Berlin is a major sporting centre inGermany and Europe. In 2013 around 600.000 Berliners were registered in more than 2.300 amateur sports- and fitness clubs.^[1]

Berlin has established a high-profile reputation as a host city of international sporting events.^[2] The city was host to the1936 Summer Olympics, the2006 FIFA World Cup Final and is the venue for several professional sports clubs in Germany's top leagues.

The largest Olympic training centre in Germany is the Sportforum Hohenschönhausen, at 55 hectares one the largest sports and training centres in Europe. It is home to 19 sports clubs, a school and competitive sports centre, as well as a dormitory for athletes in training.

Friedrich Ludwig Jahn known asTurnvater Jahn ( father of gymnastics) was born in 1778 and worked as an assistant teacher in Berlin. At Berlin's Hasenheide Friedrich Ludwig Jahn opened the first German gymnastics field ('Turnplatz'), or open-air gymnasium, in spring 1811. His activities were particularly pointed at the youth, with whom he went to the gym field in free afternoons. The German gymnastics, understood by Jahn as a whole of the physical exercises.

Jahn developed well-known gymnastic equipment, invented also new apparatuses. Particularly by his main writing "Die Deutsche Turnkunst" (1816) the apparatus gymnastics developed to an independent kind of sport, and so the gym activities were not only limited to simple physical exercises, which he quoted as following: "Going, running, jumping, throwing, carrying are free exercises, everywhere applicable, as free as fresh air."

With the national gymnastics festivals in Coburg in 1860, in Berlin in 1861 and in Leipzig in 1863, the memory of Jahn's ideas returned into the people's consciousness. The inscription at the gable of his house "Frisch, Frei, Fröhlich, Fromm", translated as 'fresh, free, happy, good", which originated in Jahn's time, became the basic idea of the German gymnastics movement.

TheFIVB World Tour has chosen an inner-city site to present a beach volleyball Grand Slam several times after 2000.

The two main football clubs inBerlin areHertha BSC and1. FC Union Berlin. The oldest and most popular first division team in Berlin is Hertha BSC.^[3] Hertha BSC represented Berlin as a founding member of theBundesliga in 1963. 1. FC Union Berlin was founded inEast Berlin in 1966.

The2006 FIFA World Cup Final was held at theOlympic stadium in Berlin, which is also the home stadium ofHertha BSC. TheDFB Cup Final has been held every year at the Olympiastadion since 1985. The largest single-purpose football stadium in the German capitalStadion An der Alten Försterei, which is the home stadium of 1. FC Union Berlin.

The main basketball club in Berlin isAlba Berlin, which dominated theBasketball Bundesliga especially in the late 90s and early 2000s. Alba won eightGerman Championships, nineGerman Cups, threeGerman Supercups, and theFIBA Korać Cup in 1995. With an average attendance of more than 10,000 fans per game in a season, it is also one of the most popular basketball clubs in Europe.

The city is also home to ASV Berlin, as well as the now-dissolved LSV Spandau, which won one German Championship in 1939.

Berlin was one of the hosts of the FIBAEuroBasket 1993 (where theGerman national basketball team won the gold medal) and one of the hosts of the FIBAEuroBasket 2015.

The main ice hockey club inBerlin isEisbären Berlin. The Eisbären have won theDEL championship more times than any other team. The club has captured 11 DEL titles, most recently in 2025. They won theGerman ice hockey cup in 2008 as well as theEuropean Trophy in 2010. Beforereunification the team played as part ofsports clubSC Dynamo Berlin and won theEast German ice hockey championship 15 times.^[7]

The main handball club inBerlin isFüchse Berlin. The team won theDHB-Pokal in 2014, theEHF Cup in 2015 and 2018 and theIHF Super Globe in 2015 and 2016.

Karl Schelenz, "father" ofHandball was born in Berlin in 1890.

The main volleyball club in the city isBerlin Recycling Volleys. The team won seven titles inDeutsche Bundesliga.

Berlin Thunder is anAmerican football team, playing in theEuropean League of Football (ELF).^[11]

TheBerlin Marathon is one of the largest and most popular road races in the world. In 2008 alone the race had 40,827 enrolled starters from 107 countries, 35,913 official finishers and more than one million spectators.^[12][13] Along with five other races, it forms theWorld Marathon Majors.

The mostmarathon world records for men and women have been set at the Berlin course, which is known for its flat profile and even surface. The event is split over 2 days. About 8,000 additionalinline skaters compete at the marathon course the Saturday before the running event. Power walkers, handbikers, wheelchair riders, and a children's marathon (4.2195 km) are also part of the marathon weekend, which is organised bySCC EVENTS.

The annualIAAF World Challenge eventISTAF for athletics are also held here.^[14]

TheIAAF World Championships in Athletics were held in theOlympiastadion in August 2009.^[15] In the men's 100 metres dash,Usain Bolt broke his own100 metres sprint world record with a time of 9.58.^[16]

In 1921, Germany's first motorsport track, theAutomobil-Verkehrs- und Übungsstraße ('Automobile traffic and training road'), short AVUS, was built in the south-west of Berlin. The first race took place on 24 September of the same year, with 300,000 spectators lining the roadside. The firstGerman Grand Prix was held in1926. The last race beforeWorld War II was in 1937. A firstFormula One race was held in 1954, although not as part of the World Championship. The last German Grand Prix on the AVUS, as part of the World Championship, was held in1959. After this, the AVUS was used for sports car and motorcycle racing until 1996.^[17]

The2015 Berlin ePrix was aFormula Emotor race that took place on 23 May 2015 on the purpose-builtTempelhof Airport Street Circuit inBerlin. It was the eighth round of the2014–15 Formula E season. A special anti-clockwise track was built for the race next to the terminal building of the closed airport Tempelhof, including 17 turns over a distance of 2.469 km (1.534 mi).

Berlin has hosted several times theGerman Masters, asnookerranking tournament. It is held at theTempodrom since the2011 tournament.^[18]

TheMellowpark in Köpenick is one of the biggest skate and BMX parks in Europe.^[19]

The traditional Sechstagerennen (Six Day Race) takes place in theVelodrom every January. Around 75,000 spectators attend this sport event every year. The Velodrom holds up to 12,000 people and is also one of the largest concert venues in the city.

Next to the venue, the Europasportpark SSE is one of the biggest swimming and diving pools in Europe, where both professional clubs and locals can swim their laps. The venue was host to many national and international competitions in all kind of swim sports from high diving to swimming the crawl. The 2014European Aquatics Championships took place in the Europasportpark.

Both venues form a sports complex built in the course of the application of Berlin, for the 2000 Summer Olympics.

The1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an internationalmulti-sport event that was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany.^[20] Berlin won the bid to host the Games overBarcelona, Spain, on 26 April 1931, at the 29thIOC Session.

Germany builta new 100,000-seat track and field stadium, six gymnasiums, and many other smaller arenas. They also installed aclosed-circuit television system and radio network that reached 41 countries, with many other forms of expensive high-tech electronic equipment.^[21] FilmmakerLeni Riefenstahl, was commissioned by the German Olympic Committee to film the Games.^[21] Her film, titledOlympia, pioneered many of the techniques now common in the filming of sports.

The Olympic village was located at Elstal inWustermark on the western edge of Berlin. The site, which was 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the centre of the city, consisted of one to two-floor dormitories, dining areas, a swimming pool, and training facilities.

Total ticket revenues were 7.5 millionReichsmark, generating a profit of over one million marks. The official budget did not includeoutlays by the city of Berlin (which issued an itemized report detailing its costs of 16.5 million marks) or outlays of the German national government.^[22]

Group A at the1974 FIFA World Cup featured three matches at Berlin's Olympic Stadium, all involvingChile, against West Germany, East Germany and Australia. West Germany won 1-0, although the other matches were draws. The infamous match between the two German teams, however, was played inHamburg.

The2006 FIFA World Cup Final was held on 9 July 2006 at Berlin'sOlympiastadion to determine the winner of the2006 FIFA World Cup.Italy beatFrance in a shootout after the match finished 1–1 after extra time. France'sZinedine Zidane was sent off in his last-ever match, for headbutting Italy'sMarco Materazzi's chest in retaliation to verbal insults.

In May 2013 the Olympiastadion was chosen as the venue for the2015 UEFA Champions League Final.^[23] In July 2014 it was announced that Berlin would also be the host for the2015 UEFA Women's Champions League Final. The women's final was played at theFriedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark.^[24]

Berlin will host the2023 Special Olympics World Summer Games. It will mark the first time that Germany have ever hosted theSpecial Olympics.^[25]

• Franziska van Almsick
• Robert Harting
• Laura Ludwig
• Claudia Pechstein
• Jochen Schümann
• Hagen Stamm
• Ulf Timmermann
• Katarina Witt

• List of people from Berlin
• Football in Germany

Media related toSport in Berlin at Wikimedia Commons

• Sport in Berlin

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