Below is list of just the names of all the sports we are aware of with a very brief summary of each sport.

 A Sports

• AbaGüreşi – a kind of wrestling from the area of Gaziantep and Hatay in Turkey, which is played wearing clothes made of aba.
• Abseiling – an adventure sport where the participants descending a steep formation using a rope. It is also known as rappelling, roping down, roping and snapling.
• Adventure Racing – an event combining two or more endurance disciplines, such as map reading (Orienteering), Cross-Country Running, Mountain Biking, Paddling and Climbing. It is also called Expedition Racing.
• Adventure Sports – a general term for outdoor sports or activities in which the participant competes in a natural environment, more against themselves than against others
• Aerobatics — sport aerobatics involves aircraft maneuvers such as rolls, loops, stall turns (hammerheads), and tailslides.
• Aeromodeling — sport using flying model aircraft.
• Aggressive inline skating — Aggressive inline skating is a form of inline skatingexecuted on specially designed inline skates with the focus on grinding and spins.
• Air Hockey — played on an air-hockey table, participants try to hit a puck elevated on a cushion of air into the opponents goal.
• Air Racing — Air racing is a sport involving airplanes competing over a fixed course low to the ground.
• Air sports — a general term covering a range of aerial sporting activities such as: Aerobatics,Aeromodeling, Ballooning, Air racing, Gliding, Hang gliding, Parachuting, Paragliding,Wingsuit Flying, and using Power Kites such as for Kitesurfing.
• Airsoft — a skirmish sport in which participants eliminate opponents by hitting them with spherical non-metallic pellets from replica firearms. See also the similar sports Laser Tag and Paintball.
• All-Terrain Boarding — another name for Mountainboarding
• Alpine Skiing — involves racing down snow-covered hills on skis with fixed-heel bindings – commonly known as Downhill Skiing. There are alpine skiing competitions in disciplines such as slalom, giant slalom, super giant slalom, and downhill.
• Alpinism
• American Football — A team sport played on a rectangular field 1 with goalposts at each end. Each team attempts to advance an oval ball down the field into the end zone by running or passing it. It is also known in some parts of the world (outside of the US) as Gridiron. In the US it is referred simply as football. Variations include Arena Football, 6-Man Football.
• American Handball — players use their hands to hit a small rubber ball against a wall. There are three versions (four-wall handball, three-wall handball and one-wall handball) that can each be played by either two, three or four players. It can be compared to squash without rackets. It is very different from the Olympic sport of (Team) Handball.
• Angling — a method of fishing using an “angle” (fish hook). It is the principal method of Fishingas a sport.
• Aquathlon— an underwater sport where two competitors wearing masks and fins wrestle underwater in an attempt to remove a ribbon from each other’s ankle band. It is also known asUnderwater Wrestling.
• Archery — competitive archery involves shooting arrows at a target for accuracy from a set distance or distances. The main forms of archery are Target Archery and Field Archery, and others include Clout Archery, 3D archery, Crossbow Archery, Flight Archery, and Ski Archery.
• Arena Football — a variety of American Football (Gridiron), played indoors on a smaller field resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game.
• Arena Rugby — a variation of Rugby Union, played indoors on a smaller field resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game.
• Arm Wrestling — a type of Wrestling where each participant place one elbow on a surface while gripping the other participant’s hand. The aim is to pin the other’s arm onto the surface.
• Arnis – the national martial art sport of Philippines which emphasizes weapon based fighting
• Artistic Billiards — a Carom Billiards discipline in which players score points for performing 76 preset shots of varying difficulty. It is sometimes called fantasy billiards.
• Artistic Cycling — a form of competitive indoor cycling in which athletes perform tricks for points on specialized, fixed-gear bikes in a format similar to ballet or gymnastics.
• Artistic Gymnastics — is an Olympic sport where gymnasts perform short routines on different apparatus, such as the Vault, Floor (men and women), Pommel Horse, Rings, Parallel Bars, High Bar (men), and Uneven Bars, Balance Beam (women).
• Artistic Pool — a trick shot competition on a pocket billiards table in which players score points for performing 56 preset shots of varying difficulty.
• Artistic Roller Skating — is a sport which consists of a number of events (Figures, Dance, Freestyle and Precision Teams) usually accomplished on quad skates, though sometimes inline skates are used.
• Association Football — more commonly known as Football or Soccer. It is the world’s most popular sport, played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. The game is played on a rectangular field with a goal at each end. The object is to score by using any part of the body except the arms and hands to get the ball into the opposing goal.
• Athletics — commonly known as Track and Field, though it is an umbrella sport, which in addition to Track and Field it also comprises Cross Country Running, Road Running and Racewalking.
• Atlatl — an Atlatl is a spear thrower, used in spear or dart throwing competitions
• ATV — ATV stands for All Terrain Vehicle, and sport disciplines involving ATVs include Enduro, Track and Off-Road Racing and ATV racing on a motocross track.
• Australian Football — a fast paced football code developed and played mainly in Australia. AFL is played between two teams of eighteen players on a large oval field. Six points are scored by kicking the ball between two tall goal posts, or one point for passing the ball either side of these. Alternative names are Australian Football, Aussie Rules, AFL, Australian Rules Football.
• Australian Handball — similar to Squash. though played without a racquet.
• Auto Racing — a sport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. There are numerous different categories including Formula 1, Touring Car, Rally Cars, Drag Racing, Stock Car Racing,Vintage Racing. Also known as Car Racing, Motor Racing or Automobile Racing.
• Autocross — a type of Auto Racing in which drivers navigate one at a time through a defined course on either a sealed or an unsealed surface in the shortest time. See also the motorcycle version Motorcycle Gymkhana
• Autograss — a type of Auto Racing on natural surfaces such as grass or mud, usually held on quarter-mile oval tracks.

 

B Sports

• Ba game – a version of Medieval Football played in Scotland, a type of Mob Football where two parts of a town have to get a ball to their respective sides.
• Backstroke — a swimming stroke performed on the back with the arms lifted alternately out of the water in a backward circular motion and the legs extended and kicking.
• Badminton — an indoor game with rackets in which a shuttlecock is hit back and forth across a net. See also Ball Badminton.
• Bagatelle
• Baguazhang
• Balance Beam — a female Olympic Games gymnastics event on which a gymnast balances on a narrow horizontal bar raised off the floor, while performing exercises.
• Balkline — a Carom Billiards discipline. A point is scored each time a player’s cue ball makes contact with both object balls on a single stroke. It is played on a pocketless table that is divided by balklines on the cloth marking playing regions. It’s precursor was a game called Straight Rail.
• Ball Badminton — a racket game native to India, played with a yellow ball made of wool, with similarities to Badminton.
• Ball Hockey — a variation of Ice Hockey, a lot like Street Hockey, in which the game is played on foot on a non-ice surface, and a ball is used instead of a hockey puck.
• Ballooning — competitive hot air ballooning is a test of accuracy, not speed. The aim is to fly as close as possible to a target and drop a weighted marker.
• Ballroom Dancing
• Bando
• Bandy – a team sport played on ice using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team’s goal. A variation is Rink Bandy.
• Banger racing – racing event which is done on a dirt track using scrap cars
• Bank pool — a version of Pocket Billiards
• Banzai skydiving
• Bar billiards
• Bare-knuckle boxing – two individuals participate to fight against each other without using boxing gloves or any other type of padding on their hands. Also called Fisticuffs
• Barrel Racing – a rodeo event where participants and horses complete a clover-leaf pattern around barrels.
• Baseball
• BASE Jumping – involves parachuting from a structure or cliff
• Basketball
• Basque Pelota – the name for a variety of court sports which involves hitting a ball against a wall using the hand, a racket, a wooden bat or a basket. Other forms include Pala Corta, Rubber-paleta, Paleta-Leather, Xare, Cesta Punta, Frontenis, Hand-pelota, Valencian Pilota, Valencian Frontó. Jai Alai is a variety of Basque Pelota.
• Bat-and-Trap – an English bat and ball game usuallt played in a pub
• Battōjutsu
• Beach basketball – a version of basketball played on sand
• Beach handball — a variation of Handball, played on sand instead of indoors. This sport is sometimes called Sandball.
• Beach rugby – a version of rugby played on the sand
• Beach soccer – similar to association football but played on a beach or sand
• Beach Tennis – a sport which has elements from tennis and volleyball, and played on the beach
• Beach volleyball— A version of Volleyball played on and with teams of two players, in which a ball is hit by hand over a high net, the aim being to score points by making the ball reach the ground on the opponent’s side of the court.
• Beach Woodball — a version of Woodball played on sand which involves using a mallet to pass a ball through gates. The sport is in the program for the Asian Beach Games.
• Beagling
• Benchpress
• Benchrest shooting – a shooting sport where the participant shoots with a rifle at the bench
• Biathlon – a combination of cross-country skiing and rifle shooting
• Bicycle Motocross (BMX) – a cycle sport which involves BMX bikes
• Bicycle polo – similar to Polo, though played on bicycles instead of horses.
• Billiards — a general term for a range of cue sports, including Pocket Billiards and Carom Billiards. In some coutries, Billiards refers to the specific game of English Billiards.
• Big game hunting
• Big-game fishing
• Biribol – an aquatic version of volleyball
• Blackball
• Board track racing – a motorsport which was popular in the United Stated between the 1910s and 1920s
• Boardercross – a snowboard competition on a course similar to motocross
• Bobrun cycling
• Bobrun skating
• Bobsleigh – winter sport on a sled making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, ice tracks.
• Bocce – is part of the boules sport family, similar to bowls and pentanque.
• Boccia – a ball sport similar to bocce, bowls, and pentanque for athletes with physical disabilities.
• Bodyboarding – a water sport in which the surfer rides a bodyboard
• Bodybuilding
• Boffer Fighting
• Bokator
• Boli Khela – a form of wrestling which is practiced in Bangladesh and India.
• Borden Ball (see Handball)
• Bossaball – played on an inflatable court with trampolines on each side of the net
• Boßeln
• Bouldering – a type of rock climbing which is done without the use of a harness
• Boule lyonnaise
• Bounceball
• Bowling (Tenpin) – a player rolls a bowling ball on to a wooden or synthetic lane to knock down pins
• Bowls (see Lawn Bowls)
• Box lacrosse – a version of lacrosse which is played indoors
• Boxing – a combat sport in which two players throw punches at each other
• Brännboll – a Scandinavian game which has similarities to rounders, but with no pitcher
• Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
• Breaststroke
• British baseball – a bat-and-ball game played in Wales and England similar to rounders
• Broomball – a game like ice hockey played with a broom
• Bujinkan
• Bull Fighting – involves one or more bulls which are being fought in a bullring
• Bull riding — a Rodeo sport, which involves a rider getting on a large bull and attempting to stay mounted while the animal attempts to buck them off.
• Bunnock
• Bushwhacking
• Butterfly stroke
• Buzkashi – a Central Asian sport like polo in which riders on horses attempt to drag a goat carcass toward the goal. There is a variant known as kokpar which is quite similar.

 

C Sports

• Caid – the name given to various ancient and traditional Irish football games, which some believe to have influenced the modern sport of Gaelic Football.
• Calcio Fiorentino – an early form of football which was developed in 16th century Italy
• Calva – a traditional Spanish sport in which you knock down a pirce of wood
• Camel racing – racing camels with a jockey like in horse racing
• Camel jumping
• Cammag – a sport similar to shinty or hurling from the Isle of Man
• Camogie – female version of hurling played in Ireland
• Campdrafting – from Australia, involving a horse and a rider working cattle
• Camping – a particularly tough and dangerous version of Medieval Football popular in some parts of England, using a ball the size of a cricket ball. Also known as campyon, campan, or campball.
• Canadian football – a type of gridiron football which is played in Canada.
• Candlepin bowling – a type of bowling like tenpin bowling using candlepins and smaller balls
• Caneball – another name for the Myanmar (Burmese) traditional sport of Chinlone
• Canoe Polo – like polo on water, the objective is to score by throwing or hitting a ball through a goal suspended two meters above the water.
• Canoeing – paddle sport in which the rider kneels or sits facing forward in a canoe
• Capoeira
• Capture the flag – the aim is to get the other team’s flag which is located their base.
• Carom Billiards — A game played on a felt covered table with cues and billiard balls, in which the object is to score points by caroming your cue ball off both the opponent’s cue ball and the object ball(s) with a single shot. There are a large range of disciplines include Artistic Billiards, Three-Cushion Billiards, Five-Pin Billiards, Balkline, Straight Rail, Cushion Caroms, Four-Ball.
• Casterboarding
• Catch wrestling
• Charreada
• Cheerleading — a dubious sport in which groups of cheerleaders do routines that subjectively assessed.
• Chessboxing – a combination of chess and boxing
• Chester-le-Street
• Chicago
• Chilean rodeo – two riders on horseback try to stop a calf.
• Chinese handball – a form of American handball which is popular in the streets of NY, similar to Wallball.
• Chinlone – the traditional sport of Burma or Myanmar, a team sport combined with dance.
• Choi Kwang-Do
• Clay pigeon shooting – shooters try to shoot flying targets like the clay pigeons or clay targets
• Clean and jerk
• Clout archery – a form of Archery, similar to Target Archery, except you aim at a flag among a group of concentric circular scoring zones from long range.
• Cnapan — for a Celtic form of Medieval Football, played between parishes where the object of the game was to take the ball to the church of the home parish using any means possible. A small wooden ball was used, soaked in fat to make it hard to handle.
• Combat robot – involves custom-built robots used in different ways to destroy another robot
• Combine racing
• Combined training
• Competitive eating – involves participants competing on who can consume the most food in a short period of time
• Competitive Marching Band
• Composite rules shinty-hurling
• Corkball – four bases (no base-running)
• Cornish hurling — a variation of Mob Football played in Cornwall England, very similar to the game of Cnapan, using a silver ball. This is not at all like the Gaelic sport of Hurling.
• Cowboy
• Cowboy Action Shooting
• Cowboy polo — similar to regular Polo, though riders compete with western saddles, usually in a smaller arena and with an inflatable rubber medicine ball.
• Court Tennis (see Real Tennis)
• Crab Soccer or Crab Football – football with players supporting themselves on their hands and their feet, face up, which makes them look like crabs.
• Crazy Golf — a common name for Minigolf
• Cricket
• Croquet – hit plastic or wooden balls using a malleto through hoops (known as wickets in the USA)
• Cross country skiing – races over snow-covered terrain using skis
• Cross-country mountain biking – off road cycling races over rough terrain
• Cross-country rally
• Cross-country running – distance running races over natural terrain
• Crossfit — is a strength and conditioning program created in the US in 2000, involving short but high-intensity workouts comprised of functional exercises. Not really a sport, but they do organize fitness competitions such as the CrossFit Games.
• Cue Sports — a general term for a large range of sports such as Pocket Billiards (Pool) andSnooker.
• Cuju – an ancient Chinese ball game which involves kicking a ball through an opening into a net.
• Curling – players slide stones on a sheet of ice towards the target area
• Cushion Caroms — a Carom Billiards discipline, played on a pocketless table with two white balls and a red ball. The aim is to carom off of both object balls with at least one rail being struck before the hit on the second object ball.
• Cycling – sports involving riding a bicycle
• Cycle Polo — see Bicycle polo
• Cycle Speedway
• Cyclo-cross – a type of bicycle racing, a winter sport performed over various terrain
• Czech handball

 

D Sports

• Dancesport — Dancesport is the competitive form of Ballroom and Latin Dancing, in which contestants perform dances before judges.
• Danish longball
• Darts
• Deadlifting
• Deaf basketball
• Debating
• Decathlon
• Deer hunting
• Demolition derby
• Desert racing
• Dinghy sailing
• Dirt jumping
• Dirt track racing
• Disc dog
• Disc golf
• Disc Sports
• Discus – athletes attempt to throw a heavy discas far as they can
• Diving
• Dodge disc
• Dodgeball – teams throw balls at each other while trying to avoid the balls.
• Dog Racing – greyhounds chase a lure around a reack
• Dog Sledding – teams of sled dogs pull a sled with the driver
• Dog sports – general term for sporting activities that involve dogs
• Double disc court
• Downhill Skiing – participants slide down a snow-covered hill using skis with fixed bindings
• Downhill mountain biking – biking sport which is held on steep and rough terrain
• Drag boat racing – drag racing which is held on water with boats
• Drag racing – automobiles or motorcycles race down a straight track
• Dragon boat racing – a paddling sport using a dragon boat
• Dressage – an equestrian sport in which riders and horses perform from memory a series of predetermined events.
• Drifting
• Drunken Boxing or Drunkard’s Boxing Zui Quan. It is a concept in traditional Chinese martial arts, as well as a classification of modern Wushu forms.
• Duathlon – similar to triathlon, running first, then cycling, then running again
• Duckpin bowling – a type of 10-pin bowling
• Dumog — a Filipino style of wrestling while standing upright
• Durango boot

 

E Sports

• Egg and spoon race
• Egyptian stick fencing
• Eight-ball
• Eight-man football
• Elephant polo — a form of Polo, played on the back of Elephants instead of on horseback.
• Endurance running
• Endurance racing
• Endurance riding
• Enduro — a motorcycle sport with main objective to traverse a series of checkpoints, arriving exactly at a predetermined time. The courses are usually run over thick wooded terrain, sometimes with large obstacles.
• English Billiards — sometimes just called Billiards, requires two cue balls and a red object ball. The game features both cannons (caroms) and the pocketing of balls as objects of play, scoring points for each of these.
• English Pleasure
• Ensemble
• Episkyros
• Equestrian – competitions testing horse riding skills
• Equestrian vaulting – a gymnastics and dance discipline done on horseback
• Equitation
• e-Sports – another name for Gaming
• Eskrima
• Eton College
• Eton Fives
• European (Team) Handball — a name for the sport of Handball
• Eventing
• Expedition racing — an endurance event combining two or more disciplines. More commonly called Adventure Racing.
• Extreme off-road

 

F Sports

• Fast Pitch – the competitve form of softball
• Fast5 – a variation of netball, formerly known as Fastnet, with only 5 players per team.
• Fell Running – running races done off road and mostly uphill
• Fencing
• FIBA 33
• Field archery — a form of Archery which involves shooting at targets of varying distance, often in rough terrain.
• Field handball — the orginal version of Handball, played outdoors on a larger field and more players. It is also known as Outdoor Handball or Grass Handball.
• Field Hockey
• Field lacrosse
• Field target
• Fierljeppen – contestants usug a long pole, vault across a canal. Also called Canal Jumping.
• Figure skating
• Finswimming
• Fishing — in competition fishing contestants compete for prizes based on the total length or weight of a fish, usually of a pre-determined species, caught within a specified timeframe. Forms include Angling.
• Fistball
• Fisticuffs — another name for bare knuckle boxing.
• Five-pin bowling – a bowling variant from Canada with smaller balls and only 5 pins
• Five-Pin Billiards — a Carom Billiards discipline popular in Italy and Argentina, in which points are agined by using one’s cue ball to cause the opponent’s cue ball to knock over pins.
• Fives – an English racket sport in which a ball is propelled against the walls in a specially designed court by using a bare or gloved hand.
• Flag football – similar to American football but instead of tackling players the defensive team have to remove a flag from the ball carrier.
• Flight Archery – a form of archery in which the aim is to shoot the arrow as far as possible.
• Floor (Gymnastics) – gymnasts perform a tumbling and dance routine on a floor space
• Floor Hockey
• Floorball – a type of floor hockey sport played indoors
• Footbag Net – players have to kick a footbag over a 5ft high net
• Football — Around the world, Football mostly refers to Association Football, also known asSoccer in some places. In the USA, Football refers to American Football (Gridiron). In Australia, Football refers to Australian Rules Football.
• Football Tennis – also known as futnet, played by kicking a ball over a low net
• Footvolley – like beach volleyball though you can only use your feet
• Formula Racing – motor racing using open-wheeled single seat vehicles
• Four Square – school yard ball game played in a quadrant.
• Four-Ball — a Carom Billiards discipline, played on a pocketless table with four balls (2 red, 2 white), where a point is scored when a player caroms on any two other balls, and two points are scored when the player caroms on each of the three other balls. A variant played in Asia is calledYotsudama.
• Freediving – underwater diving which completely relies on the diver’s capability to hold its breath
• Freestyle BMX – stunt riding sport using BMX bikes
• Freestyle Motocross — competition based upon points for acrobatic ability on an MX bike over jumps. See also Motocross.
• Freestyle Skiing – different forms of freestyle skiing including Aerial skiing, Mogul skiing, Ski ballet, Ski cross, Half-pipe skiing, Slopestyle skiing
• Freestyle Snowboarding – competitors ride on the snowboard and do the tricks along with descending on the snow covered slopes to earn maximum scores.
• Freestyle Swimming – in these events competitors can swim using any stroke of their choice.
• Frescoball (see Matkot)
• Fricket – a ‘two-on-two’ flying disc game. Also known as disc cricket, cups, suzy sticks and crispy wickets.
• Frisian handball – similar to American handball and Fives
• Frontenis – a sport using rackets and a rubber ball on a ‘pelota court’
• Fullbore target rifle – using rifles, shooters hit the paper targets in prone position
• Fußball (also spelled Fussball) — This is the German name for (Association) Football, and also the name used for Table Football.
• Futsal – a variant of association football played on a smaller field usually indoors.

 

G Sports

• Gaelic football – a contact sport which originated in Ireland
• Ga-ga
• Gaming
• Gateball
• Gatka
• Geocaching
• Gliding – an air sport in which pilots use an unpowered aircraft
• Gliding aerobatics
• Glima — a wrestling style from Scaninavia, based on a popular sport of the Vikings from over 1200 years ago.
• Goalball
• Goaltimate
• Golf
• Go-Moku
• Grand Prix motorcycle racing
• Grappling (FILA) — a non-striking hybrid submission wrestling sport sanctioned by the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA). The term grappling also describes the technique used in many other contact sports.
• Greyhound Racing – a dog sport also called dog racing
• Gridiron Football — the term used for American Football outside of the US.
• Group Gymnastics
• Guts
• Gymkhana
• Gymnastics – a range of sports combining tumbling and acrobatic feats, usually done with apparatus.

 

H Sports

• Hammer throw — an Olympic track and field event in which a heavy weight at the end of a wire is thrown for distance.
• Handball — a sport ususally played indoors played between teams of seven players, who pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team. Also known as Team Handball, Olympic Handball, European (Team) handball or Borden ball. Variations include Beach Handball, Czech Handball and Field Handball.
• Hang gliding
• Harness racing
• Heptathlon
• High Bar
• High jump — an Olympic Track and Field event in which the participants attempt to jump over the highest bar.
• High Power Rifle
• Hill Climb — riding on a motorcycle, one competitor at a time attempts to ride up a very steep hill. The rider to reach the top (if anyone makes it) with the shortest elapsed time wins. There is also a car version of this sport, Hillclimbing.
• Hillclimbing
• Hockey – see Ice Hockey or Field Hockey
• Hovercraft Racing
• Horse polo
• Horse Racing
• Horseball — The sport is like a combination of Polo, Rugby and Basketball, played on horseback where a ball is carried and shot through a high net to score. A similar sport is Pato.
• Horseshoes
• Hot air ballooning
• Hurdles (Track and Field)
• Hurling
• Hydroplane racing

 

I Sports

• Ice Climbing
• Ice Hockey
• Ice Racing
• Ice Speedway — similar to Speedway Racing, though using bike developed specifically for racing on ice. The bikes race anti-clockwise around oval tracks between 260 and 425 meters in length.
• Ice skating
• Ice yachting
• Indoor cricket
• Indoor enduro
• Indoor field hockey
• Indoor football
• Indoor netball
• Indoor short track
• Indoor soccer
• Indoor trial
• Inline hockey
• Inline Skating
• Inline speed skating
• Intercrosse
• International fronton
• International rules football

 

J Sports

• Jacquet
• Jai Alai— a variety of Basque Pelota
• Janggi
• Javelin
• Jeet Kune Do
• Jet sprint boat racing
• Jeu de paume (see Real Tennis)
• Jianzi
• Jōdō
• Joggling – running (jogging) races while juggling
• Jogo do Pau
• Jokgu
• Jorkyball
• Judo
• Jujutsu — a Japanese martial art using close combat for defeating an armed and armored opponent, with ony a short weapon or none at all.
• Jūkendō
• Jumping
• Juttejutsu

 

K Sports

• Kabaddi – a “raider” enters the opposite team’s half to tag opponents without taking a breath.
• Kaisa — a cue sport (type carom billiards) mainly played in Finland. (also known as Karoliina)
• Karate
• Kart racing
• Kayaking
• Kelly pool
• Kemari – Japanese traditional sport with the aim to keep one ball in the air.
• Kendo – a form of Japanese martial art that originated from kenjutsu, and involves thrusts and strikes.
• Kho Kho – team that takes lesser time to tag all the opponent players wins the game.
• Kickball
• Kickboxing — variations include Pradal Serey (Cambodia), Sanda (China), Savate (France),Sikaran (Philippines)
• Kin-Ball – played with three teams and a very big ball
• Ki-o-rahi – a traditional New Zealand Maori game played on a circular field
• Kite Fighting – battle to cut the lines on the opponents’ kites
• Kite landboarding – using a kite and wind power to manoeuver a huge skateboard type board over land.
• Kite boarding – a group of sports, e.g. Kitesurfing, Kite landboarding, Snow kiting …
• Kitesurfing – a board and kite are used on the water utilizing different styles consisting of freeride, speed, down winders and racing.
• Kilikiti
• Klootschieten – German sport in which participants throw a ball as far as they can.
• Kneeboarding – a waterskiing event where a participant is pulled along while kneeling on a convex board
• Knife Throwing – a combat sport requiring throwing knives
• Korfball
• Krachtbal
• Kurash — folk wrestling style from Central Asia in which wrestlers use towels to hold their opponents, and their goal is to throw their opponents off the feet.

 

L Sports

• La Soule — a traditional team sport that originated in Normandy and Picardy. Usually teams from neighboring parishes played, with the aim of the game to bring the ball back to the team’s parish church, with or without the use of sticks. Also known as choule.
• Lacrosse— a team game, originally played by North American Indians, in which the ball is thrown, caught, and carried with a long-handled stick with a piece of shallow netting at one end.
• Lagori — from Southern India, this game involves a ball and a pile of flat stones. A member of one team throws a soft ball at a pile of stones to knock them over, then try to restore the pile of stones while the opposing team throws the ball at them (also known as Lingocha).
• Land Sailing — racing in a three-wheeled vehicles moving across land powered by wind through the use of a sail. Also known as sand yachting or land yachting.
• Land Speed Records — in various vehicle classes, competitors attempt to create the fastest time over a fixed distance. Two runs are required in opposite directions within one hour to set a new mark.
• Land Windsurfing — similar to traditional Windsurfing though performed on land rather than water, using a four-wheeled deck to travel across the surface. Also known as “Terrasailing”, “street sailing”, “land sailing” and “dirt windsurfing”
• Lapta – a Russian traditional bat and ball game. The aim of the game is to hit a ball, served by a player of the opposite team, with a bat as far as possible, then run across the field, and if possible back again. The game has similarities to Cricket, Brännboll, Rounders, Baseball, Oinăand Pesäpallo.
• Laser Tag — a skirmish sport in which players attempt to score points by tagging targets, typically with a hand-held infrared-emitting targeting device.
• Lawn Bowls — the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a “jack” or “kitty”.
• Lawn Mower Racing – motorsport where participants use race-modified lawnmowers.
• Legends Car Racing — a racing sport using identical spec vehicles, with bodyshells made of 5/8-scale replicas of American automobiles from the 1930s and 1940s and powered by a Yamaha motorcycle engines.
• Lelo Burti — a Georgian folk sport, a full contact ball game very similar to rugby.
• Lethwei — an unarmed Burmese martial art similar to other kickboxing styles from the region.
• Letterboxing— an outdoor sport that combines orienteering, art, and puzzle solving. Small weatherproof boxes are hidden in publicly accessible places (like parks) and clues are distributed to finding the box. Similar to GeoCaching.
• Long Jump — a track and field event where the participant attempts to jump the longest into a sand pit. See also the similar Triple Jump.
• Longboarding — events conducted on a longboard skateboard
• Luge— a Winter Olympic sport in which competitors race down an ice track in a small one- or two-person sled lying supine (face up) and feet-first.
• Lumberjack — competitons involving many different events, including log rolling, chopping, timed hot (power) saw and bucksaw cutting, and pole climbing.

 

M Sports

• Mahjong (aka Taipei)
• Majorette
• Malla-yuddha
• Mancala
• Marathon
• Marbles games
• Marn Grook
• Martial Arts
• Masters Rugby League
• Matball
• Matkot
• MCMAP
• Medieval football — Alternative names include Folk Football, Mob Football and Shrovetide Football. Versions include Ba game, Caid, Calcio Fiorentino, Camping, Chester-le-Street,Cnapan, Cornish Hurling, Haxey Hood, La Soule, Lelo burti, Mob football, Royal Shrovetide Football, Uppies and Downies.
• Medley relay
• Mesoamerican ballgame
• Méta and longa méta (long méta)
• Metallic silhouette
• Metro footy
• Midget car racing
• Military Service Rifle
• Mini footy
• Minigolf or Miniature Golf — a game utilizing only the putting aspect of Golf, played on short holes on artificial putting surfaces often with obstacles. Officially called minigolf, but also can be called by the name miniature golf, mini-golf, midget golf, goofy golf, shorties, extreme golf, put put, crazy golf, adventure golf, mini-putt and many others.
• Mini rugby
• Mixed martial arts
• Mob football – A type of Medieval Football, usually an annual traditional event with a ball, unlimited number of players and very few rules.
• Mod league
• Model Aerobatics
• Model aircraft
• Modern Arnis
• Modern Pentathlon
• Modified Pitch
• Mongolian wrestling — a folk wrestling style from the Mongolian region, in which the aim is to get your opponent to touch his upper body, knee or elbow to the ground.
• Monster truck
• Moscow broomball
• Moto-Ball — or Moto-Ball, also called Motorcycle Polo. The competition is similar to association football, though the ball is much bigger and all players (except goalkeepers) are riding motorcycles.
• Motocross — a form of motorcycle racing held on enclosed off-road circuits which include embankments and jumps. See also Freestyle Motocross.
• Motorcycling Road Racing — a motorcycle sport involving racing motorcycles as teams or individuals around a circular track. At the elite level it is in the form of MotoGP racing. Also known as Moto racing and Bike racing.
• Motorcycle drag racing
• Motorcycle Gymkhana — a motorcycle time trial sport around cones on a paved area. The winner is the competitor who completes the course in the shortest time. Time penalties are incurred by putting a foot down, hitting a cone, or going outside the designated area. It is similar to carAutocross.
• Motorcycle Polo — another name for Motoball
• Motorcycle speedway — a Motorsport in which the motorcycles have one gear and no brakes, and race around a circular strack. Also commonly known by just Speedway. Variations includesIce Speedway.
• Motorcycle Trials — a test of skill on a motorcycle whereby the rider attempts to cover rocky terrain without placing a foot on the ground. The winner is the rider with the least penalty points. Known in the US as “Observed Trials”
• Motorsports — includes a wide range of sports, each linked with its use of a motor to propel a driver, and all have an element of thrill and danger for the driver and spectator.
• Mountain Biking
• Mountain unicycling — an adventure sport that consists of traversing rough terrain on a unicycle.
• Mountainboarding — an action board sport like a snowboard with wheels or a cross-country skateboard. It is also known as Dirtboarding, Offroad Boarding, and All-Terrain Boarding (ATB).
• Mountaineering
• Muay Thai
• Mud bogging
• Muggle Quidditch – the playable version of the sport of Quidditch invented for the Harry Potter books.

 

N Sports

• Naginatajutsu — a Japanese martial art of wielding the naginata, a weapon resembling the medieval European glaive.
• Netball — a team game with seven players on a side, similar to basketball except that a player receiving the ball must stand still until they have passed it to another player.
• Newcomb Ball — an early variation of Volleyball, Teams throw ball back and forth until ball hits floor or is mishandled.
• Nine-a-side Footy — based on Australian Rules Football, with 3 players each designated as forwards, centres and backs.
• Nine-Ball — a version of Pocket Billiards
• Nine-Man Football — a variation of American Football for smaller schools
• Ninjutsu — The traditional Japanese art of the Ninjas – incorporating stealth, camouflage and sabotage, now practiced as a martial art.
• Nordic Combined — a Winter Olympics sport in which athletes compete in Cross-Country Skiingand Ski Jumping.
• Nordic Skiing — a field of competitive skiing which includes all events where the heel of the boot cannot be fixed to the ski (as opposed to Alpine skiing). Includes Cross-Country Skiing, Ski Jumping, and Biathlon, Nordic Combined and Telemark Skiing.
• Northern Praying Mantis — a style of Chinese martial arts, sometimes called Shandong Praying Mantis.
• Novuss — a national sport in Latvia, with similarities to carrom and pocket billiards. Played on a 1 meter square wooden board with pockets in each corner. A small cue stick is used to strike a puck to hit small discs into the pockets. The game is also known as koroona, though sometimes informally referred to as “Baltic billiards” or “Scandinavian billiards”.

 

O Sports

• Offroad Boarding — another name for Mountainboarding
• Off-Road Racing — many motor sports have competitions ‘off-road’, meaning on rough terrain
• Offshore powerboat racing — racing by large, specially designed ocean-going powerboats, typically point-to-point racing.
• Oil Wrestling— called Yağlı Güreş in Turkey, is where the wrestlers cover themselves in oil. A form of Wrestling.
• Oină – a Romanian traditional sport, similar in many ways to Baseball and Lapta played outdoors by two teams of 11 players, taking turns either batting or catching.
• Okinawan Kobudō — weapon systems of Okinawan martial arts, also known as Ryūkyū Kobujutsu.
• Old Cat – (also known as ol’ cat or cat-ball) were bat-and-ball games played in the 19th century in North America. The games were numbered according to the number of bases, and the number of bases varied according to the number of players.
• One Day International (ODI) — a form of Cricket played in a single day, usually 50 overs per team. An even shorter version is the Twenty20.
• One-Pocket — a version of Pocket Billiards
• Orienteering — participants find their way to various checkpoints across rough country with the aid of a map and compass, the winner being the one with the lowest elapsed time.
• Outdoor Handball — another name for Field Handball
• Outrigger Canoeing — racing using a type of canoe featuring one or more lateral support floats known as outriggers, which are fastened to one or both sides of the main hull.
• Over-the-line – is a bat-and-ball sport related to baseball and softball with just 3 people per team. Unlike the other sports, the batter and pitcher are on the same team.
• Oztag — a form of Tag Rugby

 

P Sports

• Paddle Tennis – a variation of tennis on a smaller court, lower net, using a solid paddle and ball.
• Paddleball (1 wall) – a small rubber ball is hit against single wall with a solid paddle.
• Paddleball (4 wall) – like raquetball/squash but played with a solid paddle racket.
• Padel – a mix of tennis and squash, played on a much small court with walls and a solid paddle racket.
• Paintball — a skirmish sport in which players compete to eliminate opponents by tagging them with capsules containing water soluble dye propelled from paintball guns.
• Pall mall – a lawn game which was played between the 1500’s and the 1600’s
• Palla – a traditional street game played in villages of Italy.
• Pankration (Amateur) – A modern version of the Ancient Olympic sport of Pankration.
• Parachuting – Also known as skydiving, involving jumping from an aircraft with just a parachute
• Para-Climbing — Sport Climbing for disabled athletes
• Paragliding – riders using para-gliders perform cross country or acrobatic maneuvers.
• Parallel Bars – an artistic gymnastics discipline performed by men which comprises predominantly of swings and vaults with two parallel bars.
• Paralympic football – the adaptation of association football for disabled athletes
• Paralympic volleyball – also known as sitting volleyball is for disabled athletes
• Parkour – involving overcoming obstacles in an urban space
• Patball – school yard game played with hands or head for hitting the ball against a wall
• Pato — a cross between Polo and Basketball played on horseback. It is the national sport of Argentina. A similar sport is Horseball.
• Pehlwani — a form of wrestling from South Asia. A win is achieved by pinning the opponent’s shoulders and hips to the ground simultaneously.
• Pelota mixteca – an ancient game similar to tennis without a net, the ball is hit with decorated gloves
• Pentathlon
• Pesäpallo — a Finnish variation of Baseball, the major difference is that the ball is pitched vertically.
• Pétanque
• Peteca – played by hitting the shuttlecock with your hand over a high net.
• Pickleball – a non-contact racket sport which is similar to badminton, tennis, and table tennis
• Ping Pong – see Table Tennis
• Pitch and Putt – like golf, but on shorter holes and only a putter and a wedge is allowed.
• Pocket billiards — also known as Pool, it is the name for a range of cue sports played on a table with six pockets along the rails, into which the main aim is to hit balls into the pockets. There are hundreds of pool games – popular versions include Eight-Ball and Nine-Ball, as well as Ten-Ball,Straight Pool, One-Pocket and Bank Pool.
• Pole Vault – an athletics event in which a competitor leaps over a bar uing a flexible pole.
• Polo (Horse Polo) — a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to hit a ball into a goal using a long-handled mallet. Variations include Snow Polo, Elephant Polo, Cycle Polo, Yak Polo, Cowboy Polo.
• Polocrosse
• Pommel Horse – a male artisitic gymnastics event in which the gymnast performs routines atop a symbolic horse.
• Pond Hockey – a version of ice hockey played on a natural frozen body of water
• Pool — a common name for Pocket Billiards
• Popinjay – a shooting sport with either bows or rifles
• Power hockey – ice hockey played on an electric wheelchair
• Power boat racing – ocean-going powerboats races against each other
• Powerchair Football – indoor football for people in wheelchairs
• Powerlifting
• Practical shooting – dynamic shooting sport using handguns and moving and shooting over obstacles
• Pradal Serey — a type of kickboxing from from Cambodia. Also known as Kun Khmer
• Prizefighting — another name for bare knuckle boxing.
• Pyramid — a cue sport played in countries of the former Soviet Union. (more commonly known asRussian pyramid or Russian billiards)

 

Q Sports

• Quadrathlon — an endurance sports event composed of the four individual disciplines of swimming, kayaking, cycling and running – also called quadriathlon.
• Quidditch – the sport invented for the Harry Potter books has been adapted for the real world. See Muggle Quidditch

 

R Sports

• Race Walking – competitors attempt to outrace one another without running
• Racketlon – a combination sport, where players compete in the sports of table tennis, tennis, squash, and badminton
• Racquetball – a squash type game involving hitting a hallow rubber ball using a stringed racket
• Racquets / Rackets – a sport similar to squash
• Rallycross – automobile sprint racing held on a closed racing circuit using rally type cars
• Rally Racing (car) – auto racing that mainly happens either on unpaved roads in races against the clock.
• Rally Racing (motorbike) — a navigation event on motorbikes on public roads whereby competitors must visit a number of checkpoints in diverse locations while still obeying road traffic laws.
• Real tennis
• Rec Footy – an accessible non-contact version of an Australian Football.
• Reining – equestrian riders guide their horses through a precise pattern of spins, circles and stops
• Rhythmic gymnastics – uses the elements of ballet, gymnastics, dance, and apparatus manipulation.
• Ringball – a court game from South Africa very similar to netball.
• Ringette – a very similar sport to ice hockey
• Rink bandy – a variation of Bandy which originated in Sweden in the 1960s, played on an ice hockey rink. See also Rink Ball.
• Rink hockey
• Rinkball — very similar to Rink Bandy, though played with ice hockey sticks instead of bandy sticks which are more like those used in field hockey.
• Riverboarding
• Road bicycle racing – cycle races held on paved roads, usually over several hours or days.
• Road crawling
• Road racing
• Robot combat – involves custom built remote control machines fighting each other.
• Rock Climbing
• Rock racing
• Rodeo — A rodeo is a sporting event comprising many different sports, including the following Calf Roping,
  Breakaway roping, Team roping, Barrel racing, Steer wrestling, Goat tying, Bronc riding, Bull Riding, Steer roping and Pole bending.
• Rogaining
• Roller derby
• Roller hockey
• Roller Skating
• Rope Climbing
• Rope jumping – involves a single person or more jumping over a rope that is being swung
• Roque – an American variation of croquet played on a hard, smooth surface.
• Rossall Hockey
• Rotation
• Rounders – played between two teams with a bat and ball, like baseball
• Rowing – a sport in which competitors propel a boat using oars
•  Royaking
• Rugby Fives – an indoor court game played with gloves, hitting the ball against the wall
• Rugby League – a rough game involving tackling the players in a bid to get the ball, with each team attempting to carry it over the end line
• Rugby league nines – like Rugby League, but with nine players
• Rugby league sevens
• Rugby sevens – like Rugby Union except with less players and over shorter time period
• Rugby tens
• Rugby Union
• Rundown (aka Pickle)
• Running – running races can range from short sprints to ultra-marathons
• Russian fist fighting —  the traditional bare-knuckle boxing of Russia.
• Russian pyramid — a cue sport played in countries of the former Soviet Union. (also known simply as Pyramid(s), Russian billiards or Russian pool)

 

S Sports

• Sabaki Ball
• Sailing – a sport that involves moving a boat by using the power of the wind.
• Sambo — a martial art developed for Russia’s military and police force in the 1930s. The term translates as “self-defense without weapons”.
• Samoa Rules
• Sanda — A form of kickboxing from China, which combines full-contact kickboxing, with wrestling, takedowns, throws, sweeps, kick catches, and in some competitions, even elbow and knee strikes. Also called Sanshou
• Sandball — see Beach Handball
• Sand drags
• Sandboarding – involves sliding on sand while on board
• Sanshou – another name for Sanda
• Savate — a French version of kickboxing, in which only foot kicks are allowed
• Schwingen — a style of folk wrestling native to Switzerland,
• Scootering – doing tricks, over obstacles and terrains, on a scooter
• Scrub baseball
• Scuba Diving
• Sculling Rowing – a form of rowing, in which a person uses oars, one in each hand, to propel a single or double scull rowing boat.
• Sea kayaking
• Segway polo
• Sepak Takraw – an Asian sport like volleyball but using the feet to kick the ball over the net
• Seven-ball
• Shaolin kung fu
• Shidokan
• Shinty
• Shinty-Hurling
• Shogi
• Shoot boxing
• Shootfighting
• Shooting – many events involving shooting at targets using guns like pistols and rifles
• Shorinji Kempo
• Short track motor racing
• Short track speed skating
• Shot put – throw a heavy metal ball for distance
• Show Jumping
• Shuai Jiao
• Shuffleboard – players uses cues to push and slide weighted discs along a long court into a scoring area
• Shurikenjutsu
• Sikaran — a form of kick boxing from the Philippine, which utilizes only the feet, the hands are only used for blocking.
• Silambam
• Silat
• Sipa
• Six-man football – a modification of American football with 6 instead of 11 players.
• Skateboarding – a rider balances and performs tricks using a skateboard
• Skater hockey
• Skee ball
• Skeet shooting – participants will attempt to break clay disk flung into the air using shot guns
• Skeleton – participants ride a small sled down a frozen track facing forward with the face down.
• Ski flying – winter sport similar to ski jumping wherein the skier will come down and take off from a ramp and fly the farthest possible distance.
• Ski jumping – a form of skiing wherein an athlete will take off a ramp and jump as high and far as possible.
• Skirmish — a genral term for sports in which participants replicate firearm warfare. See Airsoft,Laser Tag and Paintball.
• Ski touring
• Skiboarding – like snow skiing, but with shorter and wider skis.
• Skibobbing – a winter sport that uses a bicycle-type frame connected to skis called skibobs.
• Skiing — Traveling over a surface (snow, water, grass) on skis. There are a wide range of sporting activities that fall under the term skiing. Competitive forms include Alpine Skiing (or Downhill Skiing), and Cross-Country / Nordic Skiing.
• Skijøring – being pulled either by a dog, a horse or a motor-operated vehicle while on skis
• Skimboarding
• Skittles – a precursor to many bowling games, it is an indoor sport in a bowling alley, using one or more heavy balls to knock down nine skittles
• Skydiving – see Parachuting
• Sky Race
• Skysurfing – a skydiver attaches a board to his feet during freefall
• Slacklining
• Slamball – a form of basketball using trampolines to get height to shoot the ball through the hoop.
• Sledge hockey
• Slopestyle
• Slow Pitch
• Snatch
• Snooker — a Cue Sport played on a table covered with a green cloth with six pockets. It is played using a cue and 22 snooker balls: one white cue ball, 15 red balls and six balls of different colors. Points are awarded for using the cue ball to pot the red and colored balls.
• Snowbiking – uses a bike on snow with ski blades instead of wheels
• Snow kiting
• Snowboarding
• Snowmobile racing
• Snow Polo — a variation of Polo, which is played on compacted snow on flat ground or a frozen lake
• Snowshoeing
• Soccer — the common name for Association Football
• Soft tennis
• Softball
• Speed pool— a standard Billiards game where the balls must be pocketed in as little time as possible.
• Speed skating (short track) – 4 to 8 skaters racing around an oval ice track towards the finish line
• Speed skiing
• Speed-ball – an Egyptian racquet sport
• Speedball (American)
• Speedcubing
• Speedminton
• Spongee
• Sport aerobics
• Sport Climbing
• Sport Diving (competitive scuba)
• Sport fishing — Sport Fishing refers to recreational fishing rather than commerical fishing, and includes competition fishing. See Fishing for description of the sport of fishing.
• Sport kite (Stunt kite)
• Sport stacking
• Sporting clays
• Sports acrobatics
• Sports car racing
• Sprint (Athletics) — track and field running events over short distances, such as 100m, 200m, 400m.
• Sprint car racing
• Sprint football
• Squash
• Squash tennis
• Squat (powerlifting event)
• Squirt Boating
• Ssireum — a folk wrestling style and traditional national sport of Korea, with the aim to bring any part of the opponent’s body above the knee to the ground.
• Steeplechase
• Still Rings
• Stock car racing
• Stool ball
• Street hockey
• Street racing
• Streetball
• Streetboarding
• Streetluge – participants race downhill feet first on a sort of modified skateboard.
• Subak
• Subbuteo
• Sumo Wrestling
• Superbike racing
• Supercross
• Supermoto
• Superside
• Surf fishing
• Surf Kayaking
• Surfboat
• Surfing
• Swamp football
• Swedish football
• Sweep rowing
• Swimming
• Swing
• Swing boarding
• Swordfighting
• Synchronized skating
• Synchronized Swimming
• Systema

 

T Sports

• Table football
• Table hockey
• Table Tennis
• Taekkyeon — a traditional military Korean martial art, an ancestor of Taekwondo. Points are scored by throwing (or tripping) the opponent to the ground, pushing him out of the ring, or kicking him in the head.
• Taekwondo
• Tag
• Tag Rugby — a team sport similar to touch rugby in which instead of a tackle a velcro attached tag if pulled off the ball carrier. Similar in play to touch rugby. Also known as Flag Rugby. Played in serveral forms, such as OzTag and Mini Tag. American flag rugby played in the US K1-9 is a variation of Tag Rugby.
• T’ai chi ch’uan
• Taido
• Tang Soo Do
• Tapball
• Target archery — Archery competitions held indoors or outdoors between 18 m and  90 m from the target.
• Target shooting
• T-Ball
• Tchoukball
• Team handball — a commonly used name for the sport of Handball. (see Handball)
• Team penning
• Te Ano
• Telemark Skiing – The bindings for telemark skiing holds the boot by the toes, unlike Alpine Skiing which is fixed-heel. Also known as free hill skiing and telemarking
• Ten-ball
• Tennis
• Tennis Polo
• Ten-pin bowling
• Tent pegging
• Test cricket
• Tetherball
• The Massachusetts Game – four bases
• Thoroughbred racing
• Three sided football
• Three-ball
• Three-Cushion Billiards —a very challenging Carom Billiards discipline, where the aim is to carom the cue ball off both object balls and contact the rail cushions at least three times before the last object ball. Also called three-cushion carom.
• Three-legged race
• Throwball — a sport very similar to Newcomb Ball (a variation of Volleyball) that is played in India.
• Throwing
• Thumb wrestling
• Time Attack
• Toboggan
• Toe wrestling
• Torball
• Touch Football
• Touch Rugby
• Touring car racing
• Tower running – grueling races up tall man made structures. Also known as Stair Climbing.
• Town ball
• Track cycling
• Track & Field — also known as athletics
• Track racing
• Tractor pulling
• Trailer racing
• Train racing
• Trampolining — perform acrobatics while jumping on a trampoline
• Trap shooting
• Trapeze
• Trial
• Triathlon
• Trick shot competition
• Tricking
• Triple jump — a track and field event where the participant attempts to hop, skip and jump the longest. Also called the hop, skip and jump forobvious reasons. Similar to the long jump.
• Truck racing
• Trugo
• TT racing
• Tug of War
• Tumbling – a gymnatics event involving tumbling along a mat performing flips, rolls, jumps, performing somersaults and handsprings.
• Turkish Wrestling
• Twenty20 (cricket)

 

U Sports

• Ultimate — played with a disc (frisbee), with points scored by passing the disc to a teammate in the opposing end zone.
• Ultralight Aviation — events with of lightweight aircraft which have 1 or 2 seat fixed-wings.
• Ultramarathon — very long distance endurance events, ranging from greater than Marathon distance to several days. Ultramarathons can either cover a specified distance, or take place during a specified time frame, with the winner covering the most distance in that time.
• Underwater Football — played in a swimming pool with snorkeling equipment, the aim is to manoeuvre a slightly negatively buoyant ball underwater (by carrying and passing) from one side of a pool to the other. Scoring is achieved by placing the ball in the gutter on the side of the pool.
• Underwater Hockey — two teams of six push a puck along the bottom of a swimming pool. (also known as ‘Octopush’ or Water Hockey)
• Underwater Ice Hockey — A variation of Ice Hockey played upside-down underneath frozen pools or ponds. Participants wear snorkeling equipment and wet suits and use the underside of the frozen surface as the playing area for a floating puck (also called sub-aqua ice hockey).
• Underwater Orienteering — individual and team events in which competitors wearing scuba diving equipment swim an underwater course following a route marked on a map prepared by the competition organizers, using a compass and a counter meter to measure the distance covered.
• Underwater Photography — teams of competitors using using scuba gear and using a digital underwater camera dive and photograph the same saltwater ocean sites at the same time over a two-day period, with the submitted digital images assessed to find the winner.
• Underwater Rugby — two teams compete for a slightly negatively buoyant ball (filled with saltwater) and score by placing it into the opponents’ goal (heavy metal bucket) at the bottom of a swimming pool.
• Underwater Target Shooting — competitors free dive in a swimming pool, using spearguns to fire at targets.
• Underwater Wrestling — an alternative name for Aquathlon
• Uneven Bars — an artistic gymnastics apparatus used only by female gymnasts comprising a pair of parallel bars set at different heights. (also called or asymmetric bars)
• Unicycle Basketball — a version of Basketball with all competitors riding unicycles. The sport uses a regulation basketball on a regular basketball court with the same rules.
• Unicycle Handball — competitors ride unicycles and a handball-sized ball, with the aim to throw it into a vertical hoop placed about 6 feet (1.8 m) above the ground.
• Unicycle Hockey — a team sport, similar to roller or inline hockey, though all competitors are riding a unicycle and using a tennis ball and ice-hockey sticks.
• Unicycle Trials — a form of unicycling which involves participants riding a unicycle over obstacles without any part of the rider touching the ground.
• Unicycling — sports using a single wheel cycle. Disciplines include Mountain Unicycling,Unicycle Trials, Unicycle Hockey, Unicycle Handball, Unicycle Basketball.

 

V Sports

• Vajra-mushti — a form of Indian wrestling in which a knuckleduster-like weapon called the Vajra-mushti is employed.
• Valencian Frontó — modified Valencian Pilota version of the original Basque Pelota game. The players don’t stand face-to-face as in the more popular Valencian Pilota but share a common playing area.
• Valencian Pilota — is a traditional handball sport played in the Valencian Community of Spain. The ball is usually struck with a bare hand in a game involving two teams made from two up to five players each (depending on the particular version played). Unlike the original Basque Pelota, it is not played against a wall. Instead, teams are placed face to face separated either by a line on the ground or a net. Versions include Valencian Frontó.
• Varpa — an old outdoor game dating back to the Viking Age. It is similar to boules but played with a flat and heavy thrower known as “varpa” instead of balls, once made of shaped stones but nowadays aluminium is more popular.
• Varzesh-e Bastani — a traditional Iranian martial arts. The sport is practiced in a gymnasium called Zourkhaneh, which is another name by which the sport is known.
• Varzesh-e Pahlavani — another name for Varzesh-e Bastani.
• Vault — an artistic gymnastics event for men and women, in which the athlete leaps over a vault or pommel horse, using the hands for pushing off.
• Vigoro — an Australian sport that combines elements of Cricket and Baseball, mainly played by women. Played on a pitch shorter than for cricket, with a bat with a long handle like a paddle.
• Vintage Racing — a form of Auto-Racing, with vehicles limited to Vintage types.
• Volleyball — a game for two teams of six players, in which a large ball is hit by hand over a high net, the aim being to score points by making the ball reach the ground on the opponent’s side of the court. See also Beach Volleyball. Similar sports and variations include Throwball, Newcomb Ball.
• Vovinam — a Vietnamese martial art.
• Vx — a ball sport from the UK, originally known as Rock-It-Ball. It is played by two teams of five players. The court is roughly the size of a basketball court, with 5 balls in play. Players carry a VstiX for carrying, throwing and catching the ball.

 

W Sports

• Wakeboarding – riding a board and doing tricks on the wake behind a boat.
• Wakesurfing
• Wall game
• Wallball
• Wallyball
• Water basketball
• Water Polo
• Water Skiing
• Water Polo
• Waymarking
• Weightlifting
• Western Pleasure
• Wheelchair basketball
• Wheelchair racing
• Wheelchair Rugby
• Wheelchair rugby league
• Wheelstand competition
• White water rafting
• Whitewater kayaking
• Wicketball
• Wickets – another name for Croquet
• Wiffleball — a variation of the sport of Baseball designed for indoor or outdoor play in confined areas,  using a perforated, light-weight, rubbery plastic ball and a long, plasticyellow) bat.
• Windsurfing
• Wing Chun
• Wing Tsun
• Wingsuit flying
• Winter Sports
• Wireball
• Woggabaliri
• Wolf hunting
• Women’s lacrosse
• Woodball — a sport where a mallet is used to pass a ball through gates. This game can be played in grass, sand or indoor. See also Beach Woodball.
• Wood Chopping
• Wrestling — a general term for a combat sport between two competitors involving grappling type techniques. Forms include the Olympic styles of Greco-Roman and freestyle. There are many regional forms of wrestling, too many to mention, but include Sumo, Yağlı Güreş (Turkish oil wrestling). Variations also include Aquathlon (underwater wrestling), Arm Wrestling.
• Wushu

 

X Sports

• Xare — a racket sport, a form of Basque pelota, where players face each other across a net which is strung across the middle of an indoor court.
• Xingyiquan — is one of the major “internal” styles of Chinese martial arts – probably not a sport.

 

Y Sports

• Yağlı Güreş — Turkish for Oil Wrestling, also called grease wrestling. This form of wrestling,where the wrestlers cover themselves in oil, is the national sport of Turkey.
• Yak polo — a Mongolian variation of the sport Polo played on yaks instead of on horses.
• Yotsudama — a variation of Four-Ball carom billiards played in East Asia.
• Yubi lakpi — a seven-a-side traditional football game with similarities to rugby played in Manipur, India, using a coconut.
• Yukigassen — a snowball fighting-competition played between two teams with seven players each, originated in Japan.

 

Z Sports

• Zourkhaneh — The Zourkhaneh (house of strength) is the traditional gymnasium where the sport of Varzesh-e Bastani or Pahlavani is practiced. The sport is sometimes known by this name. Alternative spellings are Zurkhaneh, Zorkhana or Zourkhaneh.
• Zui Quan — The words mean Drunken Fist in Chinese. Also known as Drunken Boxing or Drunkard’s Boxing.