List of Sports: Names of Different Types of Sports and Games

Are you searching for a complete list of sports in English? Good news, here you will find a huge sports list with pictures and examples in English.

A way to relieve stress and maintain a healthy body is by engaging in different types of sports. With them, you don’t just enhance your physical health, you also enjoy and have a great time with friends. Sports promote friendliness, teamwork, hard work, and discipline. The satisfaction you get while playing the sport equals, or even exceeds, the one you get from winning it. For information purposes, run through this article as it lists out the different types and examples of sports known today.

In this section, you are going to be learning the correct English names for a variety of sports which will improve your vocabulary and build you confidence in both speaking and listening.

List of Sports

The sport includes all forms of competitive physical activity or games which through casual or organized participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants, and in some cases, entertainment for spectators.

Types of Sports

Before enumerating the list of known sports, let us first discuss their classifications. Sports are classified either according to the primary equipment used or to the setting where it is played. Here are the different types of sports:

Air Sports

Air sports include a vast domain of aerial activities done as sporting events.

Athletics

Athletics refers to sports events that test the athlete’s endurance, strength, and speed. It involves competitive running, walking, jumping, and throwing.

Ball Sports

Ball sports are those games that use a ball in play. This includes various categories, including ball-over-net, ball-and-bat, and ball-and-stick games.

Board Sports

These types of sports are played with a specific board used as primary equipment. Examples of this type are surfing and skateboarding.

Combat Sports

Combat sports are also called fighting sports. It is a competitive contact sport that involves one-on-one combat. It covers all martial arts and ancient fighting events, whether they use brute force or specific weapons.

Cycle Sports

Cycling, or cycle sports, includes all competitive physical activities that use bicycles. They can be carried out as a race or a performance that shows tricks through using bikes.

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is the performance of systematic exercises that requires and shows balance, flexibility, coordination, strength, and overall physical conditioning. These are often done by using different apparatuses, such as rings, beams, and bars.

Ice Sports

Ice sports, as its name suggests, include sporting events that are performed in an ice field. They are mostly held during winter sports competition.

Indoor Sports

These are those games that do not require an open field to be played. They can be carried out at home or in a specially structured indoor setting. Most table-top games are indoor ones. Some outdoor sports were developed to be played indoors, too. Examples of these are indoor cricket and indoor soccer.

Mind Sports

A mind sport is a game based on a particular intellectual ability to strategize and win competitions. It does not need arduous physical exercise and movement of the body. Therefore, it requires more mental than physical skills.

Multisport Race

This refers to the events that consist of components upholding different sports. It mixes a group of disciplines, usually athletics, that are performed consecutively. Examples of this type are the triathlon, tetrathlon, pentathlon, and so on.

Motorsports

This is the general term referring to the various competitive sporting events that utilize motorized vehicles for racing or non-racing competitions.

Racket Sports

Racket sports encompasses all games that involve hitting a ball or another object through the use of rackets. These types of sports showcase and improve the agility and speed of the players.

Strength Sports

The focus of this type of sport is an athlete’s muscular strength and capability. A strength athlete trains and competes by showing his muscle build or power. Examples of these sports are weightlifting, powerlifting, and bodybuilding.

Target Sports

This refers to competitive games that involve throwing or shooting a piece of equipment to hit a target. It enhances focus and concentration and promotes patience.

Water Sports

Water sports covers all sporting events played or performed in water.

Sports List

Here is a list of sports arranged alphabetically:

• Acrobatics
• Aerobic Gymnastics
• Archery
• Arnis
• Artistic Gymnastics
• Artistic Swimming
• Badminton
• Baseball
• Basketball
• Baton Twirling
• Bicycle Motocross (BMX)
• Billiards/ Pool (U.S.)
• Bobsleigh
• Bodybuilding
• Bowling
• Boxing
• Canoeing
• Car Racing
• Cheerleading
• Chess
• Cricket
• Croquet
• Curling
• Dance Sport
• Darts
• Diving
• Dodgeball
• Fencing
• Figure Skating
• Football (U.K)/ Soccer (U.S., Australia)
• Frisbee
• Golf
• Handball
• Hang Gliding
• Hockey
• Horseback Riding
• Horse Racing
• Ice Hockey
• Ice Skating
• Jet Ski Racing
• Judo
• Karate
• Kayaking
• Kendo
• Kick Boxing
• Kite Surfing
• Lacrosse
• Luge
• Mixed Martial Arts
• Motocross
• Muay Thai
• Paintball
• Parachuting
• Paragliding
• Parkour
• Polo
• Pool/Billiards
• Powerlifting
• Rafting
• Rhythmic Gymnastics
• Rock Climbing
• Rowing
• Rugby
• Sailing
• Sandboarding
• Scuba Diving
• Shooting
• Skateboarding
• Skeleton
• Skiing
• Snowboarding
• Softball
• Speed Skating
• Sport Climbing
• Squash
• Sumo Wrestling
• Surfing
• Swimming
• Synchronized Skating
• Synchronized Swimming
• Table Tennis
• Taekwondo
• Tennis
• Track and Field
• Trampolining
• Triathlon (Tetrathlon, etc.)
• Tug of War
• Volleyball
• Water Polo
• Weightlifting
• Windsurfing
• Wrestling
• Wu Shu

List of Sports Image

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Types of Sports

When it comes to talking about hobbies and interests, being able to refer to the different names of sports in English can be of a real benefit. This is very useful knowledge if you are passionate about playing or watching sports and would like to begin talking about this with English speakers. It is also great for reading about sports such as in newspaper articles or online.

List of sports and games in English with example sentences, illustrated with interesting pictures.

Names of Different Types of Sports and Games

Archery

– Her husband is an archery instructor.

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Badminton

– Badminton can be played by two or four people.

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Cricket

– The crowd loves to watch attacking cricket.

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Bowling

– Do you want to go bowling with us Friday?

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Boxing

– He is the boxing champion of the world.

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Curling

– She met her friends at a curling club.

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Tennis

– She was one of the best tennis players of her generation.

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Skateboarding

– These are only a few reasons why skateboarding is so popular.

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Surfing

– They go surfing every weekend.

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Hockey

– They were playing at hockey.

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Figure skating

– I like watching figure skating on TV, and rhythmic gymnastics.

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Yoga

– She does yoga for an hour a day.

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Fencing

– He is famous at fencing.

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Fitness

– Physical fitness is having a healthy body.

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Gymnastics

– We do gymnastics at school.

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Karate

– He holds a black belt in karate.

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Volleyball

– Tim plays for the national volleyball team.

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Weightlifting

– How many referees are there in a weightlifting competition?

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Basketball

– I am a member of the basketball team.

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Baseball

– Why don’t we go to see a baseball game?

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Rugby

– I play rugby purely for enjoyment.

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Wrestling

– He tends to get carried away when watching wrestling on TV.

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High jumping

– That school is famous for high jumping.

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Hang gliding

– Hang gliding holds no fears for her.

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Car racing

– Sporting events such as car racing give me a headache.

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Cycling

– We did a lot of cycling in France last year.

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Running

– Did you go running this morning?

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Table tennis

– He loves to play table tennis.

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Fishing

– They can go fishing in the lake.

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Judo

– Murray is a judo black belt.

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Climbing

– There’s a lot of danger in rock climbing.

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Billiards/ Pool (U.S.)

– We had a game of billiards and then went to a restaurant.

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Shooting

– I need more practice at shooting.

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Horse racing

– He spent too much money on horse racing.

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Horseback riding

– Some people like horseback riding, but I prefer golf as a hobby.

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Golf

– Do you want to play golf tomorrow?

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Football (U.K)/ Soccer (U.S., Australia)

– The boys wanted to play football.

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List of Different Types of Sports and Games | Picture

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List of Sports Video

Sports video with American English pronunciation.