Sport in London - Other Sports

Other Sports

The Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in South London hosts an athletics track and is often use for national meetings. Other athletics venues include Croydon Arena, Mile End Stadium in east London plus Perivale Park and Linford Christie Stadium in the east

Recent years have seen a cycling revolution sweep over London and its boroughs. Cycling's popularity in London has especially skyrocketed during the summer of 2010 due to Transport for London’s launch of new cycling initiatives including the Barclays Cycle Hire, Cycle Superhighways, and free cycle training. Transport for London has taken strong measures to improve the safety of cyclists in London.

London once had 2 top-level ice hockey teams, the London Knights (UK) (who played at London Arena) and London Racers (who played at the Lee Valley Ice Centre). There are no London-based teams in the Elite Ice Hockey League; London does however ice a few teams in the lower-tier English Premier Ice Hockey League (Romford Raiders) and English National Hockey League (Lee Valley Lions, Haringey Greyhounds and Streatham Redskins). The first games of the 2007–08 NHL season were played in London.

Between 1991 and 1998, the London Monarchs competed in American football's NFL Europe, winning the inaugural World Bowl. Today, the London Olympians, London Blitz and the London Cobras all compete in various divisions of the BAFA Community Leagues which is a continuation of the now defunct British American Football League. The new Wembley Stadium hosted a National Football League regular-season game in 2007, the first outside North America. Since the beginning of the NFL International Series in 2007, Wembley Stadium has seen massive turnouts for each annual game. The 2009 edition between the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was played in front of an announced crowd of 84,254. The 2010 match-up which featured the San Francisco 49ers and the Denver Broncos saw another great turnout of almost 84,000 spectators. In addition to the NFL International Series, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has stated the NFL is considering playing the Super Bowl in London.

Every April since 1981, London has hosted one of the world's largest mass-participation marathons, the London Marathon. The, London Triathlon, the largest triathlon event in the world, also takes place annually.

Other popular sports include field hockey, basketball, baseball (Croydon Pirates are champions), bowls, snooker, tennis, swimming, motor-racing at Brands Hatch, golf, darts, racquets, croquet, squash, horse-racing (Epsom and elsewhere), boxing, wrestling, archery, and fox-hunting.

London also has Inter-county Gaelic football and Hurling teams which is one of only two outside Ireland to compete in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship or the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship.

Similarly, London plays host to the only shinty team outside Scotland which competes in Camanachd Association competitions, London Camanachd.

London also hosts two roller derby leagues: the London Rockin Rollers, and London Rollergirls. Both are widely regarded as top teams in Europe, with the London Rollergirls' A and B teams (London Brawling and Brawl Saints) both unbeaten in Europe.