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Sports, exercise and recreation

How to become a sportsperson

Official title: Sportsperson

Also called: Footballer, Golfer, Harness driver, Jockey, Rugby player, Hockey player, Tennis player

Sportspeople train and compete in athletic events or competitive sports.

Main tasks

How to become one

You need experience to become a professional sportsperson. You usually don’t need specific NCEA levels for this job. Required: experience in playing your sport at a competitive level. Other requirements: to register with your sport's national organisation.

See the full Tahatū profile

Pay · Past change · AI and this job

Who does this work

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Questions people ask

How do I become a sportsperson?

You need experience to become a professional sportsperson. You usually don’t need specific NCEA levels for this job. Required: experience in playing your sport at a competitive level. Other requirements: to register with your sport's national organisation.

How much does a sportsperson earn in New Zealand?

The Tertiary Education Commission estimates median pay at $96,000 a year, before tax. Most common pay is $63,000 to $153,000 a year.

Has the number of people working as a sportsperson grown in New Zealand?

It has grown: TEC records an increase in the number of people doing this job between the 2018 and 2023 Censuses. This is past change, not a forecast.

Will AI change the work of a sportsperson?

Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.

Sources

This content is sourced from the Tertiary Education Commission through the Tahatū Career Navigator website (www.tahatu.govt.nz) and used under the CC BY 4.0 licence. All or some of the information has been modified by Peernovo. TEC has not approved, endorsed or tested these modifications. TEC will not be held accountable for any errors within this content.

Qualification information from NZQA, used under CC BY 3.0 NZ.

This work is based on/includes Stats NZ's data which are licensed by Stats NZ for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Census data via Figure.NZ.

Includes information from O*NET OnLine by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Sources: Tertiary Education Commission, Tahatū Career Navigator (career ideas, pay estimates, entry requirements and study options, CC BY 4.0, modified by Peernovo); Stats NZ, 2023 Census (via Figure.NZ) and the National Occupation List (CC BY 4.0); NZQA qualification information (CC BY 3.0 NZ); O*NET interest scores (CC BY 4.0); ILO global generative AI exposure index (CC BY 4.0). Links between career ideas and ANZSCO groups, degree fields and broad job groups are Peernovo's.

These results are not official statistics. They have been created for research purposes from the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), which is carefully managed by Stats NZ.

Graduate outcomes: these results are not official statistics. They have been created for research purposes from the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), which is carefully managed by Stats NZ.

Updated 4 October 2026