Sport in the United Kingdom plays an important role in British culture and the United Kingdom has played a significant role in the organisation and spread of sporting culture globally. In the infancy of many organised sports, the Home Nations, England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland were heavily involved in setting out the formal rules of many sports, and formed among the earliest separate governing bodies, national teams and domestic league competitions. After 1922, some sports formed separate bodies for Northern Ireland, though many continued to be organised on an all-Ireland basis. For this reason, in many though not all sports, most domestic and international sport is carried on a Home Nations basis, and England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland are recognised as national entities.
Rugby league is a sport played in Wales. The governing body of the game in Wales is the Wales Rugby League.
Association football is one of the most popular sports in Wales, along with rugby union. Wales has produced club teams of varying fortunes since the early birth of football during the Victorian period, and in 1876 a Wales national football team played their first international match. Football has always had a close rivalry with the country's de facto national sport rugby union, and it is much discussed as to which is Wales' more popular game. The Football Association of Wales (FAW), was established in 1876 to oversee the Wales national team and govern the sport in Wales, later creating and running the Welsh football league system.
Sport in Wales plays a prominent role in Welsh culture. Like the other countries of the United Kingdom, Wales enjoys independent representation in major world sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup and in the Rugby World Cup, but competes as part of Great Britain in some other competitions, including the Olympics.
Amy Guy is a Welsh beauty queen, television performer and athlete.
Sport in Cardiff is dictated by, amongst other things, its position as the capital city of Wales, meaning that national home sporting fixtures are nearly always played in the city. All of Wales' multi-sports agencies and many of the country's sports governing bodies have their headquarters in Cardiff and the city's many top-quality venues have attracted world-famous sport events, sometimes unrelated to Cardiff or to Wales.
Kay Morley-Brown is a British former athlete who competed in the 100 metres hurdles. Representing Wales, she won the 1990 Commonwealth Games 100 metres hurdles title, and went on to represent Great Britain at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Her sister, Sue Morley, is also a former international hurdler.
The Adran Premier, currently known as genero Adran Premier, is the highest level of league competition for women's football in Wales. It is the women's equivalent of the men's Cymru Premier, and it is organized by the Football Association of Wales. As of 2022, the league is ranked 41st overall by the UEFA Women's association club coefficients.
Wrexham Association Football Club Women, formerly Wrexham Ladies F.C., is a Welsh semi-professional women's football club that competes in the Adran Premier, the first-tier of women's football in Wales.
Hannah Louise Mills, is a British competitive sailor and two-time world champion in the Women's 470 class, having won in 2012 and 2019. Mills won a silver medal for Team GB with her crew Saskia Clark in the 2012 Olympics, she followed this up with a gold in the same event at both the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and, partnered by Eilidh McIntyre, the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo
Lucinda Whitty is an Australian sailor. She represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics in sailing.
Joanna Ayela Aleh is a New Zealand sailor. She is a national champion, a former world champion, and an Olympic gold medallist.
Elizabeth Yin Yin Yue is a Singaporean sports sailor. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she competed in the Women's Laser Radial class, finishing in 24th place. She also competed in the same event at the 2016 Summer Olympics, finishing in 26th place. She has also competed in two sailing World Championships, six Laser Radial World Championships and two Byte-class World Championships.
Sally Peake is a British track and field athlete who specialises in the pole vault. She has a personal best of 4.40 m for the event, which is a Welsh record. She was the silver medallist in the pole vault at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Lauren Louise Price is a Welsh professional boxer, former amateur boxer and former kickboxer and footballer. She has held the British welterweight title since May 2023, and is the first female to hold the title. While representing Wales in the amateur sport she won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, becoming the first Welsh woman to win a Commonwealth Games boxing medal. Four years later she surpassed this achievement by winning gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, followed by a gold at the 2019 World Championships. While representing Great Britain, she won gold medals at the 2019 European Games and 2020 Summer Olympics.
Cerys Hale is a Welsh Rugby Union professional player who plays prop for the Wales women's national rugby union team and Gloucester Hartpury. She made her debut for Wales in 2016 and represented them at the 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship.
Shona Powell-Hughes is a Welsh Rugby Union professional player who plays prop for the Wales women's national rugby union team and Gloucester Hartpury. She made her debut for the Wales national squad in 2010 as the youngest member of the team at the time, and represented them at the 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship.
Robyn Olivia Wilkins is a Welsh rugby union player who has played either centre, fly-half or full-back for the Wales women's national rugby union team and Exeter Chiefs of the Premier 15s.
Hannah Brier is a British sprinter who won the 200 metres event at the 2022 British Indoor Athletics Championships. She competed at the 2014 and 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Polly James is a Welsh radio and television presenter. She has presented for Absolute Radio, Radio X, and Capital South Wales. She has been a television sports broadcaster, covering darts for Sky Sports, as well as the Late Night Football Club, BBC One's chat show for the duration of Wales' participation in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
