The Dutch-invented mixed-gender team sport — progressive in 1901, still unique today
Part of: Dutch Sports
Korfbal is a team sport invented in the Netherlands in 1901 by Amsterdam schoolteacher Nico Broekhuysen, who was inspired by a Swedish game called ringboll. The defining feature — radical at the time, still unusual today — is that it is compulsorily mixed-gender: every team fields four men and four women, and the rules enforce that men may only defend men and women may only defend women.
There is no equivalent sport at this scale anywhere in the world. You cannot play korfbal without a mixed team.
Two teams of eight (four men, four women) compete to score by throwing a ball through a basket — a round, netless hoop on a 3.5-metre post — from outside a marked zone around the post. No kicking, no dribbling. You receive the ball, you can turn and pivot, but you must pass or shoot. After every two goals, the zones rotate: attackers become defenders and vice versa.
The no-dribbling rule makes it fast and passing-oriented. The gender-defending rule means a tall man cannot simply mark the opposing team's key woman scorer — the game forces balance.
Korfbal was genuinely ahead of its time. Mixed-gender competitive sport at full intensity, where men and women play against each other (not just alongside), remains rare. The sport has spread to over 60 countries and has been in the World Games since 1985, but the Netherlands remains its heartland — with roughly 100,000 registered players, it is one of the more popular minority sports in the country.
It also sits outside the class associations of field hockey and the mass appeal of football — it is its own thing, with a loyal, distinctive community. Korfbal clubs have the same social-hub character as hockey clubs: the sport is the reason to gather, but the club is the point.
The Netherlands and Belgium dominate international korfbal. The Netherlands has won the Korfball World Championship consistently. The sport has Olympic aspirations but has not yet achieved full inclusion.
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