Sport makes the region mobile on a daily basis and almost ubiquitously. When the region's sport enthusiasts are asked to what the sporting landscape of the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region owes its special charm, the answer is invariably the unique mix of top-class and popular sport. The main spectator attractions in the world of professional sport include German league football (TSG 1899 Hoffenheim), handball (Rhein-Neckar-Löwen, TSG Friesenheim) and ice hockey (Adler Mannheim), as well as superlative international motor sport events on the Hockenheim Ring. St. Leon-Rot Golf Club sets standards in the world of professional golf, while the horse-riding elite has a traditional rendezvous at the annual tournament held at Mannheim's May market.
The opportunities available in the region to popular sport enthusiasts are almost inexhaustible as well. The multitude of running events are a particular highlight, among them the MLP Mannheim Rhine-Neckar Marathon, which is the year's largest regional popular sporting event. Other prominent serial running events for amateur athletes are the Tri-Country Running Cup (Baden-Hesse-Palatinate), the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region Marathon Cup and the BASF Rhine-Neckar Triathlon Cup. Ambitious racing cyclists do not miss the BASF Rhine-Neckar Cycle Tour and the "Radtreff Rhein-Neckar" benefit tour, where the starting fees are donated to charity.
It is also possible to pursue practically every other kind of outdoor sport in the region, be it walking, mountain biking or cross-country skiing in the Palatinate and Odenwald forests, climbing in South Palatinate, rowing on the Old Rhine, windsurfing on the Silbersee lake near Roxheim, or paragliding down from the summit of the Königstühl. Ideal conditions can also be enjoyed by rollerblade skaters and joggers on a close-knit and extremely varied network of paths running between town, countryside and river landscapes along the Rhine and the Neckar.
The Rhine-Neckar Regional Sport Association has been responsible for the professional organisation and marketing of the MRN as a sporting location since 2004, and in this regard is also the contact partner for over 2,700 registered sport clubs with about 850,000 members in the region. Its task also includes mutually encouraging sportsmen and women and local people to identify with the region. To this end, the sport region supports regional Olympic teams for example, such as Team Peking in 2008 and Team London in 2012, who in turn act as ambassadors for the region. Since 2010, the sporting achievements of athletes from around the region are acknowledged every two years with their own prize, the "Victor Sport Award".
