Abstract: The 354 documents related to sport symbols in the past 20 years included in the core collection database of Web of Science (hereinafter referred to as WoS) are used as data sources to conduct the bibliometric and content analysis.It is found that the annual publication shows an upward trend as a whole with the focus on the field of sport history and sport social research.The recent 20-year sport symbol research can be divided into three stages: basic research, rapid development, and in-depth development.Researchers' main interests are on the interaction of sport symbols with economic, political, cultural, educational and other symbolic systems as well as social members in the process of their meaning generation from the diachronic, internal, and holistic perspectives.The sources of research materials are diversified, and the application of research methods is characterized by integration and innovation.