American Samoa shares much of its sporting culture with neighbouring Samoa, particularly a taste for contact sports. Where Samoa turns to rugby, though, the American territory has taken to American Football, which is comfortably the most popular sport on the islands. Estimates of quite how strongly it runs vary – figures of 40 and 56 times are both widely quoted – but by any measure a boy of Samoan parentage is many times more likely to reach the NFL than any other American boy, and the Samoan islands produce more NFL players per head of population than anywhere else on earth.

Al Lolotai became the first Polynesian to play in the NFL back in 1945. Since then the list has grown long: Junior Seau was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015, Marcus Mariota won the Heisman Trophy in 2014, and Troy Polamalu, the Pittsburgh Steelers safety and 2010 Defensive Player of the Year, entered the Hall of Fame in 2020.

Rugby is still widely played, and the American Samoa Rugby Union, founded in 1990, became fully affiliated to the international governing body in 2012, though the code has been overshadowed by gridiron since the 1970s. Wrestling, boxing, volleyball, basketball and baseball all have a following. Traditional sports of the islands included survival-oriented activities such as foot racing and spear throwing.

In football (soccer), American Samoa is best known for the wrong reason: the 31–0 defeat by Australia in 2001, still the record margin in any international match, and one that persuaded FIFA to introduce preliminary rounds for Oceania from 2006. The turnaround came on 23 November 2011 with a 2–1 win over Tonga, a first competitive victory after 38 straight defeats – a story told in the 2014 documentary Next Goal Wins and again in Taika Waititi's 2023 feature film of the same name. The side is no longer the world's lowest ranked, sitting 191st in the FIFA rankings in 2026.

American Samoa has sent a team to every Summer Olympic Games since Seoul in 1988 and has twice appeared at the Winter Games, though it has yet to win an Olympic medal. At Paris 2024 the territory was represented by sprinter Filomenaleonisa Iakopo, who set a national record of 12.78 seconds in the 100m, and swimmer Micah Masei.

The islands have hosted one major regional event, the South Pacific Mini Games at Pago Pago in August 1997, when 19 nations competed across 11 sports and the hosts finished fourth on the medal table. A later bid for the 2029 Pacific Mini Games was unsuccessful, those Games going to the Cook Islands.

Popular sports of American Samoa

  • American Football
  • Rugby
  • Football (Soccer)
  • Wrestling
  • Volleyball, basketball and baseball

American Samoa Sporting Success

  • Lisa Misipeka won bronze in the hammer throw at the 1999 World Athletics Championships in Seville – the first international medal ever won by American Samoa, and still its greatest sporting achievement.
  • Fourth place on the medal table at the 1997 South Pacific Mini Games, which the territory hosted, with 20 gold, 23 silver and 7 bronze medals.
  • The women's volleyball team won gold at the 2015 Pacific Games.
  • The footballers' first competitive win, 2–1 over Tonga in November 2011.

Great athletes from American Samoa

  • Lisa Misipeka – hammer thrower, World Championship bronze medallist in 1999 and an Olympian at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004.
  • Nathan Crumpton – ran the 100m at Tokyo 2020 and competed in skeleton at Beijing 2022, making him one of the very few athletes to appear at both a Summer and a Winter Olympics for the same nation.
  • Jaiyah Saelua – footballer, the first openly transgender player to appear in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match.
  • Filomenaleonisa Iakopo – sprinter and national 100m record holder, flag bearer at Paris 2024.
  • Many of the best-known Samoan names in world sport – Troy Polamalu, Junior Seau, Marcus Mariota, Dwayne Johnson – trace their heritage to the islands but were born and raised in the United States rather than in the territory itself.

American Samoa Sports trivia

  • In 2001, Australia defeated American Samoa 31–0, the world's greatest losing margin in an international football match. FIFA changed the Oceania qualifying format soon afterwards.
  • American Samoa's soccer team won its first World Cup qualification match in 2011, defeating Tonga 2–1. The campaign was filmed for the documentary Next Goal Wins.
  • Skeleton racer Nathan Crumpton carried the flag at the Beijing 2022 opening ceremony bare-chested in traditional Samoan dress, in freezing conditions.
  • Both of American Samoa's Paris 2024 athletes qualified through universality places, which allow smaller nations to enter without meeting the usual qualifying standards.

American Samoa at major events

Past sporting events hosted in American Samoa

  • South Pacific Mini Games, Pago Pago, 11–22 August 1997.

Sporting Facilities in American Samoa

  • Veterans Memorial Stadium, Tafuna – the territory's main venue, capacity around 5,000.
  • Pago Park, Pago Pago – capacity around 2,000, the home of football on the islands.
  • DYWA Gym, Tafuna – indoor venue, capacity around 500.
  • Tony Solaita Baseball Field, Tafuna – capacity around 500.