Sport in Spain

Spain has also hosted a number of international events such as the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and the 1982 FIFA World Cup.

[8] La Liga or Primera División (The Spanish League) is considered to be one of the world's best competitions in men's football.

Real Madrid and Barcelona have dominated for much of their history, and created an intimate rivalry, which is known as El Clásico.

The Spain men's national team has been successful and has qualified for the FIFA World Cup tournament fifteen times since 1934.

The top teams play in the Primera División (also called Liga Nacional de Fútbol Sala).

[12] The teams also compete in a domestic cup competition each year, called the Copa del Rey.

Spanish teams such as Real Madrid Baloncesto, FC Barcelona Bàsquet and Joventut Badalona have won international championships such as the Euroleague or Eurocup.

A number of Spanish players such as Santi Aldama, Juancho Hernangómez, and French-Spanish Zaccharie Risacher are currently playing in the NBA.

A number of Spanish teams such as BM Ciudad Real, FC Barcelona Handbol, and Portland San Antonio have won or were finalists in the EHF Champions League.

The Spain men's national water polo team is no stranger to the world's elite of this sport.

[14] Athletics does not have a very high profile in Spain on a week-in week-out basis, but it leaps to prominence during major championships.

Several Spanish cycling athletes have won the Tour de France, including Federico Bahamontes, Luis Ocaña, Pedro Delgado, Óscar Pereiro, Alberto Contador, and Carlos Sastre.

Although he claimed it was a result of consuming contaminated beef, in January 2012 the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled him guilty and gave him a two-year ban backdated from July 21, 2010, and had all his results achieved after July 21 erased, including victory in the 2010 Giro d'Italia and a 5th-place finish and most aggressive rider award for stage 19 at the 2011 Tour de France.

Abraham Olano won the Vuelta a España in 1998, and is the only man to win World Championships in both the road race (1995) and time trial (1998).

Rhythmic gymnastics is a popular sport through all Spain, so far the most successful individual rhythmic gymnasts are Carolina Pascual who won a silver medal in the individual all around competition in Barcelona 1992, Carmen Acedo who won gold medal in clubs competition in World Championships in 1993 and Almudena Cid this last is the only rhythmic gymnast who has competed at four olympic finals, placing 9th at Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 being 8th at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.

The Spanish team was formed by Estela Giménez, Marta Baldó, Nuria Cabanillas, Lorena Guréndez, Estíbaliz Martínez and Tania Lamarca.

Also for the first time in 9 years the country classified two gymnast for the individual all-around final, Natalia Garcia who finished in the 19th spot and Carolina Rodriguez who got the 11th place.

Rafael Nadal is widely regarded as the greatest Spanish tennis player of all time and one of the best to ever play the game.

After defeating Novak Djokovic in the 2010 US Open final, he became the first man in history to win majors on clay, grass, and hard courts in a calendar year (Surface Slam), and the first Spaniard to complete a Career Grand Slam, having achieved it twice in his career thus far (one of four men to ever do so).

Other notable Top 10 players from Spain include #2 Manuel Orantes, #2 Àlex Corretja, #2 Lilí Álvarez, #3 David Ferrer, #5 Tommy Robredo, #5 Manuel Alonso, #7 Juan Aguilera, #7 Emilio Sánchez, #7 Alberto Berasategui, #7 Fernando Verdasco, #10 Carlos Costa, and #10 Félix Mantilla.

In Formula One, the two world championships of Fernando Alonso in 2005 and 2006, helped to make more popular this sport in Spain, other notable Spanish drivers are Alfonso de Portago, Pedro de la Rosa and currently Carlos Sainz Jr. Also, Spain host the Spanish Grand Prix currently in Montmeló and previously the European Grand Prix in Jerez (1994, 1997) and Valencia (2008–2012).

Fernando Alonso won the 2018-2019 FIA WEC World Championship, taking wins at the 2018 and 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Spain have 4 world champions in the premier class of MotoGP: Àlex Crivillé (1999), Jorge Lorenzo (2010, 2012, 2015), Marc Márquez (2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019) and Joan Mir (2020).

Other notable Spanish grand prix motorcycling riders include Dani Pedrosa, Nicolás Terol, Emilio Alzamora, Jorge Martínez Aspar, Sete Gibernau, Sito Pons, and Ángel Nieto.

Away from the track, Laia Sanz has won multiple women's world titles in motorcycle trials and enduro as well as several wins in the female class of the Dakar Rally.

Jon Rahm won the U.S. Open in 2021, being the first Spaniard to do so and he also was World No.1 for several weeks in both amateur and professional rankings.

Sergio García[15] spent much of his career in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings (over 250 weeks between 2000 and 2008) and won the 2017 Masters.

Well known boxers from Spain include: Spain has several judokas ranked in the top spots of the IJF ranking list, including Francisco Garrigós (#2 in -60kg), Alberto Gaitero (#7 in -66kg), Salvador Cases (#10 in -73kg) and Julia Figueroa (#3 in -48kg)[16] in the senior category, and Gemma Maria Gómez (#6 in -48kg), Marina Castelló (#3 in -52kg), Marta García (#4 in -57kg), Laura Vázquez (#2 in -63kg) and Ai Tsunoda (#1 in -70kg and overall) in the junior category.

Sugoi Uriarte, Joaquín Ruiz, Oiana Blanco, Sara Álvarez and María Bernabéu are also silver medallists in the World Championships.

Skiers who have won races in the Alpine Skiing World Cup include Carolina Ruiz Castillo, María José Rienda, and siblings Blanca and Francisco Fernández Ochoa.