What Is The National Sport Of Canada?

Canada has two official national sports. Ice hockey is the official national sport of Canada in winter, and lacrosse is its national sport in summer. Hockey is a national passion, and is the most-watched spectator sport in the country.

In 2004, it was estimated that there were more than 1.65 million active ice hockey players in Canada. The major teams in Canadian ice hockey are made up of players hailing from the six largest metropolitan cities of the country, namely Calgary, Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver. These teams play in the National Hockey League, and they are NHL franchisees. There are more Canadian players playing in the NHL than the combined number of players from other countries. Besides ice hockey and lacrosse, many Canadians actively play Canadian football and curling.

Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball and basketball are other national pastimes at junior age-group levels. Montreal hosted the Olympic Games in 1976. Cricket is not as popular as it is in other Commonwealth countries, but Toronto has hosted one-day international cricket matches in the mid-1990's and the Canadian cricket team participated in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.