Sport in Italy

The men's volleyball team won three consecutive World Championships (in 1990, 1994, and 1998) and earned the Olympic silver medal in 1996, 2004, and 2016.

[8] Italian skiers achieved good results in Winter Olympic Games, Alpine Ski World Cup, and tennis has a significant following in Italy, ranking as the fourth most practised sport in the country.

Juventus, Milan and Inter, along with Roma, Fiorentina, Lazio and historically Parma, but now Napoli, are known as the Seven Sisters of Italian football.

The sport was brought to Italy through the Romans, who used to play a very similar game called harpastum, which included two teams aiming to score on their opponents side (hands could be used along with feet).

All across Italy, stadiums now include various different things such as museums, shops, and restaurants for the people attending the game to enjoy.

Italian football stadiums also host other venues such as concerts, rugby matches, and field and track.

More players have won the coveted Ballon d'Or award while playing in Serie A than any other league in the world, except La Liga.

Cannavaro won the award in 2006 which is the same year he also helped Italy reach the finals of the World Cup.

Zoff played goalie for Italy, and at 40 years old he became the oldest player to win the World Cup.

Also, Dino holds the record for the longest time without giving up a goal at an international tournament with 1,142 minutes.

While Italy has made nine trips to the World Cup, the closest they have come to winning a medal was in 1970 and 1978, where they finished fourth.

[35] Other notable Italian athletes are Ugo Frigerio, Ondina Valla, Adolfo Consolini, Pino Dordoni, Abdon Pamich, Livio Berruti, Sara Simeoni, Gabriella Dorio, Alberto Cova, Gelindo Bordin, Stefano Baldini, Maurizio Damilano, Dorando Pietri, Paola Pigni, Luigi Beccali, Alessandro Andrei, Gianmarco Tamberi and Marcell Jacobs.

[39] As the Giro gained prominence and popularity the race was lengthened, and the peloton expanded from primarily Italian participation to riders from all over the world.

[40][41] The rider with the lowest aggregate time is the leader of the general classification and wears the pink jersey.

The Milan–San Remo, also called "The Spring classic" or "La Classicissima", is an annual road cycling race between Milan and Sanremo, in Northwest Italy.

Some of the most successful Italian road cyclists have been Costante Girardengo, Fausto Coppi, Gino Bartali, Alfredo Binda, Felice Gimondi, Fiorenzo Magni, Mario Cipollini, Francesco Moser, Marco Pantani, Moreno Argentin, Paolo Bettini, Michele Bartoli, Gianni Bugno, Alessandro Petacchi and Vincenzo Nibali.

[44] To accommodate this move, the country's National Championship of Excellence effectively became a semi-professional developmental competition.

Rugby union's traditional heartland consisted of the small country towns in the Po Valley, and other parts of Northern Italy.

[48] One version says that Italian workers returning from France, particularly the south, introduced the game there, and gave it a significant rural/working class base, which still exists in towns such as Treviso and Rovigo.

Notable Italian players include Ivan Francescato, Paolo Vaccari, Carlo Checchinato, Massimo Giovanelli, Mauro and Mirco Bergamasco, and Sergio Parisse.

Italian players such as Sara Errani, Flavia Pennetta, Roberta Vinci and Francesca Schiavone have entered the WTA Top 10 in their careers.

In Italy, bodybuilding is at the 10th place in the ranking of most popular sports, even considering the high number of people who engage in body building gym, as amateur, just to keep fit themselves.

Designed in 1913 to replace the then-used Trotter in Via Padova, the Hippodrome of San Siro was inaugurated on 25 July 1920, with its construction work being slowed down due to the World War I.

The track also stages the most valuable flat race in Italy, the Derby Italiano, which was downgraded to Group 2 status in 2009.

[73] Italy's performance during the Olympics has been consistently high for a European team, but is noted for its reliance on American and Latino players of Italian descent.

The highest level of play in Italy today is considered to be on par with Class A ball in the United States.

[106] At the turn of the millennium, Italy showed a growing quality in the discipline, with Susanna Marchesi finishing 9th at the Individual All Around competition, as well as the team winning 6th place in the 2000 Summer Olympics.

The celebration of Italian gymnastics is because they are among the best squads in the world, facing competitions against the Eastern European block of nations: Belarus, Russia, and Bulgaria.

[109] Although lacrosse tournaments and competitions have been held in Italy since 2002,[110] the first official edition of the championship dates back to the 2009-2010 season.

Italy has won a total of 259 gold medals which makes them the 6th most successful country in Olympic history, after the USA, the Soviet Union, Germany, Great Britain and France.