Sport in Argentina
The practice of sports in Argentina is varied due to the population's diverse European origins and the mostly mild climate.
Association football is the most popular discipline and other sports played both professionally and recreatively athletics, auto racing, basketball, boxing, cycling, field hockey, fishing, golf, handball, mountaineering, mountain biking, padel tennis, polo, roller hockey, rowing, rugby union, sailing, skiing, swimming, tennis, and volleyball.
Argentina is one of the most important sport powers in the region, ending at the top of the medal count at the South American Games since 1978, with exceptions in 2002 and 2010.
The sport is played by children during breaks at school and by grown-ups on the plenty of both indoor and outdoor fields located throughout the country.
The country's most famed football idols are Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi, both of whom captained the national team to a World Cup trophy.
However, the women's national team has competed in the South American Championship since 1995, finishing as runner-up three times before winning the competition in 2006 with a 5–0 victory over Brazil.
The Basketball Clubs' Association organizes the Liga Nacional de Básquet, the top-level league in the country.
Although the National team won the first FIBA World Championship in 1950, the sport did not gain country-wide popularity until the 2000s, when the national team conquered the Olympic gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and had a good performance in the 2002, 2006, 2010 World Championships finishing on the second, fourth, fifth position respectively.
For the first 20 years of the sport's professional era, dating from 1996, most important Argentine players have emigrated to Europe (mainly to England and France).
Probably the best known players are 1970s and 1980s star Hugo Porta; Agustín Pichot, Pumas captain during their 2007 World Cup run and now the vice chairman of World Rugby; his successor as captain, Felipe Contepomi; current star utility back Juan Martín Hernández; 1990s star and later Pumas head coach Santiago Phelan; Marcelo Loffreda, who coached the team during their 2007 World Cup run before leaving to take up the coaching post at English club power Leicester Tigers.
Tennis has been quite popular among people of all ages since the 1970s and is the 2nd largest sport in Argentina, behind football, after both Guillermo Vilas and later Gabriela Sabatini in the 1980s reached the number 2 position and won several Grand Slams.
At the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup, David Nalbandian defeated world number 1 Roger Federer and the tournament gathered 4 Argentine players, an all-time record for any nationality.
Most recently, Juan Martín del Potro has emerged as one of the leading players in the world, having won the 2009 US Open a few days before his 21st birthday.
Argentine players have an international quality, with the men's national team winning six Roller Hockey World Cup titles.
Former events include the defunct Formula One Argentine Grand Prix and World Sportscar Championship's 1000 km Buenos Aires.
There are Argentine boxing legends such as Carlos Monzón, Horacio Accavallo, Santos Laciar, Juan Martín Coggi and Nicolino Locche who held the world champion's title in their categories.
Argentine boxer Victor Galindez was the third Latin American to win the world's Light-Heavyweight title (after Puerto Rico's José Torres and Venezuela's Vicente Rondon, WBA-recognized champion during the middle of the 1970s).
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.
On 17 April 2010, Sergio Martínez outpointed American Kelly Pavlik in Atlantic City to become the lineal Middleweight champion of the world.
Padel tennis is played by four and a half million amateur players in thirty five thousand courts; it is the most participated sport in Argentina.
Argentina won 10 Olympic medals in sailing (1 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze), the Argentinian experience and level in this sport is high, even between young children competing in optimist class boats.
