Sport in Italy: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 17:42, 13 March 2013
| Part of a series on the |
| Culture of Italy |
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| People |
| Traditions |
Sports in Italy have a long tradition. In numerous sports, both individual and team, Italy has good representation and many successes. Football is the most popular sport in Italy. Basketball, volleyball, and Cycling are the next most popular/played sports, with Italy having a rich tradition in all three. Italy won the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and is currently the second most successful football team in World Cup history, after Brazil, having won four FIFA World Cup championships. Italy also has strong traditions in rugby union, tennis, athletics, fencing, and winter sports.
Most popular sports
This list, published by CONI, refers to a survey made by ISTAT in 2000.[1] Curiously, the sport that has brought the most success to Italy, fencing, with its 20,000 practicing, is not even in the top 25.[2]
| # | Sport | People who practice | National teams | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rugby (including futsal) |
4,363,000 | Football Futsal |
Football in Italy |
| 2 | Aquatic sports | 3,480,000 | Swimming Diving Water polo (men) |
|
| 3 | Gymnastics (including physical education) |
2,204,000 | ||
| 4 | Skiing | 2,060,000 | ||
| 5 | Cycling | 1,321,000 | Cycling | |
| 6 | Tennis | 1,298,000 | Davis Cup team Fed Cup team |
Tennis in Italy |
| 7 | Athletics (including road running) |
995,000 | Athletics | Athletics in Italy |
| 8 | Volleyball (including beach volleyball) |
988,000 | Volleyball (men) | |
| 9 | Basketball | 606,000 | Basketball | |
| 10 | Bodybuilding (including physical fitness) |
555,000 |
Football
Football is the most popular sport in Italy. The Italian national football team has won the FIFA World Cup four times (1934, 1938, 1982, and 2006), trailing only Brazil (with 5). Italy's club sides have won 27 major European trophies, making them the most successful nation in European football. The Italian word for football is calcio, and this is the word used to make reference to the sport in Italy, as opposed to football in England or soccer in the United States and Canada.
Aquatic sports
- Swimming is a very participated sport in all modalities.
- Water polo is played by substantial quantity of amateur players, and the Italian national water polo team is often in top 4 ranking of national teams in the world.
- Diving is a very participated and followed sport.
- Synchronized swimming
Gymnastics
Rhythmic gymnastics
Gymnastics is a very participated sport in Italy. At the turn of the millennium, Italy showed a growing quality in the discipline, with Susanna Marchesi, finishing 9th at the Individual All Around competition, as well as the team winning 6th place in the 2000 Summer Olympic Games. The Italian team won the silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games and was 4th place at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. They collected a string of medals throughout the 2005-2008 Olympic cycle. At the 2009 Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship, in Mie, Japan, the team soared to the first place, winning the gold medal and becoming the new queens, a feat they achieved again at the 2010 Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship in Moscow. The celebration of the Italian team is because they're among the best squads in the world, facing competitions against the Eastern European block of nations: Belarus, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Ukraine.
Cycling
Cycling is a well represented sport in Italy. Italians have won the World Cycling Championship more than any other country, except Belgium. The Giro d'Italia is a world famous long distance cycling race held every May, and constitutes one of the three Grand Tours, along with the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, each of which last approximately three weeks.
Skiing
- Alpine skiing or ski (sci) is a very popular sport in Italy, with more than 2,000,000 skiers, most of them in the north and in the center. Italian skiers received good results in the Winter Olympic Games, World Cup, and World Championship. Among them. Zeno Colò, Gustavo Thoeni, who won 4 World Cups between 1970 and 1975; Piero Gros in 1974, and Alberto Tomba in 1995 won one World Cup. Alberto Tomba, Deborah Compagnoni, and Isolde Kostner received many medals in different editions of the Winter Olympic Games. Giorgio Rocca won the 2006's World Cup of Slalom.
- Cross-country skiing is popular in northern Italy, with the likes of Stefania Belmondo, Manuela Di Centa, Franco Nones, Marco Albarello, Silvio Fauner, Giorgio Vanzetta, and Giorgio Di Centa.
Tennis
Tennis has a significant following near courts and by television. Italian professional tennis players are almost always in the top 100 world's ranking of male and female players. Beach tennis with paddle racquet was invented by Italians, and is practiced by many people across the country. Italy won the Davis Cup in 1976 and the Fed Cup in 2006 and 2009.
Athletics
Athletics is a popular sport in Italy, because Italian World or Olympic champions are very celebrated people. There are many national and international events every year.
Volleyball
Volleyball (pallavolo) is played by a lot of amateur players, and professional players compete in the Italian Volleyball League. The male and female national teams are often in top 4 ranking of teams in the world, regarded as the best volleyball league in the world.
Basketball
Italy is one of the main basketball nations in Europe, along with Spain, Serbia, Greece, Slovenia, Lithuania, Croatia, Russia, Turkey, and France. It has a long and rich tradition in the sport. The Italian national basketball team's best results were gold at Eurobasket 1983 and EuroBasket 1999, as well as silver at the Olympics in 2004. Until the 2000s, the Italian League was considered the strongest domestic league outside of North America. It has recently been overtaken by the Spanish ACB, but is still one of the top leagues in Europe, along with the Russian PBL, the Greek A1 Ethniki, the Adriatic League, and the Baltic League. Famous club teams include Olimpia Milano, Pallacanestro Varese, Pallacanestro Cantù, Virtus Bologna, Fortitudo Bologna, Scavolini Siviglia Pesaro, Benetton Treviso, Montepaschi Siena, Basket Napoli, Virtus Roma, Pallacanestro Trieste, and Juvecaserta Basket.
Bodybuilding
In Italy, bodybuilding is at the 10th place in the ranking of most popular sports, even considering the high number of people who engage in body building gym, as amateur, just to keep fit themselves.
Other water sports
In add at the aquatic sports, other water sports are very participated and followed very much by persons.
- Sailing is very participated by amateur sailors, and professional sailors compete in all international categories and classes.
- Motorboat racing is a popular sport and very followed by spectators.
- Rowing is a popular sport.
- Free-diving is followed, because Italian world record-men and women are very celebrated persons.
- Water skiing is a very participated sport by many amateur athletes.
- Water basketball was invented by Italians, and since 2005, at least 12 teams dispute a national championship.
- Surfing is a popular sport.
Other winter sports
Winter sports or invernali in Italian language, gave many good results to Italy. Among them, Italians excel in cross-country skiing (sci di fondo), but also in luge (slittino), with the two time Olympic gold medal winner Armin Zoeggeler.
- Alpinism (alpinismo) is followed, because Italian alpinists wrote several pages of history in this sport. Italians Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli conquered first the summit of K2 (8611 m) in 1954, in the expedition led by the geologist Ardito Desio. Reinhold Messner was the first man in the world to reach the 14 summits, over 8,000 meters, and the first one to climb Mount Everest alone and without oxygen. Cesare Maestri conquered the Cerro Torre in Patagonia in 1959. Walter Bonatti is considered one of the best alpinists in Europe in 1950s, realizing some ascents considered impossible by the competitors.
- Ice hockey is played by professional players in Serie A (hockey) with substantial attendance.
- Figure skating is a popular sport and professional figure skaters often starring in events of exhibition.
- Bobsleigh is very followed, because Italian bobsledder Eugenio Monti was the most successful athlete in the international history of this sport.
- Luge is followed from its history, with Paul Hildgartner and Gerda Weissensteiner to the current dominance of Armin Zöggeler.
Combat sports
Combat sports are participated and followed sports. There are many national and international events every year. Fencing is a very successful sport and Italy is one of the most successful fencing countries.
- Fencing, a very successful sport for the Italy national fencing team.
- Boxing
- Kickboxing
- Martial arts
- Mixed martial arts
- Amateur wrestling
Equestrian sports
Olympic disciplines, horse racing, equestrian vaulting, and polo are participated and followed sports. There are many national and international events every year.
Baseball
Baseball sees less activity in Italy than most other sports. Introduced to Italy by American servicemen during World War II, professional baseball leagues were not established until after the war.The Italy national baseball team is traditionally ranked as the second best team in Europe, behind the Dutch national team.[citation needed] Italy's performance during the Olympics has been consistently high for a European team, but is noted for its reliance on American and Latino players of Italian descent. The highest level of play in Italy today is considered to be on par with Class A ball in the United States.[3]
Cricket
The Italian national cricket team is the team that represents the country of Italy in international cricket matches. They have been an associate member of the International Cricket Council since 1995, having previously been an affiliate member since 1984. The team is administered by the Federazione Cricket Italiana (Italian Cricket Federation). They are currently ranked 25th in the world by the ICC, and are ranked fifth amongst European non-Test teams. The Italian national cricket team has won several European Cricket tournaments, and the popularity of cricket is rising. All the Italian cricketers are home grown cricketers, and they had a well off position in the recent European Indoor Cricket Tournament and the European Cricket Championship. They recently participated in the ICC World Cricket League Division 4.
Formula One
Italians have a great passion for their motorsport, and cars their F1 (Formula One) team Ferrari has had great success over the many years as they started the sport back in 1950, when the sport first started. They have won 16 constructors' championships and 15 drivers' championships. This team is also the most successful engine manufacturer in the sport, and this shows in their performance in their F1 team and cars. Their greatest driver is Alberto Ascari and their latest F1 drivers are Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.
Golf
Golf is played by over 9,000 registered players as of 2007. There are several male and female professional players, with notable current players including Costantino Rocca, the brothers Edoardo, and Francesco Molinari, and teenage star Matteo Manassero. The most important tournament is the Italian Open. The Molinari brothers won the World Cup of Golf in 2009.
Rugby union
Rugby union enjoys a good level of popularity, especially in the north of the country. From the 2010–11 season, Italy had two teams in the Magners League, previously an all-Celtic competition, involving teams from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. To accommodate this move, the country's Super 10 will effectively become a semi-professional developmental competition. The two Magners League sides will take up Italy's existing places in the elite Europe-wide Heineken Cup tournament, and four Super 10 sides will compete in the second-tier European Challenge Cup. Italy's national team competes in the Six Nations Championship, and is a regular at the Rugby World Cup. Italy are classed as a tier-one nation by the International Rugby Board.
Rugby union in Italy goes back around a century, and it has been established that British communities brought rugby to Genoa, between 1890 and 1895, with other confirmations of games in Italy around 1909. The society that organised the first games did not survive long and dissolved soon after them.
Rugby union's traditional heartland consisted of the small country towns in the Po Valley, and other parts of Northern Italy.[4] One version says that Italian workers returning from France, particularly the south, introduced the game there, and gave it a significant rural/working class base, which still exists in towns such as Treviso and Rovigo.[4] A demonstration game was also played in 1910, in Turin between Racing Club París and Servette of Geneva. French students also introduced the game to Milan University c. 1911. While each of these events has been hailed as the "origin of Italian rugby", it seems that they probably happened more or less simultaneously and independent of one another, and that the introduction of rugby to Italy was a series of events, rather than a single starting point. Whatever the ultimate origins of the game in northern Italy, the region's proximity to the French rugby heartland helped as well.
Rugby league
Rugby league was established prior to the 1950s, and the Italian national rugby league team plays in various international competitions.
Traditional sports
Several traditional team ball sports, called sferistici in Italian language, are played in sphaeristerium, or sferisterio in Italian language, so also in open playing fields since 1555 and when Antonio Scaino from Salò regulated pallone col bracciale. There are many modalities of these sports: pallone col bracciale, pallapugno, pallapugno leggera, palla elastica, palla, and tamburello. Professional players compete in the national circuit of tournaments and international championships.
- The traditional sport of bocce is a popular sport and pastime.
- Cue sports are played on traditional billiard table in many forms: five-pins, goriziana (nine pins), and boccette. There are almost 6,000,000 amateur players and professional players who compete in national circuit of tournaments and international championships.
- Palio or annual athletic contest is followed very much, because every comune celebrates ancient events in these competitions. The most famous in the world is palio di siena.
Italy at the Olympics
Italy has competed at most of the modern Olympic Games, missing only the 1944 Winter Olympics, because of World War II.
Italy has hosted the Games on three occasions:
- 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
- 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.
- 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
Italian athletes have won 522 medals at the Summer Olympic Games, and another 106 medals at the Winter Olympic Games. Italy has won a total of 628 medals, which makes them the sixth most successful country in Olympic history. They have won more gold medals than any other country, except the USA and Soviet Union. The Italian National Olympic Committee was created in 1908 and recognized in 1913.
Italy has finished in the top 5 of the medal count 11 times in the Summer Olympic Games, and 3 times in the Winter Olympic Games. In total, Italy has finished in the top 5 of the medal count 14 times. Italy has also finished in the top 10 of the medal count 20 times in the Summer Olympic Games, and 13 times in the Winter Olympic Games. In total, Italy has finished in the top 10 of the medal count 33 times so far.
See also
References
- ^ "Graduatoria degli sport più praticati in Italia" (PDF) (in Italian). coni.it. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
- ^ "Federazione Italiana Scherma" (in Italian). assolutischerma2011.it. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
- ^ Article pertinent an Italian professional baseballer
- ^ a b Bath, Richard (ed.) The Complete Book of Rugby (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 ISBN 1-86200-013-1) p69
External links
- Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI)
Media related to Sport in Italy at Wikimedia Commons
| Summer Olympic Sports |
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|---|---|---|
| Winter Olympic Sports |
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| Other IOC Recognised Sports |
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| Paralympics and Disabled Sports | ||
| Others Sports | ||
