When the Spaniards across the country are crazily celebrating the victory of Spain national football team at
FIFA World Cup 2010, it seems that Spain is enjoying something of a sporting “Golden Age”, which is similar to the Spanish domination in painting and literature in the 17th century.
In fact, in addition to soccer/football, there is a galaxy of talents in various sport activities else, such as Basketball, Tennis, Formula One, Cycling and etc.
Football
The new world champion Spanish national football team has qualified for the
FIFA World Cup tournament twelve times since 1930, and has won the
European Championship in 1964 and 2008. In addition, they have won a silver medal at the
Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, and won a gold medal during the
Barcelona 1992 Olympics.
La Liga (The Spanish League) is considered to be one of the world’s best competitions. Well-known and successful teams in recent Eurpoean competitions include
FC Barcelona,
Real Madrid,
Sevilla,
Villarreal,
Valencia and
Atlético Madrid.
Basketball
Basketball is also a popular sport in Spain. The Spanish national basketball team has achieved a high ranked position in the international tournament by winning their first gold medal at the 2006
FIBA World Championship, and has won the gold medal at Eurobasket 2009.
Besides, a number of Spanish players such as
Pau Gasol and his younger brother Marc Gasol, José Calderón, Rudy Fernández and Sergio Rodríguez are currently playing in the
NBA.
Tennis
Rafael Nadal is considered the greatest Spanish tennis player of all time. He currently has eight grand slam titles to his name: five
French Open titles, two
Wimbledon titles and one
Australia Open title. In 2009, he became the first player ever to simultaneously hold
Grand Slam titles on clay, grass and hard-court. In addition, Nadal is the Gold Medalist at
2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.
Formula One
In Formula One, the two world championships of
Fernando Alonso have made the sport popular in Spain, which is the only country to host two Grands Prix, the
Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona and the
European Grand Prix on the Valencia Street Circuit.
Cycling
The
Vuelta a España (Spanish for "Tour of Spain") is one of the most important cycling events in the world, together with the
Tour de France (French for "Tour of France") and
Giro d'Italia (Italian for "Tour of Italy") racing tournaments.
Sastre became the seventh and third consecutive Spaniard to win the Tour de France in 2008, then followed by Contador winning his second tour in 2009's edition.
What’s more, Spain has also hosted a number of international events such as the
1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and the
1982 FIFA World Cup.
The Slideshow of sport in Spain
