Sports in Louisville, Kentucky

The Louisville Bats are a baseball team playing in the Triple-A East as the Class AAA affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds.

In October 2019, the National Women's Soccer League announced that it would award an expansion franchise to Louisville that would begin play at Lynn Family Stadium in 2021.

The city is home to the University of Louisville Cardinals, who compete in the NCAA's Division I and are a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The U of L men's basketball team won the NCAA Division I basketball championship in 1980 and 1986 under head coach Denny Crum, and recently achieved the NCAA Final Four in 2005, 2012, and 2013 under head coach Rick Pitino, and winning the National Championship in 2013 which would later be vacated.

After winning the Orange Bowl—the school's first Bowl Championship Series game—in January 2007, Petrino left the Cardinals to be the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons.

[2] Bellarmine University, home of the Knights, moved all sports up to the NCAA Division I level in the 2019–2020 academic year.

Spalding University, home of the Golden Eagles, plays in NCAA Division III as members of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

[4] Many notable WWE performers trained in OVW, such as Jillian Hall, Randy Orton, John Cena, Batista, CM Punk, and The Spirit Squad (which included the wrestler now known as Dolph Ziggler).

Trinity (1994, 2001–2003, 2005–2008, 2010–2013), Male (1993, 1998, 2000, 2015) and St. Xavier (1992, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2009) high schools have won 22 of the 24 football titles in Kentucky's largest enrollment class (4A through 2006, 6A since 2007) since 1992.

Manual and Male are the oldest high schools in Louisville, and the 1st football game in the state was played between these two in 1893.

[8] In early 2012, Louisville became the first American city to ever host the UCI Masters Cyclocross World Championships, and the following year became the first American city to host the Masters, Juniors, U23, and Professional Elite Women's and Men's UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships, the biggest races of the fastest growing form of bicycle racing.

[11] Louisville and the corporate community had also attempted to pursue the Vancouver Grizzlies franchise before their ultimate move to Memphis in 2001,[12] as well as the Charlotte Hornets franchise, which ultimately moved to New Orleans in 2002 but was revived in 2004 as the Charlotte Bobcats, regaining the Hornets name and the team's pre-relocation history in 2014.