Sport in the Netherlands Sport in the Netherlands Approximately 4.5 million of the 16 million people in the Netherlands are registered to one of the 35,000 sports clubs in the country. About two thirds of the population older than 15 years participates in sports weekly. Football, or soccer, is the most popular sport in the Netherlands, with field hockey and volleyball as the second and third most popular team sports. Ice-skating, tennis, gymnastics and golf are the four most widely played individual sports. A number of native Dutch sports are also practiced, such as fierljeppen (Polsstokverspringen), beugelen, kaatsen, klootschieten, kolven and korfball. Organization of
Sport in New Zealand Winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding are also popular as are indoor and outdoor bowls. Skateboarding is enjoyed amongst a small portion of the youth. Sport New Zealand is the main government agency responsible for governing sport and recreation in New Zealand. It was established in 2003 by the Sport and Recreation New Zealand Act 2002, consolidating three agencies into one, and was known as Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) until February 2012. Sport New Zealand is accountable to the government through the Minister of Sport and Recreation. A subsidiary of Sport New Zealand, High Performance Sport New