National Sports of Countries

[ahjfcshfghb 296]

1 hour ago, hckosice said:

Sport invented in the nation: there are some minor, but only one that somehow succeeded to gain some importance also abroad

football tennis (futnet) - Czechoslovakia

 

National sport:

Ice Hockey (CZE and SVK) followed by football

 

Most successful olympic sport of the country:

W Artistic Gymnastics - Czechoslovakia

Athletics & Shooting - Czech Republic

Canoeing Slalom - Slovakia

Sounds about right ^ 

I went to an English-speaking private school and there was great confusion as to what to call our nohejbal program.

[Vojthas 949]

I think football shouldn't be counted anywhere as it's "national" sport everywhere.

has Volleyball and Ski Jumping, also speedway among those non-Olympics

I'm surprised @heywoodu didn't mention neither Field Hockey nor Cycling. I also expected Cycling in Italy, as well as Volleyball.

[Benolympique 2,423]

France football 

[Monzanator 4,828]

Ski Jumping only evolved after Adam Malysz period of success, this is a fair weather sport elevation tbh. Watch us suck after the Stoch-Kubacki-Zyla generation ends. Volleyball is back on top after a lenghty dry spell in the 80s/90s.

 

Speedway is one sport pretty non-existent outside of Scandinavia & England that keeps producing success over the years. For a while it was the only sport which Poland hosted a World Championship-level event. If you look at the one-day format from 1936-1981 only three countries hosted the Individual WC (England, Sweden, Poland).

 

As for cycling I feel like it's more popular in Belgium than Netherlands. I used to think speed skating is pretty much the Dutch national sport, no way even cycling tops that?

[heywoodu 16,142]

12 minutes ago, Vojthas said:

I think football shouldn't be counted anywhere as it's "national" sport everywhere.

has Volleyball and Ski Jumping, also speedway among those non-Olympics

I'm surprised @heywoodu didn't mention neither Field Hockey nor Cycling. I also expected Cycling in Italy, as well as Volleyball.

I think hockey is played relatively much as a hobby (obviously nowhere near football), but it's not exactly a popular thing to watch or something. I mean, it's shown on TV (world championships, Pro League, Olympics), but it's not like it's got huge viewing numbers and there's definitely not as much attention for it as for cycling.

[heywoodu 16,142]

6 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

As for cycling I feel like it's more popular in Belgium than Netherlands. I used to think speed skating is pretty much the Dutch national sport, no way even cycling tops that?

Well yeah, in Belgium it's cycling all the way (again apart from, obviously, football). In terms of how much is shown on TV, how much news there is being posted (online and offline) about it and how many people watch and know of the main contenders, cycling is simply the clear number two behind football. 

 

A good hypothetical measure for me would be to ask every person to name as many athletes of every sport they can. I'm very sure only football and cycling would end up with several dozens mostly. Possibly speed skating, sure, but it's just not as popular as cycling.

Edited August 7, 2019 by heywoodu

[heywoodu 16,142]

17 minutes ago, Vojthas said:

I think football shouldn't be counted anywhere as it's "national" sport everywhere.

Definitely. To be fair, I don't think any sport that has a bit of a global following should be counted as any nation's national sport.

[Monzanator 4,828]

2 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Definitely. To be fair, I don't think any sport that has a bit of a global following should be counted as any nation's national sport.

 

Cricket & badminton don't have a global following but they're popular in some of the most populous parts of the world (Southeast Asia) while being totally absent in Europe or the continental Americas hence their market numbers are skewed. I mean nobody really plays badminton in Europe other than Denmark and some one-offs like Carolina Marin

[Shravan Kumar 109]

Field hockey in India.

 

At the time of Hockey being named as national sport India was utterly dominant. India had won 6 consecutive ?in Olympic from 1928-56.

 

The most popular sport in India in terms of viewership is Cricket.

 

Kabaddi is the most popular native sport.

Badminton is another popular native sport.

There are also many regional sports in every region whose popularity is restricted to that region only.

[MHSN 3,785]

11 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

Islamic Republic of Iran

Varzesh-e Bastani/Wrestling/Polo

 

Polo national sport in Iran ?! no way. Polo is apparently "invented" in Iran. but nothing more. I wonder if there are more than 40 Polo players here.

 

Varzesh-e-Bastani ? (or better you call it Zurkhaneh Sports) again no . this is pretty much dead right now. yeah they try to promote it sometimes as it has religious elements but absolutely no attraction for the younger generation.

 

there is no "official national sport" (don't trust wikipedia) but I hear sometimes they call wrestling as the national sport in media. even though obviously the only "very popular" sport here is football and by a huge huge huge margin.