For the love of it

Although they rarely make the headlines in the sports sections of the nation's newspapers, there are millions of Canadians who take to the fields, the slopes, the pools and the rinks. They may not consider themselves athletes, but they do enjoy exploring and testing their prowess. Sport Canada lists 53 national amateur associations—everything from the Federation of Canadian Archers to the Canadian Yachting Association.

Of all the sporting activities that Canadians aged 15 and older take part in, a round of golf was the most popular in 1998, with 7.4% of the population teeing off that year. The second most popular was hockey (6.2%), followed by baseball (5.5%), swimming (4.6%), basketball (3.2%), volleyball (3.1%) and soccer (3.0%). Overall, 8.3 million Canadians aged 15 and older participated regularly in sports in 1998.