The UK’s Most Popular Olympic Sports Revealed
The Olympics are the very pinnacle of sporting competition, and this year, millions around the world will once again tune in to witness the best athletes compete to claim the glory and win gold.
Team GB have won an impressive 851 medals at the summer Olympics since its inception, and will be looking to add to that tally this year – but which sports have got the UK most excited this summer?
To discover the answer to this question, we explored the most popular sports and Team GB athletes at this year’s Games based on their online search interest, creating a ranking of those at the top.
The ranking looks outside of the classic ‘big four’ sports of football, boxing, golf, and rugby, seeking instead to focus on the less mainstream sports associated with this huge international tournament. The research found that, in the year so far, there has been an average of 201,000 searches per month for trampolining and 165,000 searches for both mountain biking and skateboarding, followed by 110,000 for fencing.
Rank |
Olympic Sport |
Search Volume 2021 |
1 |
Trampoline |
201,000 |
2 |
Mountain bike |
165,000 |
3 |
Skateboarding |
165,000 |
4 |
Fencing |
110,000 |
5 |
Basketball |
90,500 |
6 |
Tennis |
74,000 |
7 |
Swimming |
60,500 |
8 |
Shooting |
49,500 |
9 |
Athletics |
33,100 |
10 |
Badminton |
27,100 |
11 |
Surfing |
27,100 |
12 |
Taekwondo |
27,100 |
13 |
Wrestling |
27,100 |
14 |
Karate |
22,200 |
15 |
Sailing |
22,200 |
16 |
Volleyball |
22,200 |
17 |
Baseball |
18,100 |
18 |
Equestrian |
18,100 |
19 |
Hockey |
18,100 |
20 |
Triathlon |
18,100 |
21 |
Archery |
14,800 |
22 |
Diving |
14,800 |
23 |
Table tennis |
14,800 |
24 |
Judo |
12,100 |
25 |
Modern pentathlon |
12,100 |
26 |
Weightlifting |
12,100 |
27 |
Handball |
9,900 |
28 |
Softball |
9,900 |
29 |
Rowing |
8,100 |
30 |
Water polo |
5,400 |
31 |
Beach volleyball |
2,900 |
32 |
Track cycling |
2,900 |
33 |
Rhythmic gymnastics |
2,900 |
34 |
Road cycling |
2,400 |
35 |
BMX racing |
1,600 |
36 |
Artistic gymnastics |
1,300 |
37 |
Canoe slalom |
1,000 |
38 |
Sports climbing |
880 |
39 |
BMX freestyle |
390 |
40 |
3x3 basketball |
260 |
41 |
Artistic swimming |
260 |
42 |
Canoe sprint |
260 |
43 |
Marathon swimming |
260 |
We also explored the number of people reading up about the various sports on Wikipedia by calculating the monthly average page views for each relevant Wikipedia entry. This found that a new Olympic sport, karate, came out on top with 177,202 views, followed by the Canoe/Kayak Slalom (132,266) and the popular athletics events (127,364).
Meanwhile, we investigated the popularity of all 376 Team GB athletes, finding former tennis Gold Medalist, Andy Murray, on top, followed by double gold medalist rower, Helen Glover, and World Champion sprinter, Dina Asher-Smith.
Ranking |
Athlete |
Sport |
Avg. monthly searches |
1 |
Andy Murray |
Tennis |
201,000 |
2 |
Helen Glover |
Rowing |
40,500 |
3 |
Dina Asher-Smith |
Athletics |
27,100 |
4 |
Tommy Fleetwood |
Golf |
27,100 |
5 |
Heather Watson |
Tennis |
22,200 |
6 |
Stephanie Davis |
Athletics |
22,200 |
7 |
Adam Peaty |
Swimming |
8,100 |
8 |
Paul Casey |
Golf |
18,100 |
9 |
Steph Houghton |
Football |
18,100 |
10 |
Fran Kirby |
Football |
14,800 |
With average monthly searches for all the Olympic sports adding up to over 3.1 million and the total pageviews for Wikipedia entries over 1.3 million in June alone, it is clear how keen the country is to see this enormous sporting spectacle returning after a year’s delay.
From tennis and badminton, to cycling and the many aquatic sports on show, Better offers facilities across the country for 95% of all the Olympic sports, so will be more than ready to accommodate those inspired by the Olympics this summer.