Sports in Italy

The most popular sport in Italy is soccer. The national team of Italy has won the most prestigious World Cup four times in 1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006 respectively. Italian football team is the current titleholder. The Italian national soccer team is popularly known by the name of Azzurri for their blue shirts. It is considered to be the second-most successful national football team in the world. Apart from this most of major Italian clubs get the opportunity to compete at a high level of soccer competitions.

Apart from soccer, water polo is another popular and one of the old Italy sport. The playground used for this game, is a rectangular swimming pool having 18mt breadth. The water should be deep enough. Every team contains 7 players. Among them 1 is goalkeeper, 3 players remain in the defensive position and there are 3 in forward. Players wear blue and black bonnets while the goalkeeper wears a red cap. This sport of water polo lasts for 28 minutes. The players of this sport should be physically strong. Along with it a skilled technical ability is needed.

Winter sports in Italy are also among the other most watched and enjoyed games. Italy is quite famous for its Winter Olympics. Skiing is probably one of the leisure interests of Italians. On Mount Etna Skiing is found. In 2006 Piemonte of Italy hosted the Winter Olympics.

The other recognized sports in Italy include Rugby, Cycling, Basketball, Running Auto racing etc. In recent times the team of rugby consists of 15 players. An oval shaped ball is used for this game. In Italy sports is also quite popular among disabled persons. The sports in Italy carry a great therapeutic value for the disabled Italians. Many physically challenged people are seen to be participating in the sports in Italy.