In the spa town of Wiesbaden, sport was of particular importance to spa guests, especially from 1872 onwards. With the loss of the casino concession, one of the main entertainment options for spa guests was no longer available. Sports activities were soon to provide a replacement. The spa guide from 1877 contained advertisements for swimming, rifle shooting, boat trips and roller skating, among other things. By 1910, sport was established as an important form of entertainment in Wiesbaden; the spa guide mentioned rowing, shooting, horse riding and ice skating, as well as croquet and lawn tennis, the sports of the English upper classes, which were established in spa towns earlier than elsewhere.

Many sports facilities were created, including several natural ice rinks. From 1880, there were the first tennis courts for lawn tennis at the Dietenmühle and, from 1889, a facility maintained by the spa administration in the spa park, the so-called Blumenwiese. This comprised nine courts and was the venue for major international tennis tournaments from 1899. In 1905, the Tattersall was completed as an indoor riding arena and in 1913 the first golf course. Many sports facilities were also built for other sports during this time, e.g. the TV Biebrich gymnasium on Rathenauplatz in 1896 or the sports field of the Wiesbadener Sportverein in 1907. Cycling spread rapidly and many cycling clubs were founded, e.g. the Radsport-Club 1907 Wiesbaden, the Radler- Club Nassovia Frauenstein 1900 or the Radfahrclub RC 1900 from Bierstadt. Motor sports also emerged as a new sport at this time. The Wiesbaden Automobile Club was founded in 1904 and organized the "Rund um den Neroberg" car races in the 1920s. Women's gymnastics emerged at the turn of the century. In 1896, it was introduced at TV Biebrich and a short time later in the Wiesbaden gymnastics clubs, initially under the name "Damenriege".

The early 1920s saw a differentiation between gymnastics and sport. Since the end of the 19th century, the "sportification" of physical exercise coming from England had caused problems for gymnasts. Competitive contests, the idea of performance and the record principle were alien to them, and internationalization did not fit in with their way of thinking either. Sport, including soccer, was dismissed by the gymnasts as "un-German".

During the Nazi era, the opposite trend began. After the splintering of the clubs came Gleichschaltung. In Kastel, for example, the 1886 gymnastics club merged with the 1906 soccer club to form the "Verein für Turn- und Rasensport" in 1934. The "Borussia" soccer club joined and in 1939 the gymnastics club as well, creating the "TSG 1846 Kastel", which still exists today. Jewish members were forced out of the clubs.

At the end of the Second World War, a completely new start was necessary in sport. Soon after the first talks with the occupying forces on the resumption of club activities at the end of 1945/beginning of 1946, organized sport could gradually be resumed. Top-class sport was already being celebrated as an event in Wiesbaden in the 1950s. In June 1952, for example, the Olympic gymnastics competition for Helsinki took place in the Kurhausgarten, organized by the Wiesbaden Gymnastics Association. It was the first opportunity for German athletes to take part in the Olympic Games again after the Second World War, as Germany had not yet been eligible to take part in London 1948.

The Schierstein Water Sports Club (WSV) placed great emphasis on combining sport and socializing. On 20.08.1949, it organized the first Schierstein harbour festival after the Second World War. It was a sports-oriented event with attractions such as folding boat races, fishing competitions and ski jumping. In and around the harbour, the WSV is still in good company with many other clubs today: Wiesbadener Yachtclub, Schwimmclub Wiesbaden 1911 e.V., Motorbootclub Mittelrhein, Wassersport Wiesbaden and the Rudergesellschaft Wiesbaden-Biebrich share the sports and leisure harbor.

The field hockey players of the Wiesbaden Tennis and Hockey Club (WTHC) were just as creative in the winter of 1949/50. They played indoor field hockey, which was unknown at the time, in the gymnasium on Boseplatz (now Platz der Deutschen Einheit). Founded in 1905, the WTHC is still very active and successful in field hockey today, but is also one of the largest of the city's 23 tennis clubs.

A sport that today is either in the glare of the spotlight or at most practiced in hidden backyards was a natural part of local life in Biebrich in the 1950s: amateur boxing. Attending a boxing event organized by TV Biebrich, whose team fought in the second-highest league, was as much a part of every Sunday as going to the soccer pitch. The later professional boxer Konrad (Conny) Rudhof, who became German lightweight champion in 1959, came from Kostheim.

Wiesbaden athletes also achieved national and international top performances in many other sports. The best table tennis team in the city in the 1950s came from Sportverein Wiesbaden 1899 e.V. (SV Wiesbaden), the group led by Werner Roller and Kurt Seifert were Hesse champions for many years and German runners-up from 1950-53. The amateur cyclists of the RSK "Sturmvogel" Wiesbaden won no fewer than 87 victories in 1950. The club also organized races itself, even a six-stage ride over 1,200 km in 1953, starting at Elsässer Platz and finishing in the Wiesbaden stadium. The most renowned cyclists of the post-war period were Valentin Petry, Walter Hundertmarck and Franz Reitz from Frauenstein. Wiesbaden's cyclists were also sure-footed in connection with a ball: in 1948 and 1950, the women's duo Abel/Wiedemann from RC Stephan Wiesbaden became German champions twice in bicycle polo, which had only been invented in 1941 by Arthur Seib from Bierstadt as an elegant variant of bicycle polo for women.

Badminton players have always been successful. The badminton players founded their umbrella organization on 18.01.1953 in Wiesbaden's Kurhaus after they had held the first German badminton individual championships in the Schlossreithalle the day before. The Biebrich sports dealer Fred Haas (1922-96) had called for "badminton competitions" on the occasion of a sporting goods fair. The Biebricher Badminton Club (BBC) had already been founded from the ranks of TV Biebrich, later the 1st Wiesbaden Badminton Club (1953) and the badminton department of Grün-Weiß Wiesbaden (1956).

Wiesbaden's greatest footballer son is a Biebrich native: Jürgen Grabowski initially played for Biebrich 19 and Biebrich 02, for which he competed in the Hessenliga from 1962. In 1965, he made the leap to Eintracht Frankfurt, where he remained until 1980. Grabowski played 44 international matches for the German national team - and became world champion on July 7, 1974, his 30th birthday.

The footballers of Sportverein Wiesbaden also once wrote German sporting history. The blue and orange team was the first German team to be allowed to play a soccer match on Belgian soil again after the war. Sportverein Wiesbaden won 4:0 in front of 10,000 spectators in Ghent, coached by none other than Helmut Schön. The club celebrated its greatest successes in 1965 and 1966, when it twice reached the final of the German amateur championship - and twice lost to Hannover 96.

Another outstanding sportsman with roots in Wiesbaden is field hockey player Stefan Blöcher, who began his career at WTHC and was named the "world's best player" in 1987. He became German champion and European champion several times as well as vice world champion and won two Olympic silver medals. Clay pigeon shooter Waldemar Schanz, who was German champion, European champion, world championship runner-up and World Cup winner, was attracted to Wiesbaden by the excellent training conditions.

In 2015, some athletes and clubs from Wiesbaden have been among the national or even international leaders in a number of sports for many years. In the Volleyball Bundesliga, the women of VC Wiesbaden (VCW) achieved their greatest success to date in 2010 with second place. Judo has been fought at a first-class level for decades. A native of Wiesbaden is racing driver Nico Rosberg, who was runner-up in the Formula 1 world championship in 2014 and 2015 and world champion in 2016. The swimmers of the Wiesbaden Swimming Club (SCW) surprisingly became German team champions in 2008.

In the post-war period, the sports facility situation in Wiesbaden was initially modest. The Schlossreithalle was the only major venue and training facility for many sports at the time. It had to make way for a new building in the early 1950s, and a replacement was not built until later. For a long time, the sports hall on Elsässer Platz, which opened in 1959, was the only major attraction. In 1989, the hall on Zweite Ring was inaugurated for the regional gymnastics festival, where the VCW volleyball team played its national league matches for many years and JC Wiesbaden held its national league judo matches. The large sports hall on Platz der Deutschen Einheit has been used by the VCW as a venue and the Elly Heuss School as a school sports hall since 2014. The largest open-air sports facility is Helmut-Schön-Park. Since the construction of the new Brita-Arena in 2007 in the immediate vicinity, the city has a modern sports facility for around 12,000 spectators.

Wiesbaden has also made a name for itself in other areas as the host of numerous major sporting events. First and foremost is the traditional Whitsun Riding Tournament, which has been organized by the Wiesbaden Riding and Driving Club since 1929. The "Ironman Germany 70.3" - the "toughest half day" with a 1.9 km swim, 90 km bike ride and a final half marathon - was held in Wiesbaden in 2007-16. As a young sport, triathlon hits the nerve of the times: up to 90,000 spectators along the course attended the event with the finish in front of the Kurhaus.

The annual Olympic Ball Night of Hessian Sport in Wiesbaden's Kurhaus is always an elegant event in October. Even more important is the "Ball des Sports" under the patronage of the Federal President, which took place in Wiesbaden in 1977 and from 1992 to 2001 and was held in the Rhein-Main-Hallen from 2007 and in the Wiesbaden Kurhaus in 2015. It also gets festive every year when Tanz-Club Blau-Orange Wiesbaden, one of the ten largest dance sports clubs in Germany, invites guests to the dance tournament for the "Grand Prize of the City of Wiesbaden" in the Kurhaus.

Wiesbaden-Klarenthal is home to the Federal Sports and Archery Training Center (BLZ) and the office of the German Shooting Association (DSB ). The German Golf Association e.V. (DGV), the umbrella organization for golf clubs and golf courses in Germany, is also based in Wiesbaden.

However, popular sport is most important for Wiesbaden. Around 67,800 people are currently organized in around 240 gymnastics and sports clubs.