Game on: sports around the world

Game on

sports around the world

Football is the most popular sport in the world. It originated in England, along with tennis, and cricket. Here are some facts and figures from some of the world’s biggest countries, about both their popular spectator and participation sports and the industry that supports them.

p Marie Josée Ta Lou

Algeria: Africa’s largest country

In the last three Olympic Games, African athletes have won two-thirds of all the gold medals for running from 800m upwards. The rest of the world combined, with all its facilities and sports science, can’t come close to matching them.

Nevertheless, football is the most popular sport in Algeria, Africa’s largest nation by land area, as it is in many countries today. Algerian children and adults regularly play soccer for amusement in streets and parks. Algeria qualified to participate ian the World Cup championships in 1982 and 1986 and won Africa's Continental Championship in 1990.1 Algeria has competed at every summer Olympics since 1964, winning five gold medals, most of which were in athletics. Other popular sports are boxing, basketball, martial arts, volleyball and handball, a sport that is also dominant in other North African countries such as Egypt and Tunisia.2

Australia

Sport in Australia dates back to the early colonial period and has shaped the Australian national identity. The highest rates of participation for Australian sport and recreation are non-organized sports with cycling, skateboarding and rollerblading topping the list of activities for children, with 66% of all boys being cyclists and 54.4% of girls.

The three most popular organized sports for boys are soccer, swimming and Australian rules football. For girls, they are swimming/diving and netball. Participation rates for adults in Australia are much lower than that of Australian children but it is one of five countries to have played in world cups of three different sports: cricket, soccer and rugby, along with England, New Zealand, South Africa and Ireland.3

Brazil: South America’s largest country

France: the European Union’s biggest country

Football is Brazil’s most popular sport and one of the most well-recognized players of all time, Pelé, was one of its top players. Volleyball is also very popular as are tennis, martial arts, basketball, and motor sports. Footvolley, a mix of football and volleyball was created in Brazil in the 1970s. Players must use their feet and head to get the ball over the net and onto the opponent's side. It is one of the most popular beach sports in Brazil. Footvolley started out with five players on each team but later got cut to two players on each team and is still so to this day.

Mixed martial arts include Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which originated in Brazil in the 1910s, and capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance and music. It is a culturally significant sport, developed in colonial times by slaves and now seen internationally as well as in popular culture through computer games.

In the biggest European Union country, cycling and football are the most popular sports as well as rugby, basketball, handball, horse-riding and tennis. Golf, kayaking and sailing are also in France’s top ten. The most famous cycling event is the Tour de France, an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race. Even last year, when so many sporting events were cancelled, the Tour de France was held as usual, albeit a month later than usual.6

A sport that is often thought to have originated in France but which in fact was created in Ancient Rome, is pétanque, actively played in many nations with histories of French colonial influence, especially in Southeast Asia. Today, some of the strongest players in the world come from Madagascar and Thailand.7

p Richard Virenque

Hong Kong

Swimming, badminton, basketball and football are among the most popular participant sports but the primary sport of Hong Kong has been football since the beginning of the 20th century.8 Horse racing is by far the most popular spectator sport. Hong Kong first competed at the Olympic Games in 1952 and won its first medal in 1996. 2020 was a landmark Olympic year for the city when it won three bronze medals, two silvers and another gold when Edgar Cheung Ka-long became the champion fencer.

Dragon boat racing began as a modern international sport in Hong Kong in the 1970s. The boats, originally made of teak and other hard woods resistant to rot, belong to a family of traditional paddled long boats found throughout Asia, Africa, the Pacific islands, and Puerto Rico. Modern boats are typically made of carbon fiber, fiberglass, and other lightweight materials.

India

Cricket is India’s favourite sport followed by field hockey, football and badminton. Field hockey is the most successful sport for India at the Olympic Games.9 The modern game of badminton has developed from an old children's game known in England as battledore and shuttlecock, a game popular in ancient India.

Kabbadi, believed to have been invented in India, used to be an exclusively male sport, but is no longer. The Indian women's kabaddi team won over many hearts with a kind gesture during the 2014 Asian Games that were held in Incheon. When an Iranian player’s hijab came off, the Indian players quickly covered her face with their hands in a memorable moment of respect. Kabbadi is one of the rare sports that can be played without any equipment. The rules are very simple as well.10

p Mithali Raj

p Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta

Kazakhstan: the world’s largest landlocked country

Mainland China

Once part of the Soviet Union, in Kazakhstan, football and rugby are very popular. The Kazakhstan Rugby Union was established in 1933. Kyz kuu, literally “girl chasing”, pictured, is a traditional equestrian sport popular among Kazakhs and other people of central Asia which is often referred to as the “kissing game.”

Combat sports such as kazakh and freestyle wrestling, kickboxing, taekwondo, hand-to-hand fighting, judo and karate have been gaining popularity. Other mainstream sports include ice hockey, bandy - a winter sport team also played on ice, speed skating, weightlifting and gymnastics.11

Team sports appeared in China only at the beginning of the 20th century. Table tennis, a sport that originated in England, is one of the biggest amateur recreational sports with an estimated 200 million players. Ma Long [pictured] is the first male player to complete a career Double Grand Slam as the Olympic gold medalist in men's singles in 2016 and 2020. Basketball, introduced to China by American YMCA workers in 1896, is the largest spectator sport and there are about 300 million basketball players in the country.

Esports saw early growth in China despite concerns that video games were addictive.12 Thousands of Chinese children were sent for electroconvulsive

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Russia

The most popular sport in Russia is football but ice hockey is second followed by handball, basketball, futsal, boxing, motor racing, volleyball, athletics and tennis. According to one survey, bandy, mentioned opposite for Kazakhstan, is the third most popular sport in Russia. Most of the modern rules were written in England but the Russians claim to be the inventors of the game, and indeed there were bandy-like games played in Russia before the modern rules were standardized. Rhythmic gymnastics is also considered one of Russia’s most popular sports. Evgenia Kanaeva has been three-time world champion and the first and only back-to-back gold medallist at the Olympic games.

American football is the most popular spectator sport in the US, followed by baseball and basketball. The history of basketball began in Canada as a less injury-prone sport than football. Initially played in American colleges, the game became very popular around the world in the 20th century.15

In 2020, two gamechangers16 affected the US sports industry: the Covid-19 pandemic and the social justice movement. Strategies that address opportunities in this context include fan engagement, especially on social media and being active in addressing race, gender, and LGBT+ inequality and injustice.

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p American football teams, Houston Texans tackled by Dallas Cowboys

US

therapy (ECT) by their parents at a centre which was closed down in 2016. By 2020, China accounted for 35% of global esports revenue and it is estimated that around 70% of China’s online population play video games.13 Government restrictions limit the time minors can play video games to one hour per day on weekends.14

Beijing will host the 2022 Winter Olympics and figure skating ranks third in the list of sports in which China has won the most medals in past Games, after short track speed skating and freestyle skiing. Two of the stars of pairs figure skating are Cheng Peng and Yang Jin, pictured

Read more

1. algeria.com/activities/sport/ 2. afrikanza.com/blogs/culture-history/facts-about-algeria 3. onthegosports.com.au/blogs/news/the-10-most-popular-sports-in-australia 4. theculturetrip.com/south-america/brazil/articles/the-5-most-popular-sports-in-brazil/ 5. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footvolley 6. french-iceberg.com/sports-in-france/ 7. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A9tanque 8. Lam, S. F. Chang W, Julian. The Quest for Gold: Fifty Years of Amateur Sports in Hong Kong, 1947–1997. Hong Kong University Press, 2006. 9. kreedon.com/top-20-most-popular-sports-in-india/ 10. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport_in_India 11. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport_in_Kazakhstan 12. hybrid.co.id/post/gaming-esports-in-china 13. pinnacle.com/en/esports-hub/betting-articles/educational/esports-in-china/xzu2cyvju2a52e4h 14. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_games_in_China#Approvals_freeze_and_further_steps_to_ restrict_youth_gaming_(2018-ongoing) 15. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_in_the_United_States 16. www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/ sports-business-trends-disruption.htm