Most of Canadians are "crazy" about sports. People watch sports games and events on TV or go to arenas. How sport is practiced in Canada today is influenced by a number of factors, including four seasons, and geographic and social diversity. For example, lacrosse, is a national summer sport, has been played by Indigenous peoples for close to a thousand years. Hockey, national winter sport, was invented in Canada in the 1800s, and basketball was invented by Canadian Dr. James Naismith in 1891 to condition young athletes during the winter. Today, soccer is the most popular sport among Canadian children. Golf, tennis, skiing, badminton, volleyball, cycling, swimming, bowling, rugby union, canoeing, equestrian, squash and the study of martial arts are widely enjoyed at the youth and amateur levels.

 

Canada shares several major professional sports leagues with the United States. Canadian teams in these leagues include seven franchises in the National Hockey League, as well as three Major League Soccer teams and one team in each of Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association. Other popular professional sports in Canada include Canadian football, which is played in the Canadian Football League, National Lacrosse League lacrosse, and curling.

 

Canada has participated in almost every Olympic Games since its Olympic debut in 1900, and has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, the 1994 Basketball World Championship, the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, the 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. Most recently, Canada staged the 2015 Pan American Games and 2015 Parapan American Games.

 

More information about Canadian sports can be found here: http://www.thecanadaguide.com/culture/sports/