• Surfing was introduced to Australia by a Hawaiian in 1912.surfing image by Melva Vivian from Fotolia.com
  
  Australia is a sport-proud nation of athletes and passionate sports fanatics, and for good reason. Not only do their professional sports players frequently rank among the world's best in tennis, boxing, swimming, diving, surfing, cricket, rugby and golf, but many non-professional sports enthusiasts show natural ability at individual and club levels. Australia also has a reputation for furthering the development of high performance athletes through the internationally recognized Australian Institute of Sport.
  
  

Surfing

• Australia has one of the most developed surf cultures in all the world. The first pro surfing world champion was Australian Peter Townend, and the country has continued to present champion after champion ever since. Not only does every major surf beach in the country offer surfing schools for locals and visitors, but the Australians are quite serious about professional surfing as well, leading the world in the professional development of surfing coaches and judges.
  
  

Rugby Union

• The National Rugby League of Australia is made up of 15 state teams, and although there are countless club-level teams throughout the country, Rugby Union has an incredible, energized popularity at the state level, where it's a rough and tumble working class sport. In Australia, Rugby Union is commonly called "the game they play in heaven." At the club level, it has a reputation for being more of an "upper-crust" sport, in part due to its foothold in the world of university and private school sports.
  
  

Cricket

• In the summer months, Australians possess a passion for cricket that's been called both religious and a full-blown mania. Australian Donald "The Don" Bradman is universally considered the greatest cricket batsman of all time. More than any other nationally beloved sport, cricket seems to unite all Australians, especially during the international Test Match, a series of matches against India, Pakistan, the West Indies, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia's biggest rival, England. One Test Match can take up to five days to finish, and often results in a draw.
  
  

Golf

• Australia is home to hundreds of public and private courses. Golf tourism brings in a significant amount of international visitors. At the national level, Australia hosts annual Men's, Women's and Senior Opens. Championship games are held year-round at every level of play, and pro Australian golfers participate in tournaments across the world. Internationally-famous Australian golfers include Peter Thomson, Bruce Devlin, Graham Marsh and Greg Norman, who was the number-one ranked golfer in the world during the 1980s.
  
  

Swimming

• Swimming is one of the first sports practiced by Australian kids, often before they can walk. It's one of the most beloved Australian sports, in large part due to concentrated coastal populations and long summers spent at the beach. Ian Thorpe is a recent Olympic swimming champion to come out of Australia, winning more Olympic gold medals than any other Australian swimmer and taking home a record number of World Championship gold medals. It's said he's inspired a whole new generation of top-performing swimmers in Australia.