Question
Sport in
Australia
3
Australia's climate is warm and sunny. Many Australians
spend a lot of their time in the open air and sport is very
popular. Australia's beautiful beaches mean that lots of
people do water sports. Swimming is Australia's most
s successful Olympic sport, and the beaches on Australia's
coastline are popular with surfers from all over the world.
The city of Cairns, in the north-east of Australia near the
Great Barrier Reef, is an important centre for scuba diving.
Two of the most popular sports in Australia are rugby and cricket.
10 Australia has world-class teams in these sports. The Australian
national Rugby Union team is called the Wallabies. They play in the
traditional Australian sports colours of green and gold. Rugby and
cricket both originated in England. These sports were taken to
Australia by British migrants in the 19th century. Australia was a
15 British colony from the 18 to the 20th century, and still has strong
links to Britain today.
England and Australia are traditional rivals at cricket. In 1882, the
Australian team beat the English team 'at home' in England for the
first time. A British newspaper, The Sporting Times, published an
20 obituary of cricket as a joke. It said that English cricket was dead
and cremated, and that its ashes were now in Australia. The next
year the English team went to Australia to try to win back 'The Ashes'.
This time they burnt some cricket equipment and the ashes were put
into a small trophy. Today the two teams still regularly compete for
25 The Ashes trophy.
Football is popular in Australia. Australians enjoy classic football,
but they also have their own version of the game. It's officially
called Australian Rules Football, but people normally call it
'Aussie Rules'. Aussie Rules is similar to rugby and American
30 football, but there are several differences, too. There are 18
players in each team, with very tall goalposts at each end of
the pitch. Players can tackle other players as they hit, kick and
carry the ball. Aussie Rules is now starting to become popular in
other countries, like Japan and New Zealand.
Answer
Sport is very popular in Australia due to its warm climate and beautiful beaches. Popular sports include swimming, rugby, cricket, football and Australian Rules Football. Cricket and rugby were brought to Australia by British migrants in the 19th century, and the two countries still compete for The Ashes trophy.