Sport in South America
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There are a wide range of Sports played in the continent of South America, with football being the most popular.[citation needed]
Other popular Sports include Basketball, Rugby union, Tennis, Golf, Volleyball, Hockey, Beach Volleyball, Baseball and Motorsports.
South America will hold its first Olympic Games in 2016, when Rio de Janeiro will host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
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[edit] Association Football
South America shares with Europe the supremacy over the sport, as all national team winners in FIFA World Cup history and all winning teams at the FIFA Club World Cup came from these two continents.
Brazil detains the world record at the FIFA World Cup with five titles in total. Argentina and Uruguay also have two titles each. So far four South American nations hosted the tournament including its first edition in Uruguay (1938). The other three were Brazil (1950), Chile (1962) and Argentina (1978). Brazil is also set to be a host country for the second time in 2014.
South America is home to the longest Running international Football tournament; Copa América, which has been regularly contested since 1916. The continent has produced many of the most famous and most talented players including Pelé, Diego Maradona, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Teofilo Cubillas, César Cueto, Enzo Francescoli, Arsenio Erico, Carlos Valderrama, Elias Figueroa, Alex Aguinaga and Lionel Messi.
[edit] Basketball
Basketball is particularly popular in Argentina, one of the most important achievements was Argentina gold medal in the Mens Basketball at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Also they won the World Championship in 1950. In Brazil, Basketball used to be very popular with the Brazilian national basketball team winning the World Championship 2 times. The Woman Basketball team is also one of the best teams in the world, it won the World Championship of 1994 and with two players at tha Hall of Fame, Hortencia and Magic Paula. In Venezuela and Uruguay, Basketball is widely played too.
[edit] Motor Sports
South America have several drivers who won the Formula One championship multiple times, including five-time champion Juan Fangio of Argentina and Brazilian drivers Emerson Fittipaldi (2 titles), Nelson Piquet (3 titles) and Ayrton Senna (3 titles). Brazil has hosted the Brazilian Grand Prix every year since 1973 and Argentina has hosted Formula One on 21 occasions.
The Dakar Rally is also hosted by South America since 2009.
[edit] Baseball
Baseball is the most popular Sport in Venezuela, the only country in South America where Football is not considered the most popular Sport. A wide list of players from Venezuela are in the major leagues in the USA. Venezuela is the only country in this region to participate in the Baseball World Classic and Serie del Caribe cup. In others countries like Colombia, Baseball has been gaining popularity recently.
[edit] Rugby Union
Rugby union is becoming popular in South America, following the recent successes of Argentina in recent Rugby World Cups. The popularity of the game has spread across the continent. Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela and Peru all have Rugby Federations.[1]
[edit] Tennis
South America has produced a number of talented Tennis players such as 4 times Grand Slam winner Guillermo Vilas, US Open winner Gabriela Sabatini, 2004 French Open winner Gastón Gaudio, 2009 US Open winner Juan Martín del Potro and double Olympic Gold medalist Nicolás Massú. Marcelo Ríos and Gustavo Kuerten were No. 1 in the ATP rankings.
[edit] Jai Alai
Jai Alai or Basque pelota is played in many parts of South America.
Although this sport is mostly played in Spain and France, there are also federations of Basque ball in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. Due to the origin of the game, there are many good players who are Basques, either natives or from the Basque diaspora.[2]
[edit] Cricket
Cricket is mostly played in the Southern Cone, especially in areas settled by English people.
Although a number of SAn nations have teams, none of them are major. See - Argentina national cricket team, Brazil_national_cricket_team Falkland Islands cricket team, Guyana national cricket team, Uruguay national cricket team, Chile national cricket team, and Peru national cricket team.
[edit] Polo
Polo is popular in some parts of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay.
[edit] References
- ^ Rugby in South America
- ^ Pilota vasca (campeonatos) at Auñamendi Encyclopedia
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