ball
- Baseball
- Bat and trap
- Bete-ombro
- Brännboll – four bases
- Corkball – four bases (no base-running)
- Cricket – two creases
- 100-ball cricket
- Backyard, Beach and Street cricket
- Blind cricket
- Club cricket
- Deaf cricket
- First-class cricket
- French cricket
- Ice cricket
- Indoor cricket
- Indoor cricket (UK variant)
- Kilikiti
- Kwik cricket
- Last man stands cricket
- Limited overs cricket
- List A cricket
- One-armed versus one-legged cricket
- One Day International
- Short form cricket
- Single wicket/Double wicket
- T10 cricket
- Tape ball cricket
- Tennis ball cricket
- Test cricket
- Trobriand cricket
- Twenty20
- Twenty20 International
- Windball cricket
- Danish longball
- Elle
- English baseball
- Kickball
- Lapta – two salos (bases)
- The Massachusetts Game – four bases
- Matball
- Oină
- Old cat – variable
- Over-the-line – qv
- Palant
- Pesäpallo – four bases
- Plaquita
- Punchball
- Rounders – four bases or posts
- Schlagball
- Scrub baseball – four bases (not a team game per se)
- Stickball – variable
- Stoolball – two stools
- Stoop ball
- Tee-ball
- Town ball – variable
- Vigoro – two wickets
- Vitilla
- Welsh baseball
- Wiffleball
- Wireball
Board sports
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9d/Shakedown_2008_Figure_1-de_vignette.jpg/300px-Shakedown_2008_Figure_1-de_vignette.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Surfing_in_Hawaii.jpg/300px-Surfing_in_Hawaii.jpg)
Sports that are played with some sort of board as the primary equipment.
Catching games
Climbing
- Abseiling
- Aid climbing
- Ice climbing
- Mixed climbing
- Mountaineering
- Rock climbing
- Other
- Canyoning (Canyoneering)
- Coasteering
- Hiking
- Rope climbing
- Pole climbing
Cycling
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Track_cycling_2005.jpg/300px-Track_cycling_2005.jpg)
Sports using bicycles or unicycles.
Bicycle
- Artistic cycling
- BMX
- Cyclo-cross
- Cycle polo
- Cycle speedway
- Downhill mountain biking
- Dirt jumping
- Freestyle BMX
- Hardcourt Bike Polo
- Mountain biking
- Road bicycle racing
- Track cycling
- Underwater cycling
Skibob
Unicycle
- Mountain unicycling
- Street unicycling
- Unicycling
- Unicycle basketball
- Unicycle hockey
- Unicycle trials
- Flatland unicycling
Combat sports: wrestling and martial arts
A combat sport is a competitive contact sport where two combatants fight against each other using certain rules of engagement.
Grappling
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/FreestyleWrestling2.jpg/300px-FreestyleWrestling2.jpg)
Striking
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/2010-02-20-kickboxen-by-RalfR-01.jpg/300px-2010-02-20-kickboxen-by-RalfR-01.jpg)
Mixed or hybrid
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4b/Pins_down.jpg/300px-Pins_down.jpg)
- American Kenpo
- Baguazhang
- Bando
- Bartitsu
- Bujinkan
- Hapkido
- Chun Kuk Do
- Hwa Rang Do
- Jeet Kune Do
- Kajukenbo
- Kalaripayattu
- Krav Maga
- Kuk Sool Won
- Marine Corps Martial Arts Program
- Mixed martial arts
- Northern Praying Mantis
- Ninjutsu
- Okichitaw
- Pankration
- Pencak Silat
- Sanda
- Shidōkan Karate
- Shōrin-ryū Shidōkan
- Shooto
- Shoot boxing
- Shootfighting
- Shorinji Kempo
- Systema
- T'ai chi ch'uan
- Unifight
- Vajra-mushti
- Vale tudo
- Xing Yi Quan
- Zen Bu Kan Kempo
Weapons
- Battōjutsu
- Bojutsu
- Boffer fighting
- Buhurt
- Canne de combat
- Cardboard Tube Fighting
- Eskrima
- Egyptian stick fencing
- Fencing
- Gatka
- Historical European martial arts
- Hojōjutsu
- Iaidō
- Iaijutsu
- Jōdō
- Jogo do pau
- Jūkendō
- Jittejutsu
- Kendo
- Kenjutsu
- Krabi–krabong
- Kumdo
- Kung fu
- Kyūdō
- Kyūjutsu
- Medieval MMA
- Modern Arnis
- Naginatajutsu
- Nguni stick-fighting
- Okinawan kobudō
- Shurikenjutsu
- Silambam
- Sōjutsu
- Sword fighting
- Wing Chun
- Wushu
Other
Cue sports
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Billiards_balls.jpg/300px-Billiards_balls.jpg)
- Carom billiards
- Novuss (and cued forms of carrom)
- Pool
- Eight-ball
- Blackball (a.k.a. British eight-ball pool)
- Nine-ball
- Straight pool (14.1 continuous)
- One-pocket
- Three-ball
- Seven-ball
- Ten-ball
- Rotation
- Baseball pocket billiards
- Cribbage (pool)
- Bank pool
- Artistic pool
- Trick shot competition
- Speed pool
- Bowlliards
- Chicago
- Kelly pool
- Cutthroat
- Killer
- Russian pyramid
- Snooker
- Hybrid carom–pocket games
- Obstacle variations
- Table Sports
Dog sports
Sports in which dogs participate.
Equestrian sports
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/Horserace_520133030.jpg/300px-Horserace_520133030.jpg)
Sports using a horse.
- Buzkashi
- Barrel racing
- Campdrafting
- Cirit
- Charreada
- Chilean rodeo
- Chuckwagon racing
- Cross country
- Cutting
- Dressage
- Endurance riding
- English pleasure
- Equitation
- Eventing
- Equestrian vaulting
- Gymkhana
- Harness racing
- Hobby horse polo
- Horse racing
- Horse polo, or polo
- Horseball
- Jineteada gaucha
- Jousting
- Mounted games
- Mounted archery
- Pato
- Pleasure driving
- Reining
- Rodeo
- Show hunter (British)
- Show jumping
- Steeplechase
- Sur-papakh
- Team penning
- Tent pegging
- Western pleasure
Fishing
- Angling
- Big-game fishing
- Casting
- Noodling
- Spearfishing
- Sport fishing
- Surf fishing
- Rock fishing
- Fly fishing
- Ice fishing
- Bass fishing
Flying disc sports
- Disc dog
- Disc golf
- Disc golf (urban)
- Dodge disc
- Double disc court
- Freestyle
- Fricket
- Frisbee
- Goaltimate
- KanJam
- Guts
- Hot box
- Ultimate
Football
- Ancient games
- Medieval football
- Association football
- Jorkyball
- Paralympic football
- Powerchair Football
- Reduced variants
- Beach soccer
- Crab soccer
- Fireball
- Five-a-side football
- Futsal
- Ice football
- Indoor soccer
- Masters Football
- Papi fut
- Rush goalie
- Walking football
- Street football
- Swamp football
- Three sided football
- Australian football
- English school games
- Eton College
- Harrow football
- Gaelic football
- Gridiron football
- American football
- Eight-man football
- Flag football
- Indoor football
- Nine-man football
- Six-man football
- Sprint football
- Street football (American)
- Touch football
- Unicycle football
- XFL rules football (2001, 2020)
- Canadian football
- American football
- Rugby football
- Hybrid codes
Golf
- Beach golf
- Clock golf
- Codeball
- Dart golf
- Disc golf
- Footgolf
- GolfCross
- Hickory golf
- Indoor golf
- Long drive
- Match play
- Miniature golf
- Park golf
- Pitch and putt
- Sholf
- Shotgun start
- Skins game
- Snow golf
- Speed golf
- Stroke play
- Swingolf
- Topgolf
- Urban golf
Gymnastics
Competitive yoga
Handball family
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Kr-Oe-Siebenmeter.jpg/300px-Kr-Oe-Siebenmeter.jpg)
- Balle à la main
- Ballon au poing
- Beach handball
- Czech handball
- Field handball
- Goalball
- Spikeball
- Tchoukball
- Torball
- Water polo
Hunting
Sometimes considered blood sports.
Ice sports
- Bandy
- Barrel jumping
- Broomball
- Curling
- Figure skating
- Ice cross downhill
- Ice football
- Ice hockey
- Ice yachting
- Moscow broomball
- Ringette
- Rinkball
- Speed skating
- Ice stock sport
Kite sports
- Hang gliding
- Kite buggy
- Kite fighting
- Kite landboarding
- Kitesurfing
- Parasailing
- Snow kiting
- Sport kite (Stunt kite)
Mixed discipline
Decathlon, heptathlon, and the pentathlons consist of ten, seven, and five-component contests that are scored together using one points system.
- Adventure racing
- Aquathlon
- Biathlon
- Duathlon
- Decathlon
- Heptathlon
- Icosathlon
- Modern pentathlon
- Pentathlon
- Tetrathlon
- Triathlon
Orienteering family
- Amateur radio direction finding (Radio Orienteering)
- Geocaching
- Geohashing
- Letterboxing
- Orienteering
- Rogaining
- Waymarking
Pilota family
- American handball
- Australian handball
- Basque pelota
- Fives
- Frisian handball
- Four square
- Gaelic handball
- Jeu de paume
- Palla
- Pallone
- Patball
- Roundnet
- Valencian pilota
Parkour/Freerunning
Sport Parkour and Freerunning are empirically measured competitions of skill, speed or style on an obstacle based course. Self expression, demonstration of control and power are measured.
- Freerunning
- Martial Arts Tricking
- Ninja Warrior
- Obstacle racing (OCR)
- Parkour
- Trampolining
- World Chase Tag
Racket (or racquet) sports
Sports that use a netted racket
- Badminton
- Ball badminton
- Frontenis
- Battledore and shuttlecock
- Crossminton (previously "Speedminton")
- Qianball
- Racketlon (a series of other racket and paddle sports)
- Rackets
- Racquetball
- Real tennis
- Road tennis
- Soft tennis
- Speed-ball
- Squash
- Squash tennis
- Stické
- Tennis
- Tennis polo
- Touchtennis
Sports that use a non-netted racket, or paddle
- Basque pelota
- Beach tennis
- The Downside Ball Game
- Four wall paddleball
- Matkot
- Miniten
- One wall paddleball
- Paddle ball
- Paddle tennis
- Padel
- Paleta Frontón
- Pan Pong
- Pelota mixteca
- Pickleball
- Pitton
- Platform tennis
- Sphairee
- Stoolball
- Table squash
- Table tennis (Ping Pong)
Remote control
Rodeo-originated
Sports that have originated from rodeos in the old Western Americas.
- Bullriding
- Miniature Bull Riding
- Barrel Racing
- Bronc Riding
- Pole bending
- Roping
- Steer riding
- Steer Wrestling
- Goat Tying
Running
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/200metres_Helsinki2005.jpg/300px-200metres_Helsinki2005.jpg)
Sailing
- Dinghy sailing
- Ice yachting
- Kiteboarding
- Land sailing
- Land windsurfing
- Sailing
- Windsurfing
- Wing foiling
- Yacht racing
Snow sports
- Broomball (outdoors, snow)
Skiing
Sled sports
Shooting sports
Sports using guns (firearms, air guns, etc.).
Individual
- Clay pigeon shooting
- Slingshotting
- Bullseye shooting
- Field shooting
- Practical shooting
- Match crossbow
Athletic hybrid
- Modern pentathlon
- Biathlon
- Summer biathlon
- Ski field shooting
- Field running
- Moose biathlon
- Target sprint
- Pistol skiing
- Orienteering shooting
- Military patrol
- Underwater target shooting
Skirmish
Stacking
Stick and ball games
Hockey
Hurling and shinty
Lacrosse
Polo
Street sports
Strength sports
Tag games
- Atya-patya
- Bo-taoshi
- British Bulldog (American Eagle; Australian Dingo)
- Capture the flag
- Darebase
- Hana Ichi Monme
- Hide and seek
- Jugger
- Kabaddi
- Kho kho
- Kick the can
- Langdi
- Marco Polo
- Oztag
- Red rover
- Tag
- World Chase Tag
Walking
Wall-and-ball
Games involving opponents hitting a ball against a wall/walls using a racket, or other piece of equipment, or merely gloved/barehanded.
Aquatic and paddle sports
These sports use water (a river, pool, etc.).
Canoeing
Kayaking
Rafting
Rowing
Other paddling sports
Aquatic ball sports
Surface
Underwater
Competitive swimming
- Backstroke
- Breaststroke
- Butterfly stroke
- Freestyle swimming
- Individual medley
- Synchronized swimming
- Medley relay
Kindred activities
Subsurface and recreational
- Apnoea finswimming
- Aquathlon (underwater wrestling)
- Freediving
- Immersion finswimming
- Scuba diving
- Spearfishing
- Snorkelling
- Sport diving (sport)
- Underwater orienteering
- Underwater photography (sport)
- Underwater target shooting
Diving
Weightlifting
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Pak_Hyon-Suk.jpg)
- Basque traditional weightlifting
- CrossFit
- Highland games
- Kettlebell lifting
- Olympic weightlifting
- Powerlifting
- Strength athletics (strongman)
- Steinstossen
Motorized sports
Auto racing
- Autocross (a.k.a. Slalom)
- Autograss
- Banger racing
- Board track racing
- Demolition derby
- Desert racing
- Dirt track racing
- Drag racing
- Drifting
- Endurance racing
- Folkrace
- Formula racing
- Formula Libre
- Formula Student
- Hillclimbing
- Ice racing
- Kart racing
- Land speed records
- Legends car racing
- Midget car racing
- Monster truck
- Mud bogging
- Off-road racing
- Pickup truck racing
- Production car racing
- Race of Champions
- Rally raid
- Rallycross
- Rallying
- Regularity rally
- Road racing
- Short track motor racing
- Snowmobile racing
- Sports car racing
- Sprint car racing
- Street racing
- Stock car racing
- Time attack
- Tractor pulling
- Touring car racing
- Truck racing
- Vintage racing
- Wheelstand competition
Motorboat racing
- Drag boat racing
- F1 powerboat racing
- Hydroplane racing
- Jet sprint boat racing
- Offshore powerboat racing
- Personal water craft
Motorcycle racing
- Auto Race
- Board track racing
- Cross-country rally
- Endurance racing
- Enduro
- Freestyle motocross
- Grand Prix motorcycle racing
- Grasstrack
- Hillclimbing
- Ice racing
- Ice speedway
- Indoor enduro
- Motocross
- Motorcycle drag racing
- Motorcycle speedway
- Off-roading
- Rally raid
- Road racing
- Superbike racing
- Supercross
- Supermoto
- Supersport racing
- Sidecar racing
- Track racing
- Trial
- TT racing
- Free-style moto
ATV racing
Marker sports
Overlapping sports
Sports falling into two or more categories.
Mind sports
Requiring little or no physical exertion or agility, mind sports are often not considered true sports. Some mind sports are recognised by sporting federations. The following list is intended to represent anything that is likely to be referred to as a mind sport, not to argue their validity as sports.
Card games
Esports
- Battle royale game
- Combat flight simulation game
- Digital collectible card game
- Fighting game
- First-person shooter
- Multiplayer online battle arena
- Real-time strategy
- Rhythm game
- Sim racing
- Sports video game
- Third-person shooter
- Tile-matching video game
- Virtual reality game
Other
Speedcubing
Strategy board games
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/92/Mahjong_in_Hangzhou.jpg/300px-Mahjong_in_Hangzhou.jpg)
Competitive model sports
Different classification
Potentially other sports are listed here.
Air sports
Athletics (track and field)
- Athletics
- Steeplechase
- Cross country
- Jumping
- Throwing
- Racewalking
Electronic sports
Sports played using electronic devices.
Endurance sports
- Chariot racing
- Cross-country skiing
- Cycling
- Iditarod
- Long-distance running
- Rowing
- Swimming
- Wheelchair racing
- Wood chopping
Goal sports
Sports in which the method of scoring is through goals.
Skating sports
- Bandy
- Figure skating
- Ice cross downhill
- Ice dancing
- Ice hockey
- Ice skating
- Inline skating
- Roller skating
- Ringette
- Rinkball
- Speed skating
- Tour skating
Snowsports
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/Airforce_skiing_at_keystone_colorado.jpg/300px-Airforce_skiing_at_keystone_colorado.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Calgary.jpg/300px-Calgary.jpg)
See #Skiing
Strength sports
Sports mainly based on sheer power.
- Bodybuilding
- CrossFit
- Highland games
- Olympic weightlifting
- Powerlifting
- Rock climbing
- Strongman
- Thumb wrestling
- Toe wrestling
- Tug-o-war
- Wood chopping
- Wood splitting
- Zourkhaneh
- Calisthenics
Table sports
- Air hockey
- Backgammon
- Beer Pong
- Connect Four
- Cue sports (a.k.a Billiards)
- Draughts (a.k.a. checkers)
- Dominoes
- Headis
- Janggi
- Mahjong (a.k.a. Taipei)
- Paper Football
- Reversi (a.k.a. Othello)
- Scrabble
- Subbuteo
- Table football
- Table hockey
- Table tennis (a.k.a. ping pong)
- Teqball
- Xiangqi
Target sports
Sports where the main objective is to hit a certain target.
- Archery
- Axe throwing
- Bocce
- Bocce volo
- Boccia
- Bolas criollas
- Boules
- Bowling
- Bowls a.k.a. lawn bowls
- Calva
- Candlepin bowling
- Cornhole
- Croquet
- Cue sports
- Curling
- Darts
- Disc golf
- Golf
- Horseshoes (horseshoe throwing)
- Jeu provençal (boule lyonnaise)
- KanJam
- Knife throwing
- Kubb
- Lawn darts
- Matball
- Mölkky
- Pall mall
- Pétanque
- Pitch and putt
- Ring-goal
- Shooting
- Shuffleboard
- Skittles
- Skee ball
- Tejo
- Trugo
- Varpa
- Woodball
Team sports
Sports that involve teams.
- Basketball family
- Bat and ball games
- Bowling
- Basque pelota
- Bunnock
- Camogie
- Football family
- Gateball
- Handball
- Hardcourt Bike Polo
- Hockey family
- Horseshoe
- Hurling
- Kickball
- Lacrosse
- Mesoamerican ballgame
- Newcomb ball
- Polo
- Paintball
- Quidditch
- Ringette
- Roller derby
- Rowing
- Sepak takraw
- Ultimate (sport)
- Underwater football
- Woodsman
- Volleyball
Windsports
Sports which use the wind (apart from sailing):
Fictional sports
Fictional sports that are played in real life:
- 43-Man Squamish
- Calvinball
- Quidditch (Harry Potter)
- Swiss Guyball
- BASEketball
- Brockian Ultra-Cricket
- Hunger Games
- Whack-bat
- Blitzball
Miscellaneous sports
- Air guitar
- Arctic sports
- Cheese rolling
- Chess boxing
- Chicken fight
- Competitive eating
- Competitive math
- Conker fighting
- Cornhole
- Drum and bugle corps
- Egg and spoon race
- Extreme ironing
- Extreme Pogo
- Ferret legging
- Fierljeppen
- Footbag (hacky sack)
- Guyball
- Haggis hurling
- Jegichagi
- Jeopardy!
- Lawn mower racing
- Lumberjack sports
- Object spinning
- Patball
- Quiz Bowl
- Pea shooting
- Ring-goal
- Ringette
- Sack race
- Soap shoes
- Tennikoit
- Tetherball
- Three-legged race
- Wallball
- Wife-carrying
- Yoyoing
- Marching band
- Redneck Games
- Stihl Timbersports Series
- Ultimate Tazer Ball
- Woodsman
See also
References
- ^ Lipoński, Wojciech (2003). "Introduction". World Sports Encyclopedia. Ozgraf. ISBN 0760316821 – via Internet Archive. Former reference version, How many sports are there in the world? ("World Sports Encyclopedia". Archived from the original on July 23, 2010. Retrieved May 14, 2013.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)). See ISBN 9780760316825.