Abstract: In the dual contexts of promoting the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional Chinese culture and enhancing the systematic protection of intangible cultural heritage (ICH), providing legal protection for the inheritors’ intellectual property rights of sports ICH in China holds great practical significance. This study explores the issues and advancement pathways regarding the legal protection of inheritors’ intellectual property rights of sports ICH in China, by employing literature research method and in-depth interviews and from the perspective of central-local synergy. The findings of this study indicate that the inheritors’ intellectual property rights of sports ICH possess specific elements of rights objects and perform a crucial role in facilitating the survival and development of sports ICH. Currently, the protection of inheritors’ intellectual property rights of sports ICH in China confronts challenges such as the need for improvement in the legal protection system, the urgent requirement for establishing a sound central-local synergistic governance system, the relatively lagging cultural development of local sports ICH intellectual property rights, and the constraints imposed by inherent inheritance models on the inheritors’ intellectual property rights. Based on this, it is recommended to refer to international experiences such as adhering to domain-specific legislation, emphasizing a people-oriented approach, and stressing collaborative protection. Moreover, it is necessary to adhere to the principles of legal protection, interest balance, and particularity. The starting point should be to enhance the legislative protection model of intellectual property rights and solidify the foundation of intellectual property rights protection. The key point lies in improving the central-local synergistic governance system to consolidate the force for intellectual property rights protection. The supporting point is to strengthen the cultural promotion of local sports ICH intellectual property rights to cultivate the awareness of intellectual property rights protection. The foothold to be taken is to innovate the sports ICH inheritance model to prevent intellectual property rights infringements.