Most Popular Sports in Russia: Football, Hockey, and Athletics

Association football and ice hockey are the two most popular sports in Russia. Football draws the largest crowds and the widest participation through the Russian Premier League, while ice hockey commands the deepest cultural loyalty and a world-class professional league in the KHL. Combat sports, athletics, gymnastics, and winter disciplines round out a sporting culture shaped by the Soviet-era pursuit of international dominance.

What makes a sport “big” in Russia

Popularity here is measured on more than one axis. Football wins on sheer numbers: attendance, grassroots participation, and broadcast reach. Hockey wins on intensity of following and on Russia’s historic standing as a global superpower in the sport. A third factor is Olympic prestige. Disciplines like figure skating, gymnastics, wrestling, and biathlon carry outsized cultural weight because the Soviet and Russian systems built them into symbols of national achievement. The ranking below weighs all three: mass appeal, competitive passion, and international pedigree.

The major sports in Russia

Football (soccer) pulls the largest audiences of any sport in the country. The Russian Premier League fields clubs from Moscow and beyond, and the rivalries between the capital’s teams carry the intensity of century-old feuds. Russia hosted the 2018 FIFA World Cup and reached the quarterfinals, a run that set off nationwide celebrations and lifted the domestic game’s profile for years afterward.

Ice hockey runs a close second, and plenty of Russians would put it first. The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) ranks among the strongest professional leagues outside the NHL. The national program’s record at the World Championships and Olympics goes back decades, built on the legacy of players like Vladislav Tretiak and Valeri Kharlamov and the Soviet “Red Machine” squads that dominated international hockey.

Combat sports run deep. Sambo, a grappling discipline developed in the Soviet Union, is a Russian specialty, and the country regularly tops international sambo competitions. Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, along with judo, have produced Olympic and World champions across multiple generations.

Figure skating commands enormous public attention and consistently produces some of the most technically advanced skaters in the world. It is arguably the winter sport Russians follow most closely, blending elite competition with mainstream television appeal.

Basketball has carved out a real following, anchored by clubs in the VTB United League. Russia has produced players who went on to prominent international careers, and its national squads have historically been competitive at European Championships.

Athletics, gymnastics, and winter sports

Track and field and artistic gymnastics built some of the Soviet Union’s and Russia’s most recognizable sporting reputations. Russian gymnasts have long ranked among the world’s most accomplished, and the athletics program spans sprinting, field events, and distance running, though it has operated under international restrictions since a wave of doping sanctions in the 2010s. Russia’s climate and geography also make winter sports a natural strength: biathlon and cross-country skiing draw consistent elite results and a devoted domestic audience alongside figure skating.

Sport popularity at a glance

Sport	Top Competition	Strength Level
Football (Soccer)	Russian Premier League	Mass spectator sport
Ice Hockey	KHL, World Championships	Deep cultural passion
Figure Skating	World & European Championships	Very high public interest
Sambo / Wrestling	World Championships, Olympics	International elite
Basketball	VTB United League	Significant following
Athletics	World Championships, Olympics	Historic elite tradition
Biathlon	IBU World Cup	Strong winter following

Russian sport in 2024-2026

The domestic scene remains vibrant even as international access stays limited. In football, FC Krasnodar won the 2024-25 Russian Premier League title on the final matchday of May 2025, the club’s first-ever championship, ending Zenit St. Petersburg’s run of dominance. In hockey, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl captured the 2025 Gagarin Cup, defeating Traktor Chelyabinsk in the final for the club’s first KHL title.

Internationally, Russia’s position is heavily restricted. UEFA and FIFA suspended Russian club and national teams from their competitions in 2022, and the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee in October 2023. For the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Games, a small group of Russian athletes was cleared to compete as Individual Neutral Athletes (AINs), with no flag, anthem, or country medal count, while Russian national teams remained excluded. As of 2026, most Russian sport is a largely domestic affair with only limited neutral-status participation abroad.

The Soviet legacy

Much of this sporting identity traces back to the Soviet sports system, which poured resources into elite athlete development across dozens of disciplines. Coaching methods, training pipelines, and the weight placed on international results all still carry that imprint. It explains why a single country can field world-class talent in football, hockey, wrestling, gymnastics, and figure skating at once, and why sport remains so tightly bound to national identity in Russia today.