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.

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