Sports guide

How it’s played

• The goal: score more goals than the other team.
• Each team has 11 players on the field. Apart from throw-ins, only the goalkeeper may handle the ball, and only inside their own penalty area.
• A game lasts 90 minutes, two 45-minute halves, plus stoppage time added by the referee.
• It’s a goal when the whole ball crosses the goal line, between the posts and under the crossbar.
• Key rule, offside: at the moment a teammate passes to you, you can’t be in the other team’s half and closer to their goal line than both the ball and the second-to-last opponent.
• It’s played on a natural or artificial grass field about 110 yards (100 m) long.

Where it’s followed

It’s the top sport in Mexico, Colombia, Central America and Spain, and it’s growing fast in the US: follow Liga MX, LaLiga, Colombia’s Primera A, MLS, the Champions League, the Copa Libertadores and the World Cup here.

Fun facts

• English referee Ken Aston came up with yellow and red cards while waiting at a traffic light. They debuted at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, where no player was shown a red.
• Mexico is the first country to host three men’s World Cups: 1970, 1986 and 2026. Estadio Azteca is the first stadium to host three World Cup opening matches.
• The Football Association was founded in London in 1863 and wrote its Laws of the Game that same year, the basis of soccer today. There were just 13 laws.

How it’s played

• It’s a family of series: open-wheel cars (Formula 1, IndyCar, Formula E), stock cars (NASCAR), motorcycles (MotoGP, Superbike), rally (WRC, Dakar) and endurance racing (WEC).
• The goal: finish ahead of everyone else or, in a rally, post the lowest total time.
• In Formula 1, Saturday qualifying sets the starting order, and Sunday’s race covers about 300 km (some 185 miles) in two hours at most.
• The top ten finishers score points toward two titles: one for drivers and one for teams (constructors).
• Key rule, the flags: under a yellow flag no one may pass, and a red flag stops the race.
• Races run on permanent tracks, closed-off city streets, ovals (NASCAR and IndyCar) and, for rallies, on real roads and across deserts.

Where it’s followed

NASCAR and IndyCar rule in the US, Formula 1 packs the stands in Mexico and Spain, and MotoGP is huge in Spain too; you can follow all of them here, plus the World Rally Championship and the Dakar.

Fun facts

• The Indianapolis 500 winner celebrates by drinking milk. The tradition began in 1936, when Louis Meyer, after his third win, asked for an ice-cold bottle of buttermilk.
• Mexico City’s Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is the highest track in Formula 1, more than 7,200 feet (2,200 m) up. In the thin air, the wings press the car into the track less.
• The first Formula 1 World Championship race was held on May 13, 1950, at Silverstone in England. Italy’s Giuseppe Farina won it in an Alfa Romeo.

How it’s played

• The family includes boxing, mixed martial arts (MMA, like the UFC), kickboxing, pro wrestling and lucha libre, plus Olympic sports such as judo, taekwondo, wrestling and fencing.
• In boxing, two fighters from the same weight class face off wearing padded gloves.
• A bout is split into rounds of up to three minutes with a minute’s rest; pro title fights go up to 12 rounds.
• You win by knockout, when the referee stops the fight, or by a decision of three judges who score every round.
• Key rule: hit only with a closed fist and above the belt, never to the back of the head or the back.
• Fights take place in a ring, in a cage for MMA or on a mat for judo. Pro wrestling and lucha libre are shows with planned results.

Where it’s followed

Mexico is a land of boxing and lucha libre (CMLL and AAA), the US follows the UFC and WWE closely, and judo and taekwondo shine at the Olympics.

Fun facts

• In 2018, Mexico City’s government declared lucha libre part of the city’s intangible cultural heritage, honoring its place in popular culture.
• Judo was created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its name means “the gentle way,” and it made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 1964.
• The Marquess of Queensberry rules, published in England in 1867, were the first to require gloves and set three-minute rounds with a minute’s rest. They’re still the backbone of boxing.

How it’s played

• The goal: score more runs than the other team.
• Each team has nine players on the field, and the teams take turns batting and fielding.
• A game lasts nine innings. In each one, both teams bat until they make three outs; a tie goes to extra innings.
• You score a run by touching first, second and third base and then reaching home plate.
• Key rule: three strikes and the batter is out; four balls and the batter walks to first base.
• It’s played on a diamond, with the bases 90 feet apart.

Where it’s followed

It’s a passion in the US (MLB and the World Series), Mexico (the Mexican League and the Mexican Pacific League), the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama and across the Caribbean; the big international events are the Caribbean Series and the World Baseball Classic.

Fun facts

• An official Major League baseball has 108 double stitches of red thread, all sewn by hand.
• In 1981, Mexican pitcher Fernando Valenzuela of the Dodgers became the first player to win Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young Award in the same season, sparking “Fernandomania.”
• “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” baseball’s unofficial anthem, was written in 1908. Lyricist Jack Norworth said he had never been to a professional game when he wrote it.

How it’s played

• The goal: score more points than the other team.
• Each team has five players on the court and can substitute almost without limit.
• NBA games have four 12-minute quarters; FIBA games use 10-minute quarters. A tie means five-minute overtime periods.
• A basket is worth 2 points, or 3 from behind the three-point line, and each free throw is worth 1.
• Key rule: you can’t walk or run while holding the ball; you have to dribble. And in the NBA and FIBA, there are 24 seconds to shoot.
• It’s played indoors on a hardwood court about 94 feet (28 m) long.

Where it’s followed

The NBA and WNBA draw huge crowds in the US, Spain lives for the Liga ACB and the EuroLeague, Mexico has its LNBP, and everyone meets at the FIBA Basketball World Cup and the Olympics.

Fun facts

• James Naismith invented basketball in December 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts. The first hoops were peach baskets fixed to a railing 10 feet up, the same height used today.
• The 24-second shot clock arrived in the NBA in 1954, the idea of Danny Biasone and Leo Ferris of the Syracuse Nationals, to stop teams from stalling.
• 3x3 basketball made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, held in 2021. It’s played on half a court with one hoop, and the first team to 21 points, or the one ahead after 10 minutes, wins.

How it’s played

• The goal: score more points, mainly by carrying or catching the ball in the other team’s end zone.
• Each team has 11 players on the field, with separate units for offense, defense and kicking.
• NFL games have four 15-minute quarters, but the clock stops often, so a game takes about three hours.
• A touchdown is worth 6 points, plus 1 or 2 more afterward; a field goal (kicked between the uprights) is worth 3.
• Key rule: the offense gets four tries, called downs, to gain 10 yards; make it and you get four more.
• It’s played on a field 100 yards long between the two end zones.

Where it’s followed

The NFL and its Super Bowl, along with the college game (NCAA), are a national passion in the US; Mexico follows the NFL closely and has its own pro league, the LFA.

Fun facts

• The NFL’s first regular-season game outside the US was played at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca on October 2, 2005, in front of 103,467 fans.
• The ball is nicknamed the “pigskin,” but it’s made of cowhide. The name goes back to early balls made from inflated pig bladders.
• The yellow first-down line you see on TV isn’t painted on the field. It’s a digital graphic that debuted in 1998, during a Ravens-Bengals game on ESPN.

How it’s played

• The goal: score more goals than the other team.
• Each team has six players on the ice: five skaters and a goalie. Players change on the fly, without stopping play.
• A game has three 20-minute periods; a tie goes to overtime and, in the NHL regular season, a shootout.
• It’s a goal when the whole puck crosses the goal line.
• Key rule: a penalty sends the player to the penalty box, usually for two minutes, and the team plays a skater short.
• It’s played on an ice rink about 200 feet (61 m) long, surrounded by boards and glass.

Where it’s followed

It’s a passion in Canada, the US (the NHL and the women’s PWHL) and northern Europe, and its biggest prizes are the Stanley Cup, the World Championship and the Winter Olympics.

Fun facts

• NHL pucks are kept frozen before games so they bounce less and glide better on the ice.
• The first organized indoor hockey game was played on March 3, 1875, at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal, Canada.
• Since 1995, every player on the NHL championship team gets a day with the Stanley Cup, and many take it back to the towns where they grew up.

How it’s played

• The goal: finish the course in fewer strokes than everyone else.
• It’s mostly an individual sport, though there are also pairs and team events.
• A round is 18 holes, and most pro tournaments are four rounds, Thursday through Sunday.
• Every hole has a “par,” the number of strokes a good player should need. The lowest total score wins.
• Key rule: you play the ball as it lies, and you can carry no more than 14 clubs.
• It’s played on a course with a tee box, fairway, rough (long grass), sand bunkers and the green, where the hole is.

Where it’s followed

The US-based PGA Tour and LPGA Tour are the most-watched circuits, Spain has a rich tradition on the European Tour, and Latin America has the PGA Tour Americas; LIV Golf is here too.

Fun facts

• In 1971, astronaut Alan Shepard hit two golf balls on the Moon during Apollo 14, using a six-iron head attached to a lunar sampling tool.
• Mexico’s Lorena Ochoa was the world’s No. 1 women’s golfer for 158 weeks in a row, from April 2007 to May 2010.
• Golf’s 18 holes are almost an accident: in 1764 the golfers of St Andrews, Scotland, merged some short holes and cut their round from 22 holes to 18. The rest of the world followed.

How it’s played

• The goal: score more points, mainly by grounding the ball over the other team’s goal line, called a try.
• There are three main versions: rugby union (15 players a side), rugby league (13) and rugby sevens, the Olympic one.
• A 15-a-side game lasts 80 minutes in two 40-minute halves; sevens uses two 7-minute halves.
• In union, a try is worth 5 points, the conversion kick 2, and a penalty kick or drop goal 3.
• Key rule: you can only pass backward or sideways with your hands; the ball goes forward only by running or kicking. Tackles must stay below the shoulders.
• It’s played on a grass field up to 100 meters (about 110 yards) between the try lines, with H-shaped goalposts.

Where it’s followed

It’s a passion in New Zealand, South Africa, England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, France and Argentina; follow the Rugby World Cup, the Six Nations, Super Rugby Americas and Spain’s División de Honor here.

Fun facts

• The US won Olympic rugby gold in 1920 and 1924. Rugby then left the Games until 2016, so the US was the “reigning Olympic champion” for 92 years.
• Legend says that in 1823 William Webb Ellis, a student at Rugby School in England, picked up the ball and ran with it. It’s unproven, but the World Cup trophy bears his name.
• In 1895, clubs from northern England broke away at a meeting in Huddersfield because they wanted to pay players for the wages they lost to play. That split created rugby league.

How it’s played

• The goal: win points with shots your opponent can’t return inside the court.
• You play singles (one-on-one) or doubles (two-on-two).
• Points go 15, 30, 40, game; at 40-40 (deuce), you need two points in a row. You win a set with 6 games and a 2-game lead; at 6-6, a tiebreak decides it.
• Matches are best of three sets, or best of five in men’s Grand Slams. There’s no time limit; a match lasts as long as it takes.
• Key rule: the ball can bounce only once on your side, and a serve must land in the opponent’s service box.
• It’s played on hard courts, clay or grass.

Where it’s followed

It’s huge in Spain, a tennis powerhouse, and in the US, home of the US Open; follow the ATP and WTA tours, the Davis Cup, the Laver Cup and the United Cup here.

Fun facts

• The longest tennis match ever lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes over three days: John Isner beat Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010, winning the fifth set 70-68.
• In 1973, the US Open became the first Grand Slam to pay men and women equal prize money, after a push led by Billie Jean King.
• Spain’s Rafael Nadal won the French Open (Roland Garros) 14 times, making him the only player ever to win 14 titles at a single Grand Slam.

How it’s played

• The goal: score more runs than the other team.
• Each side has 11 players. One team bats while the other bowls and fields; then they switch.
• Batters score by running between two wickets 22 yards apart, or by hitting the ball to the boundary rope: 4 runs if it bounces first, 6 if it clears the rope in the air.
• Key rule: the bowler tries to knock over the wicket (three stumps topped by two bails) or get the batter caught; either way, the batter is out.
• Formats vary in length: T20 (20 overs a side, about three hours), one-day (50 overs) and Test matches of up to five days. An over is six deliveries.
• It’s played on a grass oval with a strip in the middle called the pitch.

Where it’s followed

It’s a passion in India, Pakistan, England, Australia and the Caribbean, and it’s growing in the US with Major League Cricket; the big events are the Cricket World Cup, the T20 World Cup and the Indian Premier League.

Fun facts

• Cricket returns to the Olympics at Los Angeles 2028 in T20 format. It was played only once before, at Paris 1900, when Great Britain beat France.
• Australia won the first Test match ever, in Melbourne in 1877, by 45 runs. A hundred years later, at the Centenary Test, Australia won again by exactly 45 runs!
• The Ashes, the England-Australia rivalry, began as a joke: in 1882 a London newspaper ran a mock obituary for English cricket. Its symbol is a tiny urn.

How it’s played

• It’s a family of disciplines: road racing, track racing (in a velodrome), mountain biking and BMX.
• Road racing has one-day races and stage races. The three Grand Tours (Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España) each have 21 stages over about three weeks.
• In a stage race, the rider with the lowest total time wins; the Tour de France leader wears the yellow jersey.
• Riders race in teams: teammates shield their leader from the wind and pace them up the climbs.
• Key rule: riders who cross the line in the same group all get the same time.
• Races happen on open roads, on banked velodrome tracks, on mountain trails and on dirt courses with jumps (BMX).

Where it’s followed

It’s a passion in Colombia, Spain and France; follow the UCI World Tour, with the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España, plus the UCI America Tour and Olympic cycling here.

Fun facts

• The Tour de France was created in 1903 by the sports newspaper L’Auto to sell more copies. The first edition had only six stages, but they added up to 2,428 km (1,509 miles).
• In 2019, Colombia’s Egan Bernal won the Tour de France at age 22, becoming the first Latin American to win it.
• Spain’s Miguel Induráin was the first rider to win the Tour de France five years in a row, from 1991 to 1995.

How it’s played

• Goal: kick the ball between the other team’s posts and outscore them.
• Teams: 18 players a side on the field, with players rotating in from the bench throughout the game.
• Length: in the AFL, four 20-minute quarters, plus “time on” added whenever the clock stops.
• Scoring: a kick between the two tall middle posts is a goal (6 points); between a tall post and a short one is a “behind” (1 point).
• Key rule: you move the ball by kicking it or punching it off your hand, never throwing it; run with it and you must bounce it every 15 meters.
• Where: on an oval grass field, often a cricket ground, with no offside rule.

Where it’s followed

It’s a passion in Australia, especially Melbourne; the headline competitions are the men’s AFL, whose Grand Final is usually played at the MCG, and the AFL Women’s (AFLW).

Fun facts

• Its first written rules were agreed in Melbourne in May 1859, making it one of the oldest codified football games in the world.
• The 1970 Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground drew 121,696 fans, still the sport’s record crowd. The stadium holds fewer people today, so it will be tough to beat.
• Fields don’t have one fixed size: they can be anywhere from 135 to 185 meters (about 440 to 610 feet) long, much longer than a soccer field.

How it’s played

• What it includes: team strategy games (League of Legends), tactical team action (Valorant, Call of Duty), sports games (EA Sports FC, Rocket League), battle royales (Fortnite, Apex Legends) and racing sims (iRacing).
• Each game has its own rules and leagues, usually run by the game’s publisher or a tournament organizer.
• Example, League of Legends: two teams of five; the first to destroy the Nexus, the core of the other team’s base, wins.
• Length: a single game often runs about half an hour, and matches are usually best-of-three or best-of-five series.
• Where: on PCs or consoles, online or on stage, with referees and controlled equipment to keep it fair.

Where it’s followed

Esports have fans worldwide, especially in South Korea, China, the US and Europe, with big communities in Mexico and Spain; headline events include the League of Legends World Championship, the Valorant Champions Tour and the Call of Duty League.

Fun facts

• The first known video game tournament took place at Stanford University on October 19, 1972, playing Spacewar!. The prize was a one-year subscription to Rolling Stone magazine.
• Esports became an official medal event at the Asian Games for the first time in Hangzhou, China, in 2023: seven golds across seven different games.
• In 2019, 16-year-old American Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf won the Fortnite World Cup solo title at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York and took home $3 million.

How it’s played

• Goal: make the ball land on the other team’s side, or force them to send it out.
• Teams: six players a side; the libero, in a different-colored jersey, is a defensive specialist.
• Touches: each team gets up to three touches to send the ball back, and no player may touch it twice in a row.
• Scoring: every rally is a point; a set goes to 25, win by two, and the first team to win three sets takes the match (a fifth set goes to 15).
• Length: there’s no clock; a match usually lasts one to two hours.
• Where: on an 18-by-9-meter court split by a net; beach volleyball is played in pairs on sand.

Where it’s followed

It’s huge in Brazil, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Japan and the US, where college volleyball draws big crowds, and widely played in Mexico; the top events are the Olympics, the Volleyball Nations League and the FIVB World Championships.

Fun facts

• William G. Morgan invented it in 1895 at the YMCA in Holyoke, Massachusetts, as a gentler game than basketball. Its first name was “Mintonette.”
• Volleyball made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 1964, with men’s and women’s tournaments, and host Japan won the women’s gold.
• American Karch Kiraly is the only player with Olympic gold in both indoor volleyball (1984 and 1988) and beach volleyball (1996, the year it debuted).

How it’s played

• Goal: score more goals than the other team by shooting the ball through their hoop.
• Teams: seven a side; each position (attack, center, defense) may only move in certain zones of the court.
• Key rule: no dribbling or running with the ball; you must pass or shoot within three seconds.
• Scoring: only two attacking positions can score, and only from inside the shooting circle; each goal is worth one point in most competitions.
• Length: four 15-minute quarters.
• Where: on a rectangular court, usually indoors, split into thirds.

Where it’s followed

It’s a big deal in Australia, New Zealand, England, Jamaica and South Africa; the top events are the Netball World Cup, the Commonwealth Games and leagues like Australia’s Super Netball. It’s rarely played in the Americas outside the Caribbean.

Fun facts

• It was born in England in the 1890s, when basketball arrived from the US and was adapted for women at physical education colleges.
• The first Netball World Cup was played in Eastbourne, England, in 1963. Australia won it after beating New Zealand by a single goal, 37-36.
• Netball officially joined the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, the first edition of those Games to include team sports.

How it’s played

• Goal: throw the ball into the other team’s net, 3 meters wide and 2 meters tall, more often than they do.
• Teams: seven a side including the goalkeeper, with unlimited substitutions at any time.
• Length: two 30-minute halves.
• Key rule: holding the ball, you can take at most three steps and keep it for up to three seconds before you must dribble, pass or shoot.
• The zone: only the goalkeeper may stand in the 6-meter area, so shooters leap over it and release the ball in midair.
• Where: on a 40-by-20-meter indoor court.

Where it’s followed

It’s a passion across Europe, especially in Germany, Denmark, France, Spain and Hungary; big events include the EHF Champions League, Spain’s Liga ASOBAL, the World Championships and the Olympics.

Fun facts

• At Berlin 1936 it was played outdoors on a big field with 11 players a side. The indoor, seven-a-side game reached the Olympics at Munich 1972.
• Denmark’s men were the first team to win four World Championships in a row: 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2025.
• Spain won the 2013 World Championship at home, beating Denmark 35-19 in Barcelona. Guinness says that 16-goal gap is the biggest in a men’s World Championship final.

How it’s played

• Goal: score more points than your opponent in each frame by potting balls into the six pockets.
• Players: one on one; you keep shooting until you miss, and your run of points is called a break.
• Order: pot a red (1 point), then a color: yellow 2, green 3, brown 4, blue 5, pink 6, black 7.
• Colors go back on the table while reds remain; at the end, they’re potted in order from lowest to highest.
• Length: matches are best of a set number of frames; the World Championship final is best of 35 and spans two days.
• Where: on a large green-cloth table with 15 reds, six colors and the white cue ball.

Where it’s followed

It’s followed mostly in the UK, Ireland and China; the highlight is the World Championship in Sheffield, England, part of the World Snooker Tour, while the Q Tour is where up-and-coming players compete.

Fun facts

• British army officers invented it in India in 1875 by mixing existing billiards games; “snooker” was army slang for a raw recruit.
• A perfect break is worth 147 points. Ronnie O’Sullivan made the fastest one at the 1997 World Championship, in just 5 minutes 8 seconds, according to Guinness.
• The World Championship has been held since 1977 at the Crucible, a Sheffield theater with fewer than 1,000 seats, so fans sit very close to the table.

How it’s played

• Goal: put the ball in the other team’s goal more often than they do.
• Teams: 11 a side, including a goalkeeper in a helmet and pads.
• Length: four 15-minute quarters.
• Key rule: you can’t play the ball with the rounded back of the stick, only its flat face and edges, and only goalkeepers may stop it with their body.
• Scoring: a goal only counts if the shot is taken from inside the shooting circle, the semicircle in front of the goal.
• Where: on an artificial turf field about 100 by 60 yards (91 by 55 meters).

Where it’s followed

It’s strong in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, India, Australia, Argentina, Spain and England, and popular in US women’s college sports; big events include the Olympics, the Hockey World Cup, the FIH Pro League and the Pan American Cup.

Fun facts

• India has won the most Olympic golds in men’s field hockey: eight, including six in a row from 1928 to 1956.
• At Barcelona 1992, Spain’s women won Olympic gold by beating Germany 2-1 in extra time in the final.
• Many top-level fields are artificial turf that gets watered before play: the water helps the ball run fast and true and gives players better grip.

How it’s played

• Goal: in the most common game, each player starts at 501 and must reach exactly zero.
• Players: usually one on one, with three darts per turn.
• Scoring: the board has 20 numbered sections; the outer ring doubles a number and the inner ring triples it; the bullseye is 50 and the ring around it 25. The most you can score in one turn is 180.
• Key rule: you must finish on a double or the bullseye; go past zero and that turn doesn’t count.
• Length: matches are won in legs and sets and can last from a few minutes to over an hour, depending on the format.
• Where: indoors, at a board hung on the wall, often in arenas packed with fans.

Where it’s followed

It’s most popular in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany; the biggest event is the PDC World Championship in London over the holidays, and you can follow the PDC tour here.

Fun facts

• In steel-tip darts, the setup never changes: the center of the board hangs 5 ft 8 in (173 cm) off the floor, and players throw from a line called the oche, 7 ft 9¼ in (237 cm) away.
• A nine-darter means finishing 501 in just nine darts, the perfect leg. John Lowe hit the first one ever shown on TV in 1984, in Slough, England.
• In January 2025, Luke Littler became the youngest PDC world champion ever, at just 17 years old.

How it’s played

• What it includes: track events (sprints, hurdles, middle and long distance, relays), field events (jumps and throws), road races (marathon, race walking), cross-country and combined events like the decathlon.
• Jumps: high jump, long jump, triple jump and pole vault; throws: shot put, discus, hammer and javelin.
• How you win: in races, be first across the line; in jumps and throws, post the best mark.
• Example, the 100 meters: eight runners, each in a lane; a false start gets you disqualified, and times are measured to the hundredth of a second.
• Example, high jump: you get three tries at each height, and three misses in a row knock you out.
• Where: in a stadium with a 400-meter track, plus streets and roads for the marathon and race walking.

Where it’s followed

It’s followed worldwide; the biggest events are the Olympics, the World Athletics Championships, the Diamond League and the Pan American Games, which are especially popular in Mexico, Colombia and Central America.

Fun facts

• The marathon is 26.2 miles (42.195 km) because of the London 1908 Olympics, whose course ran from Windsor Castle to the Olympic stadium. That distance became the official standard in 1921.
• At Mexico City 1968, Dick Fosbury won high jump gold by going over the bar backward. His “Fosbury Flop” went on to revolutionize the event.
• At the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, Usain Bolt ran the 100 meters in 9.58 seconds, cutting 0.11 seconds off his own world record, the biggest single improvement since electronic timing began.

How it’s played

• Goal: make the shuttlecock (also called a shuttle or birdie) land inside the other side of the court.
• Players: singles (one on one) or doubles (two on two), including mixed doubles.
• Scoring: every rally is a point; for now a game goes to 21, win by two (capped at 30), and you win the match by taking two games. From January 2027, games go to 15 (capped at 21).
• Key rule: each side gets just one hit to send the shuttle back over the net.
• Length: there’s no clock; the match ends when someone wins two games.
• Where: indoors, so wind doesn’t push the shuttle around.

Where it’s followed

It’s massive in Asia (China, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Japan and South Korea) and in Denmark, and Spain has a following thanks to Carolina Marín; it’s been an Olympic medal sport since Barcelona 1992, and you can follow the BWF World Tour and the Commonwealth Games.

Fun facts

• In 2023, India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy hit a shuttlecock at 565 km/h (351 mph), the Guinness record for the fastest badminton hit.
• It’s named after Badminton House, the Duke of Beaufort’s estate in Gloucestershire, England; the game has gone by that name since the 1870s.
• Spain’s Carolina Marín won gold at Rio 2016, becoming the first woman from outside Asia to win an Olympic badminton singles title.

How it’s played

• What it includes: competition sport climbing in three events (bouldering, lead and speed), plus climbing on real rock outdoors.
• Bouldering: short walls, no rope; climbers score points for finishing “problems” (short routes) or reaching their midway hold, and fewer attempts score more.
• Lead: a wall at least 15 meters tall, climbed with a rope; each climber gets one attempt of up to six minutes, and whoever gets highest wins.
• Speed: two climbers race side by side up an identical 15-meter route; first to hit the button at the top wins.
• Key rule: in bouldering and lead, climbers don’t know the route ahead of time; they can only study it from the ground before trying.
• Where: on artificial walls with bolted-on holds, indoors or outdoors.

Where it’s followed

It’s growing worldwide, especially in Europe, Japan, South Korea and the US; Mexico is famous among climbers for El Potrero Chico in Nuevo León. Here you can follow Olympic climbing.

Fun facts

• The first Olympic climbing champion was Spain’s Alberto Ginés López, then 18, at the Tokyo 2020 Games, held in 2021.
• The competition speed wall is identical everywhere: 15 meters tall, leaning out 5 degrees, with the holds in the same spots, so times can be compared around the world.
• Top speed climbers race up that 15-meter wall in under five seconds: in May 2026, China’s Zhao Yicheng set the world record at 4.54 seconds.

How it’s played

• What it includes: at the Olympics, jumping, dressage and eventing; the FEI also runs endurance, driving, vaulting and reining.
• Jumping: horse and rider tackle a course of numbered obstacles, in order, within a time limit.
• Faults: knocking down a rail or a refusal (the horse stopping at a jump) costs 4 penalties; a second refusal means elimination.
• How you win: fewest penalties; if riders are tied, a shorter jump-off decides it and the fastest clear round wins.
• Dressage: the horse performs a set routine of movements that judges score, a bit like gymnastics.
• Where: in sand or grass arenas; eventing adds a cross-country course over open land.

Where it’s followed

It’s strong in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, France and the US, and has a proud history in Mexico; here you can follow the Olympic equestrian events.

Fun facts

• It’s one of the very few sports where men and women compete against each other on equal terms, all the way up to the Olympics.
• Mexico’s first Olympic gold medals came in show jumping at London 1948, where it won both the individual and the team events.
• The world record for a horse’s high jump is 2.47 meters (8 ft 1 in), set by Huaso, ridden by Chile’s Alberto Larraguibel, in Viña del Mar in 1949.

How it’s played

• What it includes: artistic, rhythmic and trampoline gymnastics, all three Olympic; there are also acrobatic, aerobic and parkour events.
• Artistic: men compete on six apparatus (floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and high bar) and women on four (vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor).
• Rhythmic: set to music, gymnasts handle a hoop, ball, clubs or ribbon while they dance, leap and spin.
• Trampoline: athletes link 10 skills in a row, with twists and flips, several meters in the air.
• How you win: in artistic, judges add a difficulty score and an execution score (which starts at 10 and drops with every mistake); rhythmic and trampoline add other marks too. The highest total wins.
• Where: in an indoor gym or arena, on mats and apparatus built to official sizes.

Where it’s followed

It’s hugely popular in the US, Japan, China and Europe, and growing in Mexico; the big events are the Olympics, the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships and the Commonwealth Games.

Fun facts

• At Montreal 1976, Romania’s Nadia Comăneci scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic history. The scoreboard wasn’t built to show a 10, so it read 1.00.
• At the 2018 World Championships in Doha, Alexa Moreno won bronze on vault, becoming the first Mexican woman to win a medal at the artistic gymnastics Worlds.
• In senior rhythmic gymnastics, the ribbon must be at least 6 meters (about 20 feet) long, and the ball must weigh at least 400 grams (14 ounces).

How it’s played

• What it includes: at the Olympics, rifle, pistol and shotgun (trap and skeet) shooting, plus archery, which is a separate sport.
• Rifle and pistol: athletes fire at a ringed target from 10, 25 or 50 meters; in rifle, scores usually use decimals, up to 10.9 per shot.
• Shotgun: shooters break clay targets launched through the air; each broken target scores a point.
• Archery: Olympic archers shoot recurve bows at a target 70 meters away, and Los Angeles 2028 adds a compound mixed team event; the center scores 10 and the outer ring 1.
• How you win: the highest score; in individual archery matches, archers shoot sets of three arrows, and the first to 6 set points wins.
• Where: at indoor or outdoor ranges, under very strict safety rules.

Where it’s followed

It has deep roots in Europe, the US, China, India and South Korea, and Mexico has won Olympic medals in archery; here you can follow Olympic shooting and archery.

Fun facts

• Sweden’s Oscar Swahn won an Olympic silver medal in shooting at Antwerp 1920, at age 72. He is still the oldest Olympic medalist ever.
• In Olympic recurve archery, the target is 70 meters (about 230 feet) away and 122 cm (4 feet) wide, but its center, the 10 ring, is only 12.2 cm (under 5 inches) across.
• Shooting was part of the first modern Olympics, Athens 1896, and has been on the program at every Summer Games since, except 1904 and 1928.

How it’s played

• What it includes: on this site, BMX racing, BMX freestyle, skateboarding and breaking; all four have been on the Olympic program.
• BMX racing: up to eight riders roll off an 8-meter start ramp and race a dirt track full of jumps and turns; first across the line wins.
• BMX freestyle and skateboarding: each athlete gets short runs to pull off tricks on a course with ramps, and judges score difficulty, height and style.
• Breaking: one-on-one battles to music chosen by a DJ; judges reward creativity, technique and musicality.
• How you win: in races, finish first; in trick events, earn the best score from the judges.
• Where: on dirt tracks, in skateparks with ramps and, for breaking, on a stage.

Where it’s followed

They grew up mostly in the US and are now practiced worldwide, from Mexico to Japan and Brazil; in Colombia, BMX is a passion thanks to two-time Olympic champion Mariana Pajón, and here you can follow the Olympic events.

Fun facts

• Breaking made its Olympic debut at Paris 2024, at La Concorde, with 16 B-Boys and 16 B-Girls facing off in one-on-one battles.
• At Tokyo 2020, the first Olympics with skateboarding, Japan’s Momiji Nishiya won women’s street gold at just 13 years and 330 days old.
• Elite BMX races start on a ramp 8 meters (about 26 feet) high, nearly as tall as a three-story building, so riders build up speed from the very first second.

How it’s played

• Goal: hit the ball over the net so it bounces on your opponent’s side and they can’t return it.
• Players: singles (one-on-one) or doubles (two-on-two), each with a rubber-covered paddle.
• Scoring: a game goes to 11 points, won by two; matches are usually best of five or best of seven games.
• Serve: toss the ball up from an open palm, and it must bounce once on each side of the table; the serve switches every two points.
• Key rule: the ball has to bounce on your side before you hit it; no volleys.
• Where: on a table 2.74 meters (9 feet) long and 76 cm (2.5 feet) high, in a gym or hall.

Where it’s followed

China is the powerhouse, and it’s also big in Japan, South Korea, Germany and France; here you can follow the World Table Tennis (WTT) tour and Olympic table tennis.

Fun facts

• It started in England in the late 1800s as a way to play tennis indoors: people played on the dining table with whatever equipment they could improvise.
• Until 2001, games were played to 21 points. Since September of that year they go to 11, which creates more crucial points and more exciting matches.
• The official ball is 40 mm across and weighs just 2.7 grams. It used to be 38 mm, but it was made bigger in 2000 to slow the game a little and make it easier to follow on TV.

How it’s played

• What it includes: on this site, triathlon and modern pentathlon; there are also duathlon (run, bike, run) and other combined events.
• Triathlon: the Olympic distance is a 1.5 km swim, a 40 km bike ride and a 10 km run, back to back with the clock running.
• Transitions: switching from swim to bike and from bike to run counts toward your time, so quick changes of shoes and helmet matter.
• Modern pentathlon: fencing, an obstacle course (it replaced riding in 2025), a 200 m swim and the laser run, which mixes laser-pistol shooting and running.
• How you win: in triathlon, first across the finish line; in modern pentathlon, points from the earlier events turn into a head start in the final race.
• Where: triathlon in lakes, the sea, streets and roads; in modern pentathlon, the final brings every event together in one venue.

Where it’s followed

Triathlon is very popular in the US, Spain, Australia and across Europe, with plenty of races in Mexico and Colombia; here you can follow Olympic triathlon and modern pentathlon.

Fun facts

• Triathlon made its Olympic debut at Sydney 2000, with the famous Sydney Opera House as its stage. Canada’s Simon Whitfield and Switzerland’s Brigitte McMahon were the first champions.
• Modern pentathlon was the idea of Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, inspired by the pentathlon of the ancient Games. It debuted at Stockholm 1912.
• The first Ironman was held in Hawaii in 1978: 15 people swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles and ran a marathon. Only 12 made it to the finish.

How it’s played

• What it includes: swimming, diving, water polo, artistic swimming, open water swimming, rowing, canoeing, sailing and surfing, among others.
• Swimming: there are four strokes (freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly) plus the medley; the first to touch the wall at the finish wins.
• Diving: divers jump from a 3-meter springboard or a 10-meter platform, and judges score the dive and the entry into the water.
• Water polo: two teams of seven (including the goalie) try to score in the other team’s goal over four 8-minute quarters, without touching the bottom of the pool.
• How you win: in swimming and rowing, the best time; in diving and artistic swimming, the best score from the judges.
• Where: in 50-meter pools, at sea, on lakes and on rowing courses.

Where it’s followed

They’re followed worldwide, and Mexico is a diving powerhouse; here you can follow the World Aquatics Championships for swimming, diving and water polo, the European Championships and the Olympic water events.

Fun facts

• Michael Phelps won 23 Olympic gold medals in swimming between 2004 and 2016, the most in history. He won 28 medals in all.
• In high diving, men jump from 27 meters (about 89 feet) and women from 20 meters. For the men, that’s like diving off a building about nine stories tall.
• At Paris 2024, surfing was held at Teahupo’o, Tahiti, more than 9,000 miles (15,000 km) from Paris, the farthest an Olympic venue has ever been from its host city.

How it’s played

• Goal: lift more than your rivals in your bodyweight category.
• The two lifts: the snatch, where the bar goes from the floor to overhead in one motion, and the clean and jerk, in two: first to the shoulders, then overhead.
• Attempts: you get three tries at each lift, and your best one counts.
• How you win: your best snatch and your best clean and jerk are added up; the highest total wins.
• Key rule: three referees decide whether a lift is good; two white lights out of three and it counts.
• Where: on a 4-by-4-meter wooden platform, in front of the referees.

Where it’s followed

It has a strong tradition in China, Colombia, Mexico and Eastern Europe; the big events are the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games, and here you can also follow the World’s Strongest Man strongman contest.

Fun facts

• Women lifted at the Olympics for the first time at Sydney 2000, and María Isabel Urrutia won the 75 kg class, the first Olympic gold medal in Colombia’s history.
• At those same Games, Mexico’s Soraya Jiménez won the 58 kg class and became the first Mexican woman to win Olympic gold in any sport.
• The Olympic bar weighs 20 kg (44 lb) for men and 15 kg (33 lb) for women, and each side gets a 2.5 kg collar. So it’s heavy even before any plates go on.

How it’s played

• What it includes: alpine, cross-country, ski jumping, freestyle, Nordic combined and biathlon; this site also covers snowboarding.
• Alpine skiing: racers go down the mountain through gates marked by flags, in downhill, super-G, giant slalom and slalom; miss a gate and you’re out.
• How you win: in most events, the fastest time; slalom and giant slalom add up two runs.
• Ski jumping: points come from the distance of the jump, which is measured, plus style marks from judges for the flight and the landing.
• Biathlon: combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting; every missed target costs a penalty lap or extra time.
• Where: on snowy mountains and trails, mostly in winter, across Europe, North America and Asia.

Where it’s followed

It’s a passion in Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Italy, France and the US; the big events are the Winter Olympics, the FIS World Cup and the World Championships, and here you can also follow US college racing (NCAA).

Fun facts

• Skiing is prehistoric: according to Encyclopaedia Britannica, the oldest known skis were found in Russia and are thousands of years old, from long before winter sports existed.
• At Sochi 2014, Hubertus von Hohenlohe raced for Mexico at age 55 in a race suit designed to look like a mariachi outfit.
• In biathlon, the targets are 50 meters away, and the one for shooting lying down is just 45 mm (under 2 inches) wide. Each miss costs an extra 150-meter loop or one added minute.

How it’s played

• What it includes: figure skating, long track speed skating and short track.
• Figure skating: men’s and women’s singles, pairs and ice dance, each skating two programs to music: a short program and a free skate (in ice dance, a rhythm dance and a free dance).
• Scoring: judges rate every jump, spin and step sequence for difficulty and execution, then add artistic marks; the highest total wins.
• Long track: in most events, skaters race in pairs on a 400-meter oval, against the clock.
• Short track: several skaters, usually four to six, race together on a 111-meter oval; the first across the line move on to the next round.
• Where: at indoor ice rinks; short track and figure skating use a rink the size of a hockey rink.

Where it’s followed

It’s very popular in Japan, South Korea, Canada, the US, the Netherlands and across Europe; in Spain, 2018 Olympic bronze medalist Javier Fernández won it many fans, and here you can follow the ISU Grand Prix and the Olympic events.

Fun facts

• Figure skating was the first winter sport at the Olympics: it was held at the London 1908 Summer Games, 16 years before the first Winter Olympics.
• In 2022, American Ilia Malinin landed the first quadruple Axel in competition. Because the Axel takes off going forward, that’s four and a half turns in the air.
• A short track lap is only about 111 meters, less than a third of the 400-meter long track oval, and it fits inside an ice hockey rink.

How it’s played

• What it includes: curling, bobsled (bobsleigh), luge and skeleton, all on the Winter Olympics program.
• Curling: two teams of four slide granite stones down the ice toward a target called the house; sweeping in front of a stone helps it travel farther and straighter.
• Curling scoring: after each end, the team with the stone closest to the center scores one point for each of its stones closer than the other team’s best; games usually have 10 ends.
• Bobsled: teams of two or four push the sled, jump in and race down a twisting ice chute; there’s also women’s monobob, for one person.
• Luge and skeleton: in luge you ride on your back, feet first; in skeleton, on your stomach, head first.
• How you win: in sled events, times from several runs are added up and the lowest total wins; in curling, the team with more points after the last end wins.

Where it’s followed

Curling is huge in Canada, Scotland, Sweden and Switzerland, and sliding sports in Germany, Austria, Italy and the US; here you can follow the curling World Championships, Canada’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts and the Olympic events.

Fun facts

• The curling stones for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics were made by the Scottish company Kays, using granite from Ailsa Craig, a tiny uninhabited island off Scotland. Each stone can weigh up to 19.96 kg (44 lb).
• Luge is timed to the thousandth of a second, because medals can be decided by gaps far shorter than the blink of an eye.
• At Calgary 1988, Mexico’s two two-man bobsleds were raced by four brothers, the Tamés. They drove 53 hours to get there and competed in a rented sled.

How it’s played

• Goal: put the ball in the other team’s goal more often than they do.
• Teams: 10 a side in men’s field lacrosse and in women’s under international World Lacrosse rules (US college and high school women’s teams play 12), and 6 in indoor box lacrosse.
• Length: four quarters, from 12 to 20 minutes each depending on the league.
• Scoring: each goal is worth 1 point (in the pro PLL, shots from beyond a deep arc are worth 2).
• Key rule: only the goalie may touch the ball with a hand; everyone else moves it with the stick. Men’s lacrosse allows body contact, so players wear helmets and pads.
• Where: on a grass or turf field 100 to 110 meters (110 to 120 yards) long, or, in box lacrosse, on a hockey rink covered with artificial turf.

Where it’s followed

It’s most popular in the US and Canada, with the pro Premier Lacrosse League (field) and National Lacrosse League (indoor), and it’s growing in Europe and Asia; you can also follow the World Lacrosse Championship and the continental tournaments, including the Pan-American championship.

Fun facts

• Lacrosse was created by Indigenous peoples of North America. The Haudenosaunee call it the Creator’s Game, and the name lacrosse comes from French missionaries who wrote about it in the 1600s.
• Lacrosse was an Olympic sport at St. Louis 1904 and London 1908, and it returns at Los Angeles 2028 in a fast six-a-side version called Sixes.
• Since 1994, a Canadian law has recognized lacrosse as the country’s national summer sport. Its national winter sport is ice hockey.

How it’s played

• What it includes: Gaelic football, hurling, camogie (women’s hurling), ladies’ Gaelic football, Gaelic handball and rounders.
• Teams: 15 players a side, on a grass field with H-shaped goals: a netted goal below and two tall posts above.
• Scoring: a goal (under the crossbar, into the net) is worth 3 points; over the bar between the posts, 1 point. In Gaelic football, since 2025, a score from outside a 40-meter arc is worth 2.
• Gaelic football: you carry the round ball in your hands, but every four steps you must bounce it or kick it back into your own hands.
• Hurling: played with a wooden stick (the hurley) and a small ball (the sliotar), which you can strike through the air or balance on the stick as you run.
• Length: top inter-county games have two 35-minute halves.

Where it’s followed

They’re a passion in Ireland, where every county has its team, and in Irish communities in the US and around the world; the headline events are the All-Ireland Gaelic football and hurling championships, whose finals are played at Croke Park in Dublin.

Fun facts

• The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), which runs these sports, was founded on November 1, 1884, at Hayes’ Hotel in Thurles, Ireland.
• In 2018, UNESCO added hurling and camogie to its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Hurling is often called “the fastest game on grass.”
• The players are amateurs: even the biggest stars aren’t paid to play, though they fill stadiums like Croke Park, which holds more than 80,000 people.