- Sport in Italy
Italy has a long sporting tradition. In almost all sports, both individual and team, Italy has good representative and many successes.The most popular sport is definitely
Football(soccer) .Football
:"See also
Football in Italy ."Football ("calcio") is the most popular spectator and participation sport. The Italian national team has won the World Cup four times (1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006) and is the current titleholder, one European Nations Cup (1968) and a gold medal at the
Olympic Games (1936). While major Italian clubs frequently compete at a high level of European competitions.Auto Racing
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Auto racing in Italy andRosso corsa Auto racing receives much attention in Italy, while the nation is host to a number of notable automobile racing events, such as the famedItalian Grand Prix . The Italian flair for design is legendary, and it should come as no surprise thatFerrari has won moreFormula One s than any other manufacturer. [ [http://www.f1-stats.de/en/makes/stats/wins.php Stats] ] Famous Italian auto racing manufacturers include:Maserati ,Ferrari ,De Tomaso ,Lamborghini ,Osella ,Dallara .The country has also produce several
British Touring Car Champions, including reigning championFabrizio Giovanardi Motorcycle racing
Motorcycle racing is followed by a lot of spectators in tracks and by almost 8,000,000 of persons on television. Famous Italian motorcycle racing manufacturers include: Benelli,MV Agusta , Mondial,Ducati ,Aprilia , Beta. Italian motorcycle racerGiacomo Agostini is the all-time leader in victories of motorcycle Grand Prix history and he is considered the best all-time racer by several experts;Valentino Rossi is second in the same all-time ranking of race victories. All kinds of motorcycle racing are popular:superbike racing ,Grand Prix motorcycle racing ,motocross ,supercross ,supermoto ,enduro ,motorcycle trials ,motorcycle speedway .Rugby union and league
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Rugby union in Italy andRugby league in Italy Italianrugby union teams compete domestically in the Super 10, as well as the EuropeanHeineken Cup tournament. The national team competes in theSix Nations Championship , and is a regular at theRugby World Cup . Italy are classed as a tier-one nation by theInternational Rugby Board .Rugby league was established prior to the 1950s andItaly national rugby league team dispute various international competitions.Basketball
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Basketball in Italy Basketball ("pallacanestro") is a sport gaining rapid popularity in Italy, although national teams have existed since the 1950s. The nation's top pro league is calledSerie A (basketball) : [ [http://www.legabasket.it Site of basketball league] ] it is widely regarded as the third best national league in the world after the AmericanNBA and Spain's ACB.Volleyball
Volleyball (pallavolo) is played by a lot of amateur players and professional players compete inItalian 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.Cycling
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Cycle racing in Italy Cycling is also a well represented sport in Italy. Italians have won moreWorld Cycling Championship s than any other country except Belgium. TheGiro d'Italia is a world famous long distance bicycle race held every May and constitutes one of the three Grand Tours along with theTour de France and theVuelta 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.Golf
Golf is played by almost 100,000 registered players in 2007. There are several male and female professional players. The most important tournament isItalian Open (golf) .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.Roller hockey
Roller hockey (Quad) is played since 1922 in a national championship and in 2008 all 14 teams of Italian league, called "serie A1", consisted of professional players. Italian male national team is often in top 4 ranking of national teams in the world.Traditional sports
Several traditional team
ball games , called "sferistici" in Italian language, are played insphaeristerium , or "sferisterio" in Italian language, so also in open playing fields since 1555 when Antonio Scaino fromSalò regulatedpallone 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 ofbocce is also very popular and participated pastime.
*Cue sports are played on traditionalbilliard 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 everycomune celebrate ancient events in these competitions. The most famous in the world ispalio 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.Winter sports
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Winter sports in Italy Winter sports , or sport invernali inItalian language , gave many good results to Italy. Among them, Italians excel incross country skiing (sci di fondo) andluge (slittino), with the two time Olympic gold medal winnerArmin 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 andAlberto Tomba in 1995 won one World Cup. Alberto Tomba,Deborah Compagnoni andIsolde 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. ItaliansAchille Compagnoni andLino Lacedelli conquered first the summit ofK2 (8611 m) in 1954, in the expedition led by the geologistArdito Desio .Reinhold Messner was the first man in the world to reach the 14 summits over 8000 meters and the first one to climbEverest alone and without oxygen.Cesare Maestri conquered theCerro Torre inPatagonia in 1959.Walter Bonatti is considered one of the best alpinists inEurope in the 50's, realizing some ascents considered impossible by the competitors.
*Ice hockey is played by professional players inserie 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 bobsledderEugenio Monti was the most successful athlete in the international history of this sport.
*Cross country skiing is popular in northern Italy with the likes ofStefania Belmondo ,Manuela di Centa ,Franco Nones ,Marco Albarello ,Silvio Fauner ,Giorgio Vanzetta , andGiorgio di Centa .
*Luge is followed from its history withPaul Hildgartner andGerda Weissensteiner to the current dominance ofArmin Zöggeler .Combat sports
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Italian school of swordsmanship ,Caestus ,Greco-Roman wrestling andLiu-bo Fencing ,boxing ,kick boxing ,martial arts ,mixed martial arts andamateur wrestling are participated and followed sports. There are many national and international events every year.Equestrian sports
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Chariot racing Olympic disciplines,horse racing ,equestrian vaulting andpolo are participated and followed sports. There are many national and international events every year.Baseball
:See also [http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Italian_men%27s_national_team Italian national team]
Baseball sees less activity in Italy than other sports. Introduced to Italy by American servicemen duringWorld War II , professional baseball leagues were not established until after the war. TheItalian national baseball team is traditionally ranked as the 2nd best team in Europe, behind the Dutch national team. 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. [ [http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070507&content_id=1951261&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc Article pertinent an Italian professional baseballer] ]American football
A national championship of
American football is disputed since 1980 and Italian national team is often in top 4 ranking of national semi-professional teams in the world.Cricket
The
Italy 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 ICCWorld Cricket League Division 1. They are an Associate Member of the ICC and their current captain isJoe Scuderi .Orienteering
Orienteering in Italy is governed byFISO References
External links
* [http://www.coni.it Italian Olympic Committee]
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