Sport in Italy
Italy has a long sporting tradition. In numerous sports, both individual and team, Italy has good representation and many successes. Football is the most popular sport in Italy. Basketball and volleyball are the next most popular/played, with Italy having a rich tradition in both. 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 Cups.[citation needed] Italy also has strong traditions in cycling, tennis, athletics, fencing, winter sports and rugby.
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Basketball
Italy is one of the main basketball nations of Europe, along with Spain, Serbia, Greece, Slovenia, Lithuania, Croatia, Russia, Turkey and France. It has a long and rich tradition in the sport. The national team's best results were gold at Eurobasket 1983 and 1999, as well as Silver at the Olympics of 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.
Volleyball
Volleyball (pallavolo) is played by a lot of amateur players and professional players compete in the Italian Volleyball League. Italian National male and female teams are often in top 4 ranking of national teams in the world, regarded as the best volleyball league in the world.
Rugby union
Rugby union enjoys a good level of popularity, especially in the north of the country. From the 2010–11 season, Italy will have 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. The 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 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.[1] 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.[1] 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 Italy national team play in various international competitions.
Cricket
The Italy 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 Italy 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.
Cycling
Cycling is also a well represented sport in Italy. Italians have won more World Cycling Championships than any other country except Belgium. The Giro d'Italia is a world famous long distance bicycle 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.
Tennis
Tennis tournaments have significant followings near courts and by television. Italian professional tennis players are almost always in top 150 world's ranking of male and female players. Beach tennis with paddle racquet was invented by Italians and is a very practiced sport. Winners of the Davis Cup in 1976 and the Fed Cup in 2006 and 2009.
Golf
Golf is played by almost 100,000 registered players in 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.
Athletics
Athletics (track and field) is very participated and popular sport because Italian world or olympic champions are very celebrated persons. There are many national and international events every year.
Traditional sports
Several traditional team ball games, called sferistici in Italian language, are played in sphaeristerium, or sferisterio in Italian language, so also in open playing fields since 1555 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, tamburello. Professional players compete in national circuit of tournaments and international championships.
- Traditional game of bocce is also very popular and participated pastime.
- Cue sports are played on traditional billiard table in many forms: five-pins, nine-pins, goriziana, boccette. There are almost 6,000,000 of amateur players and professional players compete in national circuit of tournaments and international championships.
- Palio or annual athletic contest is followed very much because every comune celebrate ancient events in these competitions. The most famous in the world is palio di Siena.
Water sports
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 popular and very followed by spectators.
- Swimming is very participated sport in all modalities.
- Water polo is played by substantial quantity of amateur players and Italian national team is often in top 4 ranking of national teams in the world.
- Diving is very participated and followed sport.
- Rowing (sport) is a popular sport.
- Free-diving is followed because Italian world record-men and record-women are very celebrated persons.
- Waterskiing is a very participated sport by many amateur athletes.
- Water basketball was invented by Italians and since 2005 12 teams dispute a national championship.
Rhythmic Gymnastics
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 the team winning 6th place in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. The Italian team won the silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and was 4th place at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. They collected a string of medals throughout the 2005-2008 Olympic cycle. At the 2009 Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships 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 Champions in Moscow. The celebration of the Italian team is because they're among the best squads of the world facing competitions against the eastern European block of nations: Belarus, Russia, Bulgaria and Ukraine.
Olympics
Italy has competed at most of the modern Olympic Games, missing only the 1904 Summer Olympics.
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 6th most successful country in Olympic history. They have won more gold medals than any other country, except 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.
Winter sports
Winter sports, or sport invernali in Italian language, gave many good results to Italy. Among them, Italians excel in cross country skiing (sci di fondo) and luge (slittino), with the two time Olympic gold medal winner Armin Zoeggeler.
- Ski (Sci) is very popular 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, whom 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.
- 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 8000 meters and the first one to climb 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 the 50's, 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 popular and professional figure skaters often starring in events of exhibition.
- Bobsleigh is very followed and Italian bobsledder Eugenio Monti was the most successful athlete in the international history of this sport.
- 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.
- Luge is followed from its history with Paul Hildgartner and Gerda Weissensteiner to the current dominance of Armin Zöggeler.
Combat sports
- See also Italian school of swordsmanship, Caestus, Greco-Roman wrestling and Liu-bo
Fencing, boxing, kick boxing, martial arts, mixed martial arts and amateur wrestling are participated and followed sports. There are many national and international events every year. Fencing is a very practiced and successful sport, Italy being one of the most successful fencing countries
Equestrian sports
- See also Chariot racing
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 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.[2]
References
- ^ a b Bath, Richard (ed.) The Complete Book of Rugby (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 ISBN 1 86200 013 3) p69
- ^ Article pertinent an Italian professional baseballer
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