Sports in Canada

What sports are played in Canada?

Participation is measured by Statistics Canada. Its Survey Series on People and their Communities, collected between 5 May and 25 July 2023, found that 55 per cent of people aged 15 and over reported taking part in sport in the previous twelve months — 62 per cent of men and 49 per cent of women. Among those participants, swimming was reported by 35 per cent, cycling by 33 per cent and running by 27 per cent, and 83 per cent said they played recreationally rather than in a club or league.^[1]

The Future of Sport in Canada Commission, whose final report Canadian Heritage published on 24 March 2026, reported that 72 per cent of children and youth aged 5 to 17 took part in sport in 2025.^[2] The largest single registration figure published by a Canadian national federation is Hockey Canada's: it announced on 30 June 2026 that more than 615,000 players had registered for the 2025–26 season, among them more than 121,000 women and girls, and that it had welcomed more than 71,000 new players that season.^[3]

The sports carrying national federations, professional clubs or Olympic programmes in Canada include ice hockey, curling, Canadian football, soccer, basketball, baseball, athletics, rowing, canoe-kayak, lacrosse, skiing and snowboarding, figure skating, speed skating and biathlon.

What is the most popular spectator sport in Canada?

The largest measured domestic audiences attach to ice hockey. CBC reported on 23 February 2026 that 30.5 million viewers watched the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games across CBC, TSN, Sportsnet and RDS, measured by Numeris TV PPM over 6–22 February 2026. Within those Games, 8.7 million viewers watched the end of the men's ice hockey gold medal game on 22 February 2026 and 4.22 million the closing minutes of the women's final on 19 February 2026, both on the same measurement.^[4]

The single largest annual domestic broadcast is the Grey Cup. The Canadian Football League reported on 21 November 2025 that the 112th Grey Cup drew an average-minute audience of 4.03 million with a peak of 5.01 million and a cumulative reach of 10 million viewers.^[5] Read alongside Hockey Canada's registration count of more than 615,000 players for 2025–26,^[3] these are the structural proxies — broadcast audience and registered participation — on which any ranking of Canadian spectator sport rests.

How is sport organised in Canada?

Two federal statutes frame the system. The National Sports of Canada Act, assented to on 12 May 1994, provides that "the game commonly known as ice hockey is hereby recognized and declared to be the national winter sport of Canada and the game commonly known as lacrosse is hereby recognized and declared to be the national summer sport of Canada" — hockey in winter, lacrosse in summer, an allocation frequently reported the wrong way round.^[6]

The Physical Activity and Sport Act, S.C. 2003, c. 2, assented to on 19 March 2003, sets the federal government's objects of promoting physical activity and sport, and authorises the Minister to take measures including grants and contributions, research, coach training and the coordination of federal anti-doping initiatives. The same Act establishes the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada as a not-for-profit corporation that is "not an agent of Her Majesty", governed by up to twelve directors appointed by the Minister for terms of not more than three years, and required to offer its mediation and arbitration services in both official languages.^[7] Sport Canada sits within the Department of Canadian Heritage, which describes the Government of Canada as "the single largest investor in Canada's amateur sport system", and administers the Canadian Sport Policy, whose third edition runs from 2025 to 2035.^[8] Canadian Heritage published the Future of Sport in Canada Commission's final report, Transforming Sport in Canada: Time for Action, on 24 March 2026.^[2]

The Canadian Olympic Committee states that its purpose is to "transform Canada through the power of sport" and that it works with national sport organisations to prepare teams for the Olympic, Youth Olympic and Pan American Games.^[9] On the statutory side of this arrangement see national sports law and national Olympic committees.

What are the main domestic leagues and competitions?

Most of the top professional clubs based in Canada do not play in domestic leagues. They are members of cross-border leagues headquartered in the United States. The National Hockey League lists 32 clubs, seven of them Canadian: the Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Montréal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks and Winnipeg Jets.^[10] Major League Soccer lists 30 clubs for 2026, of which CF Montréal, Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps are Canadian.^[11] The Toronto Blue Jays are the only Major League Baseball club outside the United States,^[12] and the Toronto Raptors the only NBA club outside it.^[13] The Professional Women's Hockey League fielded eight teams in 2025–26 — Boston, Minnesota, Montréal, New York, Ottawa, Seattle, Toronto and Vancouver — and announced on 27 May 2026 that it will expand to twelve for 2026–27, adding Detroit, Hamilton, Las Vegas and San Jose.^[14] The Montréal Victoire won the 2026 Walter Cup, taking the final series 3–1 and clinching it on 20 May 2026 with a 4–0 shutout in Ottawa.^[15]

The major league headquartered in Canada is the Canadian Football League, which fields nine clubs in a five-team West Division and a four-team East Division.^[16] Its 2026 regular season opened on 4 June at Hamilton and ends on 24 October, with playoffs from 31 October and the 113th Grey Cup at McMahon Stadium in Calgary on 15 November 2026.^[16] The Saskatchewan Roughriders won the 112th Grey Cup 25–17 over the Montreal Alouettes in November 2025, with Trevor Harris named most valuable player and Samuel Emilus most valuable Canadian.^[17]

League pages: NHL, MLS, MLB, NBA, PWHL. The arrangement itself is discussed at league tiers and affiliated leagues and foreign athletes in domestic leagues.

How has Canada performed at the Olympic Games?

The figures here follow Olympedia. Olympedia records that Canada first appeared officially at the 1904 Games in St. Louis and has missed only the 1980 Moscow Games, and counts 5,544 Canadian Olympic athletes.^[18]

Summing Olympedia's Medals by Games table gives 352 medals across 27 Summer editions from 1904 to 2024, and 246 medals across 25 Winter editions from 1924 to 2026. The two records are of a similar size although the Winter programme is far smaller. Summing Olympedia's Medals by sport table independently gives one more medal in the bronze column than the Games table does — 599 against 598 overall — so no gold, silver and bronze split is published on this page; the by-sport table also carries an entry for the art competition in sculpture, and the divergence falls entirely in the bronze column.^[18]

The by-sport distribution, again from Olympedia, is led by athletics with 69 medals, swimming with 62, speed skating with 47, rowing with 44, short track speed skating with 42, freestyle skiing with 35, figure skating with 30, canoe sprint with 28, ice hockey with 25, and boxing and snowboarding with 18 each; wrestling has 17, diving 15, curling 14, alpine skiing 12 and bobsleigh 11. By edition, Olympedia records 44 medals at Los Angeles 1984, 27 at Paris 2024, 26 at the home Winter Games in Vancouver 2010, 29 at PyeongChang 2018 and 21 at Milano Cortina 2026.^[18]

Which athletes and teams are internationally recognised?

At Paris 2024, Summer McIntosh won the women's 400 metres individual medley, the 200 metres butterfly and the 200 metres individual medley. Ethan Katzberg won the men's hammer throw and Camryn Rogers the women's hammer throw at the same Games. Christa Deguchi won the women's 57 kg judo title, Katie Vincent the C-1 200 metres in canoe sprint, and Phil Wizard the men's breaking event; Andre De Grasse, Jerome Blake, Aaron Brown and Brendon Rodney won the men's 4×100 metres relay.^[19]

At Milano Cortina 2026, Mikaël Kingsbury won the men's dual moguls and Megan Oldham the women's freestyle big air. Steven Dubois won the men's 500 metres in short track speed skating, and Ivanie Blondin, Valérie Maltais and Isabelle Weidemann won the women's team pursuit in long track. Brad Jacobs, Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant, Ben Hebert and Tyler Tardi won the men's curling title; Rachel Homan's rink took bronze in the women's event.^[20]

Among teams, Canada took silver in both the men's and the women's Olympic ice hockey tournaments at Milano Cortina 2026.^[20] Canada won the 4 Nations Face-Off final 3–2 in overtime at TD Garden in Boston on 20 February 2025, Connor McDavid scoring at 8:18 of the extra period.^[21] In club competition, the Montréal Victoire won the 2026 Walter Cup.^[15]

What major international competitions has Canada hosted?

The Canadian Olympic Committee records three Olympic host cities: Montréal 1976, Calgary 1988 — the first Canadian host of the Olympic Winter Games — and Vancouver 2010.^[22] Canada also staged the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto from 10 to 26 July 2015, with 41 countries competing in 36 sports across 51 disciplines and 364 medal events; the committee records 219 medals for Canada at those Games, 78 of them gold.^[23]

The FIFA Women's World Cup was held in Canada in 2015. Canada Soccer reported a cumulative attendance of 1,353,506 over 52 matches, an average of 26,539 per match, with Canada's own five matches averaging 48,380.^[24]

Canada co-hosted the 2026 FIFA World Cup with the United States and Mexico. The City of Toronto records six matches staged in the city between 12 June and 2 July 2026, opening with the first men's World Cup match played on Canadian soil and featuring Canada's men's national team.^[25] BC Place in Vancouver staged seven matches: five group-stage fixtures, including Canada against Qatar on 18 June and Switzerland against Canada on 24 June, plus a round-of-32 match on 2 July and a round-of-16 match on 7 July.^[26] Canada finished second in Group B, beat South Africa 1–0 in the round of 32 and was eliminated 3–0 by Morocco in the round of 16 in Houston in July 2026.^[27] Its group results were a 1–1 draw with Bosnia and Herzegovina on 12 June, a 6–0 win over Qatar on 18 June and a 2–1 defeat by Switzerland on 24 June.^[28] On the wider question see hosting and bidding.

What are Canada's main sporting rivalries?

The recurring fixture with the longest documented record is Canada against the United States in ice hockey, contested at the Olympic Games, at the IIHF World Championship and in invitational best-on-best events. Recent meetings: Canada won the 4 Nations Face-Off final 3–2 in overtime on 20 February 2025;^[21] the United States won the Olympic men's gold medal game 2–1 in overtime on 22 February 2026, Jack Hughes scoring at 1:41 of overtime;^[29] the United States won the Olympic women's final on 19 February 2026, Canada taking silver;^[20] and the United States won the 2025 IIHF Women's World Championship final 4–3 in overtime at České Budějovice on 20 April 2025.^[30] A cumulative all-time head-to-head count published by either national federation could not be retrieved, so these are reported as individual dated results rather than as a series record.

Within Canadian football, the CFL schedules annual Labour Day weekend fixtures as named rivalries: Saskatchewan against Winnipeg, and Hamilton against Toronto, both falling in Week 14 of the 2026 season.^[31] No all-time series record for either fixture was published in the league material retrieved.

What is the role of school and university sport?

School sport is treated in Canada as a public-health as much as a competitive question. The Future of Sport in Canada Commission's final report, published by Canadian Heritage on 24 March 2026, records that while 72 per cent of children and youth aged 5 to 17 reported participating in sport in 2025, only 21 per cent of youth aged 12 to 17 met the recommended physical activity level over 2022 to 2024 — 33 per cent of boys against 8 per cent of girls. The report identifies cost as the barrier most often cited by its survey respondents, at 89 per cent, followed by distance to facilities at 55.9 per cent, and describes school programmes constrained by budget cuts, curriculum change and limited access to equipment and qualified staff.^[2]

Below the international level, the principal multi-sport pathway is the Canada Games, which alternate winter and summer editions every two years, bring together more than 2,000 athletes and cover more than 30 sports. The most recent edition was held at St. John's in 2025; Québec hosts in 2027 and Moncton–Saint John in 2029.^[32] A current participation or membership figure for Canadian university sport could not be retrieved from a primary source.

Were any sports invented in Canada?

The two sports named in federal statute are the obvious candidates, and in both cases the documented Canadian contribution is codification rather than invention. The National Sports of Canada Act, assented to on 12 May 1994, declares ice hockey the national winter sport and lacrosse the national summer sport; the Act contains no historical recital and makes no origin claim for either game.^[6]

Lacrosse descends from First Nations stick-and-ball games — baggataway among Algonquian-language groups, tewaarathon among the Mohawk — which the Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf recorded being played in 1637. The Canadian Encyclopedia records that William George Beers wrote a standardised set of rules in September 1860 and replaced the deerskin ball with one of hard rubber. It also records that Beers claimed Parliament had made lacrosse the national game in 1867 and that no parliamentary record supports the claim; the statutory designation dates from 1994.^[33]

For ice hockey, the same reference places the first game of organised hockey recognisable today in Montréal in 1875, with formal rules set out by J. G. A. Creighton, a McGill student, and notes that Montréal, Windsor in Nova Scotia and Kingston in Ontario have all claimed to be the birthplace of the game while "there is little clear evidence to pinpoint the game's origins".^[34] Basketball is the reverse case: James Naismith was born on 6 November 1861 in Ramsay Township near Almonte, Ontario, but the first game was played on 21 December 1891 at Springfield College in Massachusetts, so the inventor was Canadian and the invention was not.^[35] On the naming of codes and their variants see what sports are called.