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Competitions in various sports have been popular since ancient times. There were always spectators for each of the sports competitions, stadiums gathered thousands of spectators, a little later fan clubs began to organize.
Sports life is in full swing, despite the times and world events, many cannot imagine their lives without sports and competitions, for many sports is the only profession and life’s work.
Over time, leading sports have emerged from all the diversity, boasting millions and even billions of fans, huge fees, spectacular competitions and the fact that they are rightfully included in the Olympic program.
So, let’s take a closer look at the most popular sports in the world.
10 Volleyball, 300 million fans
The game appeared in the late 19th century in the United States and became a kind of mixture of basketball, handball, baseball and tennis already known at that time. The new team sport has become very popular among the population of different ages due to its simple rules and affordable equipment.
The rules of the game are quite simple: two teams enter the field, which hit the ball over the net with the help of special tricks, the goal of the game is to score the ball to the opponents on the court before it touches the floor, or until the opponent team makes a mistake.
Most popular volleyball acquired in Turkey, Poland, China, Brazil. And in 1964 he entered the program of the Olympic Games.
9. Hockey, 500 million fans
History hockey is not unambiguous. The homeland of this type of game is Canada, but historians have found in the Dutch pictures of the 16th century the image of a game very similar to hockey.
This sport is popular in Sweden, the USA, Canada, but very quickly gained popularity in Europe, especially in Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Finland.
Professional sports require complex and rather long preparation. The game is a team game, played on ice and its essence is to drive the puck into the opponent’s goal.
8. Boxing, 550 million fans
Boxing – an ancient sport, it is mentioned in Egyptian and Sumerian relief drawings. Games similar to boxing were played in ancient Greece. Fisticuffs were included in the ancient Olympic Games even before our era.
The modern sport called “boxing” appeared in the early 18th century in England. This sport is pair contact. The essence is in striking the opponent with hands, dressed in special gloves. There is a list of illegal strikes for which athletes can be disqualified.
Athletes perform in a certain weight category, today there are 17 of them. The winner is the boxer who was able to strike, knocking down the opponent, and he could not get up for 10 seconds.
7. Formula 1, 600 million fans
Formula-1 is a race car with open wheels. Cars participating in such races must comply with a set of specific conditions and rules. All racing cars are tested for impact resistance.
Fireballs (as the racing cars are called) are designed and assembled by the team itself, so there are always discoveries and technological advances in this sport. Further, to win, you need to put the fastest and most experienced racer into a racing car and assemble a well-coordinated team that will quickly service the car on the track.
World championships in this sport have been held since 1950. Since then, the Formula 1 championship has been held annually and consists of several stages. Races are held with a team of pilots or with a single pilot in a car. Moreover, each team, according to the rules, exposes two fireballs.
6. Figure skating, 700 million fans
Figure skating appeared as a separate kind of speed skating in the 60s of the 19th century. But its beginning was laid in ancient times long before our era, as evidenced by archaeological finds in Europe in the form of bone skates from the phalanxes of large animals.
Performance on ice consists in performing a number of elements: jumps, rotations, steps, changing the direction of sliding and their derivatives. This sport was the first to be included in the mandatory program of the Winter Olympic Games. There are two types of figure skating: singles and pairs.
Skating takes place with musical accompaniment, and the program of athletes should include mandatory figure elements. The performance is evaluated for the complexity of the combinations performed, plasticity, artistry and musicality. In pair skating, interaction with a partner during the dance is necessarily evaluated.
5. Skiing, 750 million fans
The history of the appearance of the skis themselves dates back to about 4000 years ago, then this device appeared among the northern inhabitants to facilitate movement on the snow during hunting and in everyday life.
Therefore, it is no coincidence that skiing was especially popular in the northern countries, where snow was a natural phenomenon. This sport began its history many years ago in the 18th century in Norway. Since 1924 skiing included in winter Olympic sports.
This type has about twenty disciplines, including racing, downhill, slalom, ski jumping, biathlon, etc. The main type is, of course, racing (pursuit, relay, team sprint), but the most spectacular was biathlon, which combined the speed of movement on skis and target shooting accuracy.
4. Athletics, 900 million fans
This sport began its history in ancient Greece at the first Olympic Games, then athletes competed in running.
Athletics included in the program and the modern Olympic Games, is a mass sport. This event includes walking, running (short and long distances), long and high jumps, all-around and throwing heavy objects. The competitions themselves can be held in open stadiums (as a rule, many of them are combined with football stadiums) or in closed halls (arenas).
The winner of any athletics competition is the athlete who showed the best results among all participants. The program for men includes 24 sports, the program for women – 23. Therefore, athletics is the sport that brings the largest set of Olympic medals.
3. Tennis, 1 billion fans
This sport has a large number of fans, millions in fees and thanks to it, world stars have appeared. Tennis is a game for enduring and physically prepared athletes, but in addition to physical data, reaction and the ability to analyze the situation in a short time are important here.
Tennis is played on playgrounds (courts) with different surfaces, it can be clay, grass, carpet, etc. Two players participate in the game, or four in doubles. Tennis tournaments are included in the Olympic Games, separate competitions are also held, the Wimbledon tournament has become the most popular in this sport.
In the 16th century, this sport was very popular with the French kings. But tennis was held indoors, and only at the end of the 19th century was it moved to the open air and received the name lawn tennis (translated from French it means tennis on the lawn). The indoor game now bears the name real tennis.
2. Basketball, 1,4 billion fans
Homeland basketball is the USA, where this game appeared in 1891. But later it very quickly became a popular sport all over the world. So in Lithuania, basketball is recognized as a national sport. Since 1936, it has been included in the list of the Summer Olympic Games. In addition, games are constantly held within the framework of individual basketball leagues.
The first Olympic champion in basketball was a team from the United States, in the future this country occupied a leading position until 1972, when it lost to the USSR team for the first time. Today, representatives of all continents participate in basketball competitions.
Two teams play basketball. The goal is to get the ball into the opponent’s basket. The winner is the team with the most points, that is, the one with the most hits in the basket.
1. Football, 4 billion fans
Футбол is a world famous sport. This is the most spectacular view, gathering thousands of stadiums and numbering about 4 billion fans around the world. This sport is included in the Olympic program, but in addition to this, many other tournaments are held at various levels.
Both men’s and women’s teams are organized. The goal of the game is to score the ball into the opponent’s goal, and the winner is the one who does it more times.
England is considered the birthplace of football, where in the middle of the 19th century football teams began to gather and tournaments were organized. Football is most popular in Europe.
Today this sport is leading the world. Fan clubs of each football team gather for matches and not only, and famous football players earn millions of dollars, which makes them one of the highest paid athletes.