The first important collocation involving sports is when to use the verbs 

play,
do, and go. We typically use play for team sports – you play soccer, play basketball,
play tennis, play baseball, and play golf. 
The verb do is used for more individual sports – you do yoga, do gymnastics, do
martial arts, and do aerobics. Also, in more general terms, you do exercise. Another
common individual exercise is to lift weights. 
The verb go is used with most activities that end in –ing: you go swimming, go biking,
go surfing, go rock climbing, go bowling, and go fishing. 
With the team sports, we can use the word game or match: a soccer
game, a basketball game, a tennis match, etc. You can win the game, lose the
game, or tie the game – that’s when the final score is 1-1 or 2-2, for example. 
A team can play a home game – when they play in their own stadium or field – or
an away game – when they play at the opposing team’s stadium or field. When there
are many teams that are playing many games to see which one is the best, we call this
a tournament. 
When one team is winning in the middle of the game – for example, 3-1 – we say that
team has the lead. However, the other team can make a comeback – score points
from a losing position – and take the lead, 4-3. 
With the sports that use “do” and “go,” we typically use the word competition –
a gymnastics competition, a martial arts competition, a surfing competition, an
ice skating competition, etc. The exception is sports where you go from one place to
another – like running, biking, and swimming – in that case, we often call the event
a race. 
Athletes can enter a competition and try to win first place. Some athletes try
to enhance their performance with illegal substances such as steroids. But if they fail
a drug test, they’ll be disqualified from participating. 
If the athlete is performing well, they may achieve a personal best – and if they
perform better than ANYONE ever has in the past, then they could even break the
world record or set a new world record. If they get injured, however, they might have
to withdraw from the competition (voluntarily leave the competition). 

1. Barbara has made / put / set a new world record, with 5 consecutive Olympic gold
medals in judo. 
2. Do you want to do / go / play hiking with us this weekend? 
3. How long have you been doing / going / playing football? 
4. I did / played / went volleyball in college. 
5. If a soccer game is failed / led / tied, they do penalty kicks to determine the winner. 
6. Jeff and Diana did / played / went rock climbing in the mountains. 
7. My son wants to do / go / play karate. 
8. Our team won third lead / place / record in the basketball competition/
performance / tournament. 
9. She’s been doing / going / playing gymnastics since she was 5 years old. 
10. The baseball team was unable to make a comeback / setback / takeback and lost
the game 5-2. 
11. The biker from Australia currently has the best / first / lead, but the bikers from
Russia and Peru are close behind. 
12. The ice skater broke / removed / withdrew from the competition due to a knee
injury. 
13. The runners were stretching before the match / race / test began. 
14. Tim Randall has achieved / enhanced / won a personal best with his time of 23.04
seconds. 
15. What was the final place / record / score of the baseball game? 

https://www.englishclub.com/ref/Collocations/Quizzes/Sports/
https://englishperiod.com/sports-vocabulary/