Culture of Australia - Sport

Sport

Main article: Sport in Australia

Many Australians are passionate about sport, and it forms a major part of the country's culture, particularly in terms of spectating, but also in terms of participation. Cricket is popular in the summer, and football codes are popular in the winter. Some strong Australian traditions, such as grand finals and footy tipping are shared across all codes.

The sporting successes of Australians at elite levels in such events as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, World Cup competitions in cricket, rugby union, rugby league, field hockey, netball, and major tournaments in tennis, golf, surfing, and other sports are a source of great pride for many people in Australia. Leading sportspeople such as Don Bradman, Dawn Fraser, and Cathy Freeman last in the cultural memory of Australia for decades and are accorded high civilian honours and public status.

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Famous quotes containing the word sport:

    Rabelais, for instance, is intolerable; one chapter is better than a volume,—it may be sport to him, but it is death to us. A mere humorist, indeed, is a most unhappy man; and his readers are most unhappy also.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “Justice” was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Æschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess. And the d’Urberville knights and dames slept on in their tombs unknowing. The two speechless gazers bent themselves down to the earth, as if in prayer, and remained thus a long time, absolutely motionless: the flag continued to wave silently. As soon as they had strength they arose, joined hands again, and went on.
    The End
    Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)

    Americans living in Latin American countries are often more snobbish than the Latins themselves. The typical American has quite a bit of money by Latin American standards, and he rarely sees a countryman who doesn’t. An American businessman who would think nothing of being seen in a sport shirt on the streets of his home town will be shocked and offended at a suggestion that he appear in Rio de Janeiro, for instance, in anything but a coat and tie.
    Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939)