Sport in Argentina
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Without doubt, the most important sport in Argentina is football (soccer). Other important sports basketball, volleyball, tennis, field hockey, boxing, rugby, auto racing, golf and polo. Most renouned Argentine sportpeople excel in group sports, being boxing and tennis the most important exceptions.
Other sports that are played professionally and recreatively are athletics (track and field), swimming, mountaineering, skiing cycling, rink hockey, fishing, and pato.
Argentina is one of the most important sports power in South America, ending at the top of the medal count at the South American Games since 1978 except for 2002.
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[edit] Football
Football in Argentina, it could be said, is more than a sport, as it is arguably part of the country's culture. The sport is played all over the country by children during breaks at school and by grown-ups in the indoor football fields that can be found almost everywere. The Argentine First Division is considered among the most important in the world. The Argentina national football team has won two Football World Cups, an Olympic gold medal, 14 South American Championships, one Confederations Cup and 5 Youth World Championship. Argentina's most famed national football idol is Diego Maradona.
Women's football is far behind in terms of popularity and professionalism. Nevertheless, the Argentina women's national football team participates of the Sudamericano Femenino (created in 1991) since 1995, obtaining the second place in 3 occasions before finally wining the 2006 edition, with a much-celebrated 2-0 victory over Brazil in the last match of the final group stage. The national team also participated at the FIFA Women's World Cup 2003.
[edit] Basketball
Basketball is also a very popular sport, mostly in the provinces of Argentina, since the game is less popular than football in the capital. The Argentine Basketball Federation organizes the Argentine National Basketball League. Although Argentina also won the first World Championship in 1950, the sport gained country-wide popularity after the Argentine team's successes of the 2000s, when it conquered the Olympic Gold in 2004, and had a good performance in the 2002 and 2006 World Championship. Argentine NBA star Emanuel Ginóbili also won NBA rings in 2003 and 2005.
Though women's basketball is not profesional in Argentina, the national team participates in most of the international competitions, reaching perhaps its highest point at the 2006 World Championship, when they finished in 9th place.
[edit] Volleyball
Probably the third most important sport in Argentina, with a professional male league and important international players such as Marcos Milinkovic. Argentina national volleyball team's best achievement was the bronze medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics, and is usually ranked by the FIVB among the best 10 national teams in the world (6th place in the 2005 October report).
Female volleyball is not played professionally, but the national league is followed by a number of fans. The national team is less important internationaly than its male counterpart (FIVB's 17th place).
[edit] Tennis
Tennis is, since the 1970s with Guillermo Vilas and later with Gabriela Sabatini in the 1980s, quite popular among people of all ages. Even though no Argentine player reached the first place at the ATP rankings, there are many Argentine players within the most important in the circuit. Argentina won the World Team Cup twice, in 1980 and 2002. During the 2000s, a number of Argentine players were among the top 15 of the ranking, and the Argentine team reached semifinals of the Davis Cup 4 times in 5 years (2002~2006, best results: lost final in 1981 and 2006).
[edit] Field hockey
Las Leonas (Argentina's national women's team) conquered the World Hockey Cup in 2002 and the Olympic silver medal in 2000. The men's team hasn't been able to win any major tournament except for the hockey tournaments at the 1971 and 2003 Pan American Games, but they are usually positioned among the top ten teams in the world.
The men's team, though not as succesfull, participates in most international tournaments, and has won the 2005 Champions Challenge.
[edit] Rink hockey
Rink hockey is mainly played in the Cuyo region (especially in San Juan Province). Argentine players have an international quality, with the masculine national team has won 5 Rink Hockey World Championship titles. The woman national team also has won 2 World titles. Argentine Clubs such as Olimpia and UVT have also won international titles. People outside the Cuyo region don't give a great importance to this sport, except perhaps for the national team, when it reaches the final stages of an international competition.
[edit] Boxing
- for a list of Argentine boxers see Category:Argentine boxers
Pascual Perez was Argentina's first world boxing champion. There are many Argentine boxing legends such as Carlos Monzon, Santos Laciar and Juan Martin Coggi, that held the world champion's title in their categories.
Argentine boxer Victor Galindez was the third Hispanic to win the world's Light-Heavyweight title (after Puerto Rico's Jose Torres and Venezuela's Vicente Rondon, WBA-recognized champion during the middle 1970s). Galindez died after he was run over by a car during an auto racing competition that he took part of.
In 1994, WBA world Middleweight champion Jorge Castro knocked out John David Jackson in the ninth round to retain his title in Monterrey, Mexico. Since Castro was on the brink of suffering a technical knockout loss when he won the fight, the punch with which he beat Jackson has become known as boxing's version of Diego Maradona's Hand of God goal.
Marcela Acuna is a world champion female boxer and arguably one of the most popular fighters of the 2000s in Argentina.
Other fighters, such as Oscar Bonavena, Juan Roldan and Luis Firpo, did not win world championships but were also popular among boxing fans during their years as professional fighters.
[edit] Rugby union
Rugby in Argentina is still largely amateur; however, there are many professional players. Nevertheless, Los Pumas (the national team) have proven themselves capable of scaring and more than occasionally defeating rugby giants. For example, since November 2004, Argentina have picked up wins over all the participants in Europe's Six Nations Championship except for Ireland, and also have narrow losses to Ireland (on a last-second drop goal) and the All Blacks (who had to survive a last-second assault on their try line) in the same time frame. Most important Argentine players emigrate to Europe (mainly to England and France) where they play professionally. Probably the best known players are Hugo Porta (played during the 1970s), current Pumas captain Agustín Pichot and current coach and former player Marcelo Loffreda.
There has always been discussion regarding the possibility of Argentina joining the Tri Nations alongside the main Southern Hemisphere powers of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, although this proposal and a similar one to join the Super 14 Southern Hemisphere professional league have both been consistently denied. More recently, Argentina has lobbied for inclusion in the Six Nations, which arguably makes more sense for the country, considering that most top Argentine players are based in Europe. In 2006, both Pichot and Loffreda publicly urged that Argentina be admitted to the Six Nations, with both on record as being willing to have the Pumas play their "home" fixtures in Europe (possibly in Spain or Portugal) to alleviate travel issues for all teams involved.
Argentina also contributes to the sevens version of the sport. See Argentina national rugby union team (sevens).
[edit] Auto racing
From rally to Formula One, auto racing is a sport followed by a number of fans in Argentina. Formula one legend Juan Manuel Fangio has held the record of most victories for many years. Years after Fangio's career was over, Carlos Reutemann was the best known Argentine driver of the 1970s. Argentine competitions include the TC 2000 and Turismo Carretera road racing, Rally Argentina of the World Rally Championship, and the defunct Formula One Argentine Grand Prix.
[edit] Golf
Among the best in South America, important Argentine golfers include José Cóceres, Roberto DeVicenzo, Eduardo Romero, Angel Cabrera and Ricardo González. Roberto DeVicenzo and Antonio Cerda won the 1953 World Cup of Golf.
[edit] Polo
In Argentina are held the three most important Polo tournaments in the world. The Argentine Open, The Hurlingham Open and the Tortugas Open. In the history, Argentina was and nowadays is the leader of this international handicaped sport. However, less handicaped national teams have won Argentina. Argentina has been the uninterrupted world champion since 1949 and is today the source of most of the world's top ten players.
[edit] Olympic games
Argentina participated for the first time of the Olympic Games in 1900 with one single participant. From 1924 to 1952 it had good participations, ending with ranks between 16 to 19. From 1956 to 2002 Argentina did not win any gold medal, situation that was reverted in 2004 when it acquired two.
