Sport in South America
South America is home to the longest running international football tournament; Copa América, which has been regularly contested since 1916.
The continent has produced many of the most famous and most talented players in history, including Pelé, Garrincha, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Romário, Ronaldinho, Zico, Nílton Santos, Djalma Santos, Taffarel, Falcão, Rivaldo and Neymar (Brazil); Maradona, Messi, Di Stéfano, Batistuta, Passarella, Mario Kempes (Argentina); Luis Suárez, Enzo Francescoli, Cavani, Forlán, Obdulio Varela (Uruguay); Elías Figueroa, Iván Zamorano, Marcelo Salas, Alexis Sánchez (Chile); Carlos Valderrama, Radamel Falcao, James Rodríguez (Colombia); Carlos Gamarra, Romerito, Arsenio Erico (Paraguay); Álex Aguinaga, Alberto Spencer (Ecuador); Teófilo Cubillas, César Cueto, Claudio Pizarro (Peru).
Quito and Independiente del Valle (Ecuador); Olimpia and Cerro Porteño (Paraguay) are among the main football clubs in the world.
[13] Footvolley is a recreational sport widely practiced on Brazilian beaches, mainly in Rio de Janeiro, where it was invented.
[14][15] The FIBA World Cup took place in South America seven times: Argentina (1950, 1990), Brazil (1954, 1963), Chile (1959), Uruguay (1967) and Colombia (1982).
In the Compound bow (which does not participate in the Olympic Games), The Colombian Sara López, multiple world champion, stands out.
In Brazil, the following stand out: Adhemar Ferreira da Silva, Joaquim Cruz, Maurren Maggi, Thiago Braz, Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima, João Carlos de Oliveira, Robson Caetano, Fabiana Murer, Alison dos Santos, Nélson Prudêncio, Jadel Gregório, Zequinha Barbosa, Sanderlei Parrela, Claudinei Quirino, Vicente de Lima, André Domingos, Édson Ribeiro,Caio Bonfim, Rosângela Santos, Letícia Oro Melo, Mauro Vinícius da Silva and Darlan Romani.
Colombia with Caterine Ibargüen, Ximena Restrepo, Anthony Zambrano and Sandra Arenas, Venezuela with Yulimar Rojas, Ecuador with Jefferson Pérez, Argentina with Delfo Cabrera, Juan Carlos Zabala, Noemí Simonetto de Portela and Reinaldo Gorno also contribute to the evolution of sport on the continent.
The continent has a great tradition in competitions such as the triple jump, and hosts important events such as the Saint Silvester Road Race.
In Argentina, the most historically important boxers are:Carlos Monzón, Horacio Accavallo, Santos Laciar, Juan Martín Coggi, Nicolino Locche, Víctor Galíndez, Jorge Castro, Marcela Acuña and.
In Brazil, Eder Jofre, Acelino Freitas, Miguel de Oliveira, Valdemir Pereira, Rose Volante and Patrick Teixeira are former world champions, while Adilson Rodrigues was an important Heavyweight of the 1980s and 1990s; Robson Conceição and Hebert Conceição were Olympic champions, and other Olympic medalists were Servílio de Oliveira, Yamaguchi Falcão, Esquiva Falcão, Abner Teixeira, Adriana Araújo and Beatriz Ferreira.
Venezuela particularly in the 1970s and 1980s with champions like Betulio Gonzalez and Rafael Orono, and Colombia with boxers such as Rodrigo Valdez, Antonio Cervantes and Miguel Lora.
[41] Brazilian jiu-jitsu originated in Brazil in the 1910s, and emphasizes ground fighting techniques and submission holds involving joint-locks and chokeholds.
Many Brazilian fighters have become significant figures in various mixed martial art tournaments abroad, some notable Brazilian fighters in these tournaments include Anderson Silva, José Aldo, Wanderlei Silva, Minotauro, Vitor Belfort, Mauricio Rua, Murilo Bustamante, Junior dos Santos, Rafael dos Anjos, Fabricio Werdum, Lyoto Machida, Alex Pereira and Amanda Nunes.
The greatest exponents of the sport until today were Aurélio Miguel, Sarah Menezes and Rogério Sampaio, Olympic champions.
Brazil also had several other important judo athletes, such as the Olympic runners-up Douglas Vieira, Tiago Camilo, Carlos Honorato, and the Olympic bronze medalists Chiaki Ishii, Luiz Onmura, Walter Carmona, Henrique Guimarães, Leandro Guilheiro, Flávio Canto, Ketleyn Quadros, Felipe Kitadai, Mayra Aguiar, Daniel Cargnin and Rafael Silva.
[58] High-profile riders emerging in this period include Nairo Quintana, Rigoberto Urán, Sergio Henao, Carlos Betancur and Mariana Pajón.
The two main strongholds of the sport in Colombia are the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the centre of the country and Antioquia in the west, both being mountainous regions.
[59] Some of the top Colombian cyclists are: Golf is growing in popularity in both Brazil and Argentina but is not widely played elsewhere in South America.
Although this sport is mostly played in Spain and France, there are federations of Basque ball in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
In Motos, South America had notable drivers as Johnny Cecotto, Carlos Lavado, Alex Barros, Sebastian Porto, Martín Cárdenas and Yonny Hernández.
The country has internationally renowned skaters like Bob Burnquist, Sandro Dias, Rayssa Leal, Pedro Barros, Kelvin Hoefler, Pâmela Rosa and Letícia Bufoni.
Peru is a country that shows a certain degree of development in skateboarding, having sent representatives like Ángelo Caro to World Championships and the Olympics.
Some of the greatest exponents of Brazilian swimming history are: César Cielo, Ricardo Prado, Gustavo Borges, Fernando Scherer, Thiago Pereira, Djan Madruga, Bruno Fratus, Manuel dos Santos, Tetsuo Okamoto, Nicholas Santos, Felipe França, Fernando Scheffer, Kaio de Almeida, João Gomes Júnior, Felipe Lima, Guilherme Costa, Ana Marcela Cunha, Etiene Medeiros and Poliana Okimoto.
Argentina was the main force on the continent until the 1960s, with historically important swimmers such as Luis Nicolao, José Meolans and Georgina Bardach.
In doubles, the continent has already produced players like Marcelo Melo, Bruno Soares, Luisa Stefani, Juan Sebastián Cabal and Robert Farah.
Other historically important players in the country are Gustavo Tsuboi, Cláudio Kano, Hugo Hoyama, Biriba, Cazuo Matsumoto, Thiago Monteiro and Bruna Takahashi.
Some of the top Colombian weightlifters are: María Isabel Urrutia, Óscar Figueroa, Mabel Mosquera and Diego Fernando Salazar.
Several Olympic medalists in yachting have trained in Guanabara Bay, such as Martine Grael, Clinio Freitas, Daniel Adler, Eduardo Penido, Isabel Swan, Kiko Pellicano, Marcelo Ferreira, Marcos Soares, Nelson Falcão and Ronaldo Senfft.
The country also has olympic medalists from São Paulo Robert Scheidt, Torben Grael, Kahena Kunze, Reinaldo Conrad, Alexandre Welter, Bruno Prada and Peter Ficker.
