Sport in Italy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Many different sports are played in Italy.

Contents 1 Football 2 Rugby union 3 Cycling 4 Basketball 5 Auto Racing 6 Winter Sports

[edit] 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, while major Italian clubs frequently compete at a high level of European competitions.

[edit] Rugby union

See also Rugby union in Italy

Italian rugby union teams compete domestically in the Super 10, as well as the European Heineken Cup tournament. 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.

[edit] Cycling

See also Cycle racing in Italy

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.

[edit] Basketball

See also 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 (Lega A1 [1]) is widely regarded as the third best national league in the world after the American NBA and Spain's ACB. In some cities, (see Bologna, Siena, Pesaro or Varese) basketball is the most popular sport.

[edit] Auto Racing

See also Auto racing in Italy

Auto racing receives much attention in Italy, while the nation is host to a number of notable automobile racing events, such as the famed Italian Grand Prix. The Italian flair for design is legendary, and it should come as no surprise that Ferrari has won more Formula Ones than any other manufacturer. [2]

[edit] Winter Sports

See also Winter sports in Italy

Winter Sports (Sport invernali) gave many good results to Italy. Among them, Italians excel in cross country skiing (sci di fondo) and luge (slittino), with the three time Olympic gold medal winner Armin Zoeggler.

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. Gustavo Thoeni, whom won 4 World Cups between 1970 and 1975; Piero Gross and Alberto Tomba (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 not very popular in Italy, but Italian alpinists wrote several pages of history in this field. 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 fist 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.