Sport in Denmark is diverse. The national sport is running, but club sport is football[2] with the most notable results being qualifying for the European Championships six times in a row (1984–2004) and winning the Championship in 1992. Other significant achievements include winning the Confederations Cup in 1995 and reaching the quarter final of the 1998 World Cup. Other popular sports include handball, esports, cycling, sailing sports, badminton, ice hockey, swimming, and recently also golf. A few youths also play basketball.
Sport is encouraged in school, and there are local sports clubs in all cities and most towns.
The national stadium for football is the Parken Stadium.
Football
Michael Laudrup, named the best Danish footballer ever by the Danish Football Association
The second level league is the Danish 1st Division followed by Danish 2nd Division and Danish 3rd Division. Al clubs in the first four leagues are allowed to use professional players. The leagues below can only use amateur players without contract.
The top women's league is the Kvindeligaen. HEI Aarhus are the most successful team, with 10 titles.
The premier cup competition is the Danish Cup. AGF are 9 time champions. Copenhagen are also the last winners of the Danish Supercup, back in 2004, of which Brøndby IF are the most successful club. Brøndby are the only winners of the twice-held Danish League Cup.
Denmark has a long history with handball, with the sport originating in Denmark. Handball is one of the most popular pastimes in Denmark, only exceeded by football. There are over 146,000 licensed handball players in Denmark. Both the male and female national teams have reached high international rankings.
Denmark have marked their status as one of the leading motorcycle speedway countries. Denmark has won the Speedway World Cup four times in 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2014 and came second in 2007 missing only two points to Poland.
Erik Gundersen and Hans Nielsen occupied the first two places at Gothenburg in 1984. In fact, there were two Danes on top of the table in each and every World final from 1984 to 1988 - a somewhat extraordinary record. Gundersen and Nielsen took three titles each as the Danes won six successive and seven out of eight titles from 1984 to 1991.
Ice hockey
This section appears to contradict itselfon the number of Danish players in the NHL. Please see the talk page for more information.(March 2019)
In men's badminton, Viktor Axelsen, the current world’s number one in singles since 2021, has won two gold medals at the BWF World Championship (2017 and 2022), and one gold medal at the Olympic Games (2020). Poul-Erik Høyer Larsen's victory at the 1996 Olympic Games is one of two gold medals for Europe. Erland Kops won seven All England Open Badminton Championships in singles and four All England titles in doubles from the late 1950s to the late 1960s, whilst Morten Frost was one of the top players of the 1980s, winning the 1984 World Badminton Grand Prix and four All England singles titles. Topped the world rankings from 1998 to 2001 and with 22 Grand-Prix titles, Peter Gade is one of the world's most successful badminton players.
In women's badminton, Kirsten Thorndahl and Tonny Ahm claimed singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles titles at the All England. Lene Køppen and Camilla Martin have won singles titles at the World Championships and All-England. Other notable women's players include Ulla Strand (All-England doubles titles), Rikke Olsen (six World Championship medals), Helene Kirkegaard (two medals at the World Championships), Tine Baun (All-England singles titles), Kamilla Rytter Juhl (World mixed doubles title), and Christinna Pedersen (two Olympic and five World Championship medals).
Historically, Denmark's most successful name in cycling has been Thorvald Ellegaard won the world professional sprint title in six times, three European titles, and 24 Danish titles.
In the past years, the Danish cycling has suffered from doping cases. Bjarne Riis, Bo Hamburger, Rolf Sørensen, Jesper Skibby, Michael Rasmussen all confessed doping use, or were related with doping. But despite all the bad publicity, cycling is still quite a popular sport in Denmark. In 2011, Copenhagen hosted the UCI world championships on the road. Denmark hosted the Grand Depart in the 2022 edition of the Tour de France.
Golf
Golf has become a highly popular sport in recent years in Denmark with more than 180 courses across the country.
Golf is mostly popular among the older demographic, with more members over the age of 24 than any other sport in Denmark.[1]
American football is a minor sport in Denmark with Well under 1.000 players. The governing body the Danish American Football Federation was formed in 1988. The top level league is the National Ligaen. The final game for the national championship is called the Mermaid Bowl and the first was played in 1988. The national teams both youth and senior level has competed in the European Championship of American football.
Denmark's national team had a few strong showings at senior and youth level. The Bakken Bears currently hold the attendance record for a single basketball game in Denmark.
Cricket has a little presence in Denmark. But the Denmark national cricket team has been performing well in Europe. Cricket has been played in Denmark since the mid 19th century, brought there by the British. As well as the men's team, the Denmark national women's cricket team has also played international matches.
Denmark has various Mixed Martial Arts fighters with the most prominent being Martin Kampmann. Kampmann fought for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as a 170-pound welterweight and was considered one of the best fighters in the division. Other Danish fighters that have competed in the UFC include Anna Elmose, Nicolas Dalby, Joachim Christensen, Christian Colombo, and Mads Burnell.
Rugby league football is played at a local, national and international level. Currently the country is ranked 26th on the RLIF. Danish domestic teams, including Jutland RLFC (Jylland) and Copenhagen RLFC compete with teams from other areas of Southern Scandinavia.
Caroline Wozniacki is commonly referred to as the best Danish female tennis player in history. She is a former World No. 1 on the WTA Tour. As of 1 March 2017, she held this position for 71 weeks. She was the first Scandinavian woman to hold the top ranking position and 20th overall. She has won The Australian Open 2018 and 27 WTA singles titles incl 2017 WTA Finals (and made 52 finals) as of March 2018, and is currently ranked number 2 in the WTA rankings.
Frederik Løchte Nielsen became the first Dane ever to win a Wimbledon championship title in 2012. Nielsen and his partner Marray, who had only played three tournaments together previously, also became the first wild card ever to win the Wimbledon men's doubles. His current[when?] position in the ATP doubles rankings is No. 249.