Sport

The most popular Olympic Sports in Swansea revealed

Published

2 years ago

30th July 2021

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New data has revealed which Olympic sports are the most popular across the UK, with Swansea being big lovers of Trampolining, mountain biking and skateboarding.

Better, the UK’s largest charitable social enterprise, with facilities offering 95% of all the Olympic sports, analysed search popularity for every sport in the upcoming Olympics to discover which ones have the country most excited.

The ranking looks outside of the classic ‘big four’ sports of football, boxing, golf, and rugby, seeking instead to explore the less mainstream sports associated with the huge international sporting tournament being held in Japan this year.

The top 10 ranking for Swansea

Olympic Sport	Avg. monthly searches
trampolining	720
mountain biking	480
skateboarding	480
fencing	320
tennis	260
basketball	210
surfing	140
swimming	140
shooting	90
athletics	70

The UK’s favourite Olympic events are trampolining, mountain biking and skateboarding, based on the search demand in the months leading up to the summer Games.

In 2021 so far, there has been a total average monthly search volume of 3.19 million for the 46 sports on show, and in June, the Wikipedia pages of all the sports were viewed a total of 1.35 million times, highlighting the vast number of people seeking to learn more about how these Olympic Games will be played.

In the year so far, there have 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. Meanwhile, based on the monthly average page views for the Wikipedia pages on each sport, one of the new Olympic sports, Karate, comes out on top with 177,202 views.

Google Rank	Sport	Search Volume 2021	Wiki Rank	Sports	Monthly Average Wikipedia
1	Trampoline	201,000	1	Karate	176,202
2	Mountain bike	165,000	2	Canoe/Kayak Slalom	132,266
3	Skateboarding	165,000	3	Athletics	127,364
4	Fencing	110,000	4	Tennis	116,568
5	Basketball	90,500	5	Sailing	83,356
6	Tennis	74,000	6	3×3 Basketball	73,025
7	Swimming	60,500	7	Judo	69,083
8	Shooting	49,500	8	Surfing	68,097
9	Athletics	33,100	9	Road Cycling	57,698
10	Badminton	27,100	10	BMX Racing	56,709

This year, Team GB will be represented by its largest-ever delegation for an Olympic Games on foreign soil, with 376 athletes competing, and will also be taking more women than men for the first time.

Better investigated the popularity of all 376 Team GB athletes and found former Gold Medallist in tennis, Andy Murray, came out on top followed by double gold medallist 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	18,100
8	Paul Casey	Golf	18,100
9	Steph Houghton	Football	18,100
10	Fran Kirby	Football	14,800

Aspiring Olympian, Ben Cumberland, aged 18, is a Triathlete based in Vale of White Horse and said: “Back in the 2012 London Olympics I was lucky enough to get tickets to an event and experience the Games. I was inspired to take up my sport thanks to a teacher at school whose son was part of the local Triathlon club and suggested I get involved.”

For young people watching the Games and thinking of getting involved in a new sport, he said: “Don’t be afraid to try something new!”

Find the full ranking and more details here.

(Lead image: kovop58 / shutterstock)