Sports in Georgia

What sports are played in Georgia?

Two public registers enumerate Georgian sport and they do not count the same way, so this page gives the enumerations rather than a single number. The Georgian National Olympic Committee's own federations page publishes no total, and the English version of that page is not populated; the Georgian list enumerated fifty entries on 23 September 2026, not all of them federations of a sport: it carries the national anti-doping agency and the non-Olympic sports committee alongside the federations of judo, wrestling, weightlifting, football, rugby, basketball, athletics, shooting, boxing, figure skating, chess and sambo, and a university sport federation and a sports journalists' association again separately.^[5] The state sport portal at sport.gov.ge runs a different register and states a total of 94 organisations in it.^[7]

The National Judo Federation of Georgia is on the committee's list.^[5]

What is the most popular spectator sport in Georgia?

Two sports have a documented claim here and this page reports the measured proxies for both without choosing between them.

Football, by participation and by a gate. UEFA's page for the Georgian Football Federation publishes registered-player figures for the association: a rise from 14,676 to 37,600 between 2015 and 2021, and from 120 to 1,700 female players over the same period, with a further 2,000 girls it puts in grassroots projects.^[8] The largest published Georgian gate this page retrieved is UEFA's own: the 2015 UEFA Super Cup in Tbilisi, watched by what UEFA reported as a “competition-record 51,490 crowd”.^[10] That is one completed match staged by UEFA, not a domestic season aggregate and not a running count. No season-total attendance figure for the Erovnuli Liga could be retrieved: the league's own tables page carries no attendance column.^[9]

Rugby, by competitive record. World Rugby reported on 28 June 2021 that Georgia had retained the Rugby Europe Championship “for the fourth year in a row” after a 48-15 win over the Netherlands in Telavi.^[18] World Rugby reported again on 20 March 2023 that a 38-11 win over Portugal in that season's final was Georgia's 100th championship victory and left it unbeaten in 29 matches in the competition, and 11th in the men's world rankings.^[19] No attendance figure for a Georgian rugby match could be retrieved: Rugby Europe's 2026 Championship competition pages publish results and no gate, and World Rugby's match reports from the 2026 Junior World Championship in Tbilisi and Kutaisi carry none either.^[16][14]

Carriage. Setanta Sports renewed Bundesliga rights covering Georgia among ten Eurasian markets through the 2028/29 season, reported on 16 February 2024.^[29] On the Olympic proxy, Olympedia credits wrestling with 21 medals, judo with 15 and weightlifting with 8.^[1]

How is sport organised in Georgia?

The governing statute is the Law of Georgia on Sport, №400, adopted on 20 September 1996. This page reads the consolidated text dated 12 December 2024, in the Georgian original and in the English text, both published by the Legislative Herald of Georgia at matsne.gov.ge.^[2][3] The state whose law it is takes no long form: Article 2 of the Constitution of Georgia, №786 of 24 August 1995, gives the name of the state as Georgia.^[4]

Article 4 constitutes the state side. Its first paragraph provides that “the main directions and priorities of state policy in the sports sector shall be defined by the Parliament of Georgia”. Its second paragraph provides that “the state governing body in the sports sector shall be the Ministry of Sports of Georgia”, whose scope of authority in the sector is defined by that law, by other legislative and subordinate acts, and by the statute of the ministry.^[3] Its third paragraph provides that state policy in the sports sector in the Autonomous Republics of Abkhazia and Ajara shall be implemented by their relevant government institutions.^[3] The state sport portal at sport.gov.ge is published in the name of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia and carries a 2019 copyright line; the ministry publishing under that name no longer exists in that form, and the current ministerial allocation of sport could not be established from a state instrument for this page.^[7][30]

Article 9 sets out the committee side in six paragraphs. It provides that the Georgian National Olympic Committee is “an independent public organisation which coordinates the Olympic movement in Georgia” and is a legal entity; that it is guided by the legislation of Georgia, the law, the Olympic Charter and its own statute; that in the International Olympic Committee and the events it organises, including the Olympic Games, Georgia is represented only by the committee, in the statute's own words “as the representative of the International Olympic Committee in Georgia”; that the committee alone may use its symbols; that it cooperates with the ministry and the national federations on the basis of an agreement; and that it is involved in preparing the national teams.^[3]

Olympedia states the committee was formed in 1989 and recognised by the IOC at the session in Monte Carlo in September 1993; a national Olympic committee is recognised by the IOC, not a member of it.^[1] The European Olympic Committees lists the Georgian National Olympic Committee among its national committees, with Leri Khabelov as president and Emzar Zenaishvili as secretary general; the committee's own composition page gives the same two names.^[28][6] UEFA's association page records the Georgian Football Federation becoming a full member of FIFA and UEFA in 1992.^[8]

What are the main domestic leagues and competitions?

The top football division is the Erovnuli Liga, given on its own site under its sponsored name, the CrystalBet Erovnuli Liga. The league's tables page for the 2026 season lists ten clubs: Dinamo Batumi, Iberia 1999, Rustavi, Dinamo Tbilisi, Dila, Torpedo, Samgurali, Gagra, Spaeri and Meshakhte.^[9] The league is run on a calendar-year season. Clubs enter the UEFA club competitions through that division.^[8]

The top rugby division is run by the Georgian Rugby Union, whose site gives it under the sponsored name Crocobet Didi 10 and groups it with the union's other leagues.^[22] The union runs a separate statistics service that publishes the Didi 10 and the youth and regional leagues by season, with the 2025–2026 and 2026–2027 seasons listed.^[23] The union also enters a franchise, the Black Lions, which its site lists alongside the national teams.^[22][27] Georgia's senior men's XV plays its international season in the Rugby Europe Championship, which Rugby Europe ran in 2026 with eight teams in two pools of four, Georgia drawn with Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands.^[16]

How has Georgia performed at the Olympic Games?

The figures here are Olympedia's and Olympedia's only, read from the raw tables rather than the summary sentence, and read three times.^[1]

Olympedia prints no total row at the foot of either of its Georgia medal tables. Its medals-by-Games table gives, for the Olympic Games rows, no medals until 1996, then 0-0-2 in 1996, 0-0-6 in 2000, 2-2-0 in 2004, 3-2-2 in 2008, 1-2-3 in 2012, 2-1-4 in 2016, 2-5-1 in 2020, 3-3-1 in 2024 and 0-1-0 at the 2026 Winter Games. Its medals-by-sport table gives judo 5-7-3, wrestling 4-7-10, weightlifting 4-1-3, figure skating 0-1-0, boxing 0-0-2 and shooting 0-0-1. Summed twice, and a third time across the two tables, both come to 13 gold, 16 silver and 19 bronze, 48 medals.^[1] Rows typed Youth Olympic Games are counted separately by Olympedia and are not included here.^[1]

Olympedia's narrative text does not agree with its own tables. It states that “Georgia has won 40 Olympic medals, with 10 gold, all at the Summer Olympics”, which the tables contradict in the count and in the claim about the Winter Games, since they carry a figure-skating silver in the 2026 Winter row. Both are reported here and this page uses the tables.^[1] The same narrative states that Georgian athletes competed for the Soviet Union from 1952 to 1988 and in the Unified Team at Barcelona in 1992; those results are filed under other codes and are not added here.^[1]

On reallocation, Olympedia's Georgia tables carry no marking of any medal as reallocated, upgraded, withdrawn or disqualified.^[1]

Which athletes and teams are internationally recognised?

Olympedia records Lasha Talakhadze as winner of the weightlifting super-heavyweight class at the 2016 Olympic Games and again at the 2020 Games.^[1]

Olympedia records Lasha Shavdatuashvili as a medallist in the men's half-lightweight judo event at the 2012 Olympic Games.^[1]

World Rugby reported on 28 June 2021 that the senior men's rugby XV had retained the Rugby Europe Championship for a fourth consecutive year, and on 20 March 2023 that its 38-11 win over Portugal in that year's final was its 100th win in the competition and its 29th match unbeaten there.^[18][19]

On 13 March 2026 World Rugby published a statement that a joint investigation by World Rugby and the World Anti-Doping Agency “has resulted in anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs) being confirmed against six players and one member of the support personnel from the Georgia men's senior national fifteens team”.^[20] World Rugby published the outcomes on 12 May 2026, sanctioning six players and a team doctor for what it gave as “involvement in urine sample substitution over an extended period prior to Men's Rugby World Cup 2023”: eleven years for Merab Sharikadze, nine for Nutsa Shamatava, six for Giorgi Chkoidze, three each for Lasha Khmaladze, Miriani Modebadze and Otar Lashkhi, and nine months for Lasha Lomidze. It states that the Georgia Rugby Union was charged with misconduct under Regulation 18.5 and “accepted the charge and agreed to a sanction including financial penalty along with a requirement to implement a roadmap of various reforms and measures in its anti-doping training and education”. Neither statement publishes an appeal outcome.^[31]

What major international competitions has Georgia hosted?

In rugby, World Rugby announced on 18 July 2025 that Georgia would host the U20 championship in 2026, expanded to 16 teams, in Tbilisi and Kutaisi; Georgian Rugby Union president Davit Kacharava is quoted saying “this is the second time we have the honour of hosting the World Rugby U20 Championship”.^[13] It was played, under the name Junior World Championship, at Avchala Stadium in Tbilisi and the AIA Arena in Kutaisi in July 2026.^[14] It finished on 18 July 2026 at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium in Tbilisi, where South Africa beat France 16-5, Georgia twelfth of the sixteen teams.^[15]

In football, UEFA staged the 2015 UEFA Super Cup in Tbilisi, where Barcelona beat Sevilla 5-4 after extra time before a crowd UEFA gave as 51,490.^[10]

In multi-sport events, the European Olympic Committees staged the summer European Youth Olympic Festival in Tbilisi in 2015; its report of the opening, dated 27 July 2015, gives about 3,500 young athletes from 50 European national Olympic committees across nine sports.^[11] The EOC took the winter edition to Bakuriani from 9 to 16 February 2025, which its preview of 6 February 2025 put at about 900 competitors aged 14 to 18 across eight sports.^[12]

What are Georgia's main sporting rivalries?

The recurring senior fixture with a governing body's own record behind it is the Rugby Europe Championship meeting with Romania. Rugby Europe's 2026 competition pages record Georgia beating Romania 53-30 in the semi-final on 8 March 2026, after pool wins over Switzerland 54-3 on 8 February, the Netherlands 61-12 on 15 February and Spain 42-30 on 21 February.^[16]

The fixture that ended Georgia's run in the same competition is with Portugal. Rugby Europe reported on 16 March 2026 that Portugal had beaten Georgia 19-17 in the final at the Estadio Butarque in Leganés the previous day, and quoted the Portugal captain, Jose Madeira, saying “it's been a really long time since our country had beaten Georgia and it was a big goal for us”.^[17] World Rugby's earlier reports give the other side of the same fixture: a 38-11 Georgian win over Portugal in the 2023 final, and four consecutive Georgian titles to 2021.^[19][18] Neither body publishes a head-to-head balance across the whole series on the competition pages read here.

In football, no head-to-head series record published by the Georgian Football Federation itself could be retrieved.^[8]

What is the role of school and university sport?

School sport runs through the National Federation of Children's and School Sport of Georgia, საქართველოს ბავშვთა და სასკოლო სპორტის ეროვნული ფედერაცია, which states on its own site that it was created on 16 November 2006, that it holds recognised federation status, and that it has been a member of the International School Sport Federation since 2014; the National Olympic Committee's list carries the same body.^[25][5]

Its main programme is the School Sport Olympiad. The federation states that the programme began with its first games in 2015, that it runs through municipal, regional and east-and-west stages to a final, and that it covers eight sports: mini-football, 3x3 basketball, volleyball, handball, table tennis, badminton, relay races and fun runs. The federation puts participation at over 100,000 pupils a year; that figure is the federation's own and no state count of it was retrieved.^[26]

University sport runs through the University Sports Federation of Georgia. FISU lists it as a member association since 1997; the National Olympic Committee's list carries a university sport federation separately.^[24][5]

Were any sports invented in Georgia?

The documented case is a traditional wrestling form, chidaoba, and what exists behind it is a heritage instrument rather than an invention claim by a federation. UNESCO inscribed “Chidaoba, wrestling in Georgia” on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2018, at the thirteenth session of the intergovernmental committee, and its entry opens by describing chidaoba as “an ancient form of martial art practised by a large proportion of the male population throughout all the regions, villages and communities of Georgia”.^[21] An inscription on that list records a practice as living heritage; it does not assert that a codified modern sport originated in the state, and it is not a declaration.

Codification is separate and is documented. The Georgian National Olympic Committee's federations list carries a national federation for Georgian wrestling, ქართული ჭიდობის ეროვნული ფედერაცია, alongside the separate federation for wrestling under the international codes; a governing body writing rules and running competitions for a traditional form is codification, not invention.^[5]

On a declared national sport, the register searched was the Legislative Herald of Georgia at matsne.gov.ge, the state's own publisher of legislation. In the consolidated text of the Law of Georgia on Sport dated 12 December 2024 there is no article declaring a national sport and no mention of chidaoba or of any other named traditional form.^[2][3]