Sport in New South Wales

New South Wales has attracted many international multi-sport events including the 2000 Summer Olympics, held in Sydney.

[1] Other popular spectator sports include rugby union, cricket, Australian rules football and soccer.

In terms of participation, the most popular sports in the state are netball, tennis, soccer, rugby league and touch football.

[1] The headquarters of the Australian Rugby League and National Rugby League (NRL) are in Sydney, which is home to nine of the 17 National Rugby League (NRL) football clubs (Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, Parramatta Eels, Penrith Panthers, South Sydney Rabbitohs, Sydney Roosters and Wests Tigers), as well as being the northern home of the St George Illawarra Dragons, which is half-based in Wollongong.

The annual State of Origin series between the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons is a popular sporting event in NSW.

The New South Wales Waratahs won the Super Rugby title in 2014 in front of a record crowd at Stadium Australia.

They have provided the Australian Test and One Day International teams with some of the finest players ever to have graced the game of cricket, the most notable of them being Sir Don Bradman, Steve Waugh, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath and many others.

These migrant groups who were subject to racism from the existing population took it upon themselves to found their own soccer clubs, celebrating their particular ethnic communities.

For example, Sydney United's support had not grown beyond Sydney's Croatian community, therefore the sport was not capitalising on the growing multiculturalism of the city, now becoming home to many new migrant communities from Arabic and Asian cultures, which to some may be seen as ironic because multiculturalism as well as the fact that the code played all over the world is often seen to be soccer's strongest asset.

In an effort to fix these issues facing the game, Football Australia embarked upon "de-ethnicising" soccer, clubs with very strong links to ethnic groups were made to sever links with their traditional supporter bases and broaden their horizons, new clubs were founded and brought into the league such as Parramatta Power and Northern Spirit who did not have ethnic associations in a bid to attract a multicultural fan base.

They were entered in a new league to be known as the A-League, this would act as the show piece national competition, contested by similarly formed clubs from other large cities around Australia.

In the first 6 years of their existence, Sydney FC have been relatively successful building up a solid support base of around 10,000 members, and sometimes attracting crowds of up to 40,000, which is admirable considering the youth of the club.

The new system has not been without its flaws for Sydney soccer, however – many of the great clubs, and the largest in the city, are unable to win a national championship, nor are they able to qualify for the Asian Champions League, and a large section of the Greater Sydney Area is simply unable to access this new club due to the geographic size of the city.

Change is, however, afoot, as a national cup competition is to be reintroduced in 2012 with the winner qualifying for the champions league, and the imminent foundation of a second new multicultural club in Sydney's sprawling western suburbs due to begin playing matches within two years.

Outside Sydney, soccer has a similar history in the states larger regional cities (albeit on a smaller scale), and similar multicultural clubs have been formed such as: Newcastle Jets and Central Coast Mariners who both play in the A-league, and South Coast Wolves Football Club who play in the New South Wales premier league alongside many of Sydney's ethnic clubs; however, there have been calls for them to be elevated into the A-league, and it is expected that they eventually will be.

Formerly the South Melbourne Swans, the financially struggling club was relocated in 1982 and was renamed Sydney to capture a wider audience.

[7] New South Wales is home to Australia's highest snow country, oldest skifields and largest resorts.

Recreational skiing in Australia began around 1861 at Kiandra, New South Wales, when Norwegian gold miners introduced the idea to the frozen hills around the town.

[11] The discovery of gold in the mountains of America and Australia was the catalyst for the development of recreational alpine skiing.

[11] The Kiandra Goldrush was short-lived, but the township remained a service centre for recreational and survival skiing for over a century.

Australia's first T-bar lift was installed at Kiandra in 1957, but the ski facilities were finally shifted up the hill to Selwyn Snowfields in 1978.

The first Kosciuszko Chalet was built at Charlotte Pass in 1930, giving relatively comfortable access to Australia's highest terrain.

[13] At 1760m, Charlotte Pass has the highest village base elevation of any Australian ski resort and can only be accessed via over-snow transport in winter.

High country huts, often a legacy of the era of cattle grazing in the mountains, provide emergency shelter in these regions.

The New South Wales Swifts are an established club, having previously played in the ANZ Championship and the Commonwealth Bank Trophy.

There are also many teams participating in other national sporting competitions based in New South Wales, mainly in Sydney and the surrounding areas.

The popular equine sports of campdrafting and polocrosse were developed in New South Wales and competitions are now held across Australia.

Stadium Australia also hosts a number of Sydney Swans home games and the occasional domestic cricket one-day match.