Women's National Team

WNT, the acronym for "Women's National Team," applies to all sports and is used by a number of English speaking countries (e.g.: Canada, England, New Zealand, USA). The term is used within a sport's community when there is only reference to that specific sport (e.g.: "We got tickets for the WNT's next home game!"). When clarifying which sport or which country's team, the reference might be, "the US Basketball WNT" or "the Soccer Germany WNT."

Not all WNTs are paid (professional) or have a women's national league from which to draw new players. When women professional athletes are able to dedicate themselves full-time to developing their skills, they raise the level of play in a sport and provide much higher caliber Women's National Team players. Most top women athletes must work full-time jobs, in addition to their training, practice and competition schedules.

National sports team

A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in a sport.

The term is most commonly associated with team sports. However, it can be applied to groups of individuals representing a country in where regular play is individuals by aggregating individual scores to a get a team result.

National teams often compete at various levels and age groups and there are number of different selection criteria for national teams. National teams are not always composed of the best available individual players.

National teams, like other sporting teams, are often grouped by sex, age or other criteria. The most prestigious national teams are often the senior men's and women's teams. However, they may not be the most popular or successful.

In most cases, a national sports team represents a single sovereign state. In several sports, the Anglo-Celtic Archipelago divides along internal boundaries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are represented by separate national teams, while in the Olympic Games they combine to form a United Kingdom team. The Ireland national rugby union team represents the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in rugby union, and all-island teams are fielded in a number of other sports.