「WELLSPORTS」意甲传奇录-安德烈亚皮尔洛
虽然很多人认为皮尔洛会在红黑军团结束生涯，但命运还是比较作弄人，2011年，AC米兰和皮尔洛没有达成续约，皮尔洛告别了效力十年取得无数辉煌的米兰城，做为自由球员加盟了”斑马军团“尤文图斯，在尤文图斯的职业生涯里，虽然没有巅峰那么强大的凝聚力了，但艺术家所谓是越老越妖！在球场上，仍然他的传球仍然如同手术刀那样的锋利，冷血，甚至更加的精准了，在都灵城，老艺术家仍然尽情的享受着自己的足球世界，尤文图斯需要他的节拍组织与任意球绝技，而皮尔洛也差一点就在15年再次捧起欧冠奖杯，这个坚强的老男人仍然是一个天生的领袖，尤文图斯是艺术家亚平宁表演的最后一站，在2015年夏天，这位历史大师级别的”球场莫扎特”正式宣布在意大利的表演“谢幕”。即使现在，大家想起来皮尔洛的比赛，也是回味无穷，他给我们带来了太多的经典，那个胡渣长发艺术家般的男人，他拥有自己别具一格的风格，看似洒脱而优雅内心确又强大十足，在足球上他也是一位天生的领袖，他是意大利足坛史上的绝对国宝级球星，一个潇洒、谦虚、而不失坚强的完美男人。本文由[WELLBET]独家提供From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sports in the United States are an important part of the . Based on revenue, the four
(MLB), the
(NBA), the
(NFL), and the
(NHL). All four enjoy wide-ranging domestic media coverage and are considered the preeminent leagues in their respective sports in the world, although only basketball, baseball, and ice hockey have substantial followings in other nations. Three of those leagues have teams that represent Canadian cities, and all four are among the most financially lucrative sports leagues in the world.
Professional teams in all major sports in the U.S. operate as
within a league, meaning that a team may move to a different city if the team's owners believe there would be a financial benefit, but franchise moves are usually subject to some form of league-level approval. All major sports leagues use a similar type of regular-season schedule with a
tournament after the regular season ends. In addition to the major league–level organizations, several sports also have professional , active in smaller cities across the country. As in Canada and Australia, sports leagues in the United States do not practice , unlike many sports leagues in Europe.
Sports are particularly associated with , with most
having organized sports.
competitions play an important role in the American sporting culture, and
are as popular as professional sports in some parts of the country. The major sanctioning body for college sports is the
This section needs expansion. You can help by . (March 2017)
The United States has been the home of several worldwide sports, including , , and .
The Herb Brooks Arena in the Olympic Center at Lake Placid, New York hosted the
(USOC) is the
for the United States. American athletes have won a total of 2,570 medals at the
and another 253 at the []. American athletes have won more medals in
(738, 29%) and
(489, 19%) than any other nations.
was the first athlete to represent the United States at the Olympics. He took first place in both the 100 meters and the 400 meters at the
in Athens, Greece[]. American swimmer
is the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, with 28 Olympic medals, 23 of them gold.
The United States has sent athletes to every celebration of the modern , except the
hosted by the Soviet Union in Moscow, which it
because of the .
celebrates after winning his 8th gold medal.
American athletes have won
than any other country in the Summer Games and overall. The U.S. Olympic teams have also compiled the second-most overall medals total at the Winter Olympics, trailing only . Earlier United States mainly conceded to
at summer Games and to Soviet Union, Norway,
at the Winter Olympics only and now strongly contends with
at the Summer Olympics. The United States is the only country whose athletes have won at least one gold medal at every Winter Olympics, and won the total medal count at the
Lake Placid, New York, and in the
in Vancouver, British Columbia. During the 2010 Winter Olympics, the United States set a record for most total medals of any country at a single Winter Olympics.
The United States hosted both Summer and Winter Games in 1932, and has hosted more Games than any other country – eight times, four times each for the Summer and Winter Games:
in St. Louis,
in Los A and the
in Lake Placid, New Y the
in Squaw Valley, C and the
in Salt Lake City, Utah.
will host the Olympic Games for a third time in
or , marking the ninth time the US hosts the Olympic Games.
five times.
Motor sports are widely popular in the United States but Americans generally show little interest in the major international competitions, such as the
Grand Prix series and , preferring home-grown racing series. However, some Americans have achieved great success in these international series, such as
Americans, like the rest of the world, initially began using public streets as a host of automobile races. As time progressed it was soon discovered that these venues were often unsafe to the public as they offered relatively little crowd control. Promoters and drivers in the United States discovered that
tracks could provide better conditions for drivers and spectators than public streets. The result has been a long-standing popularity of , which is not used in the rest of the world, while
has generally waned. However, an extensive though illegal street racing culture still persists.
is among the world's premier racing facilities.[]
Historically,
was the most popular nationwide, with the
being the most widely followed race. However, an acrimonious split in 1994 between the primary series, CART (later known as ), and the
(the site of the Indy 500) led to the formation of the , which launched the rival
in 1996. From that point, the popularity of open wheel racing in the U.S. declined dramatically. The feud was settled in 2008 with an agreement to merge the two series under the IndyCar banner, but enormous damage had already been done to the sport. Post-merger, Indycar continues to remain with slight gains per year, despite a product that has become compelling.
The start of the , the biggest race in
The CART-IRL feud coincided with an enormous expansion of , governed by , from its past as a mostly regional circuit mainly followed in the
to a truly national sport. NASCAR's audience peaked in the mid 2000s, and has declined a bit, though it continues to have around 2–4 million viewers per race. Among NASCAR's popular drivers are , , , , and . NASCAR's most popular race is the
held each year at
in February.
Among the better known
in the United States are the , , and , which have featured in the , , , , ,
and currently the .
Another one of the most popular forms of motorsports in the United States is the indigenous sport of . The largest drag racing organization is the .
Several other motorsports enjoy varying degrees of popularity in the United States: , ,
competitions (including the popular
circuit), ,
widely regarded as the greatest golfer of all time, winning a total of 18 career major championships, while producing 19 second-place and 9 third-place finishes in them, over a span of 25 years.
Golf is played in the United States by about 25 million people. The sport's national governing body, the
(USGA), is jointly responsible with
for setting and administering the rules of golf. The USGA conducts three national championships open to professionals: ,
and , and will add a fourth, the U.S. Senior Women's Open, in 2018. The
organizes the ,
is the main professional golf tour in the United States, and the
is the main women's professional tour. Golf is aired on several television networks, such as , , ,
Notable golfers include , , , , , , ,
See also: .
is played in the United States in all five categories (Men's and Ladies' S Men's, Ladies' and Mixed Doubles); however, the most popular are the singles. The pinnacle of the sport in the country is the
played in late August at the
in New York. The ,
are part of the
and the former
(currently Premier Mandatory and Premier 5).
founded the Women's Tennis Association and other organizations. In 1973, at age 29, she won the .
The United States has had considerable success in tennis for many years, with players such as , , ,
(8 major singles titles),
(7 major singles titles),
(8 major singles titles) and
(14 major singles titles) dominating their sport in the past. More recently, the Williams sisters,
(7 major singles titles) and
(23 major singles titles), have been a dominant force in the women's game, and the
have claimed almost all significant career records for men's doubles teams.
There are many track and field events which involve individual athletes competing, including ,
and , and . Regular jumping events include , ,
and , while the most common throwing events are , ,
and . There are also "combined events", such as
and , in which athletes compete in a number of the above events.
is governing body for track and field. It organizes the annual
currently features one round in the United States, the series formerly included the
as well. Three of the
are held in the United States: the ,
is also an IAAF Road Race Label Event.
breaks the tape in the 10,000 m in the 1964 Olympics. U.S. Marine Corps photo
The United States has frequently set world standards in various disciplines of track and field for both male and female athletes.
hold various sprint records for male athletes, while
set various world sprint records for female athletes. 's personal record on the mile is just three seconds short of the world record, while
set many world records for middle-distance disciplines.
A turning point occurred in US track in the . After a series of American successes in various distances from marathoners
as well as middle-distance runners
and , running as an American pastime began to take shape. High school track in the United States became a unique foundation for creating the United States middle-distance running talent pool, and from 1972 to 1981 an average of 13 high school boys in the United States would run under 4:10 in the mile per year. During this time, several national
were set and remained largely unbroken until the 2000s. The number of high school boys running the mile under 4:10 per year dropped abruptly from 1982, and female participation in many distance events was forbidden by athletic authorities until the 1980s. However a renaissance in high school track developed when , a former Olympian, published a training manual called "Daniels' Running Formula", which became the most widely used distance training protocol among American coaches along with 's high-mileage regimen.
is credited with "normalizing" the practice of having a lengthy track career as opposed to retiring once reaching the age when it is less realistic of gaining a personal best result. The United States is home to school-sponsored track and field, a tradition in which most schools from middle school through college feature a track and field team. Due to the amount of American athletes who satisfy Olympic norm standards, the US holds
to select the best of its top-tier athletes for Olympic competition.
won ten world titles in six different weight classes, including the lineal championship in three weight classes. Winning a gold medal in the lightweight division and owns a national boxing promotional firm and one of the few boxers to take on promotional responsibilities while still active.
became the center of
in the early 20th century. The
was founded in 1921 and began to sanction title fights. In the 1960s and 1970s,
became an iconic figure, transformed the role and image of the African American athlete in America by his embrace of racial pride, and transcended the sport by refusing to serve in the Vietnam War. In the 1980s and 1990s, major boxers such as
were marked by crime and self-destruction.
developed in the 1990s, and has achieved popularity in the early 21st century. Many companies promote MMA cards, with the U.S.-based
the most dominant.
Traditional
is performed at
is one of the most popular participatory sports for young men in the United States, and college wrestling has a small following.
, which evolved into a mostly scripted () form of
over the course of the 20th century, enjoys widespread popularity as a spectator sport. Interest in pro wrestling peaked during the
of the 1980s and 1990s. This was due to the competition between the
(WWF) and , which were the two biggest professional wrestling organizations in the country during the last two decades of the 20th century. It is also stated that, between the two companies, an estimated 16 million viewers tuned in every week. Following the conclusion of the Wars and WCW's subsumption into WWF to become the modern , professional wrestling's aud however, it still pulls in some of cable television's highest weekly ratings. WWE remains the dominant professional wrestling company in the U.S.; it does not hold a monopoly, as numerous smaller federations have existed, two current examples including
(formerly known as TNA) and
is not very popular and is eclipsed by more popular martial arts like
is a major competitive sport at high school and college level, but receives little mainstream media attention outside of the Olympics.
are popular in the U.S. in coastal areas.
are the most popular locations for surfing. The
was founded in 1983.
surfing in the
are popular in the U.S., especially in rural areas. Other popular outdoors activities in the country include , ,
and . In winter, many Americans head to mountainous areas for
has increased in popularity, fueled by the success of cyclists
and the eight consecutive
won by American contestants (although all eight were discarded in the wake of
against the two winners,
is also widely practiced, especially in the .
is the main professional rodeo organization in the world. , a subset of the rodeo, enjoys popularity as a standalone sport, especially the pro competition, .
are the two most prominent competitions.
– Bowling is the most popular participation "game" sport in the U.S. with more than 43 million people going bowling at least once a year.
is a sport in which individuals, duos, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport included in the Olympics, in 1908.
The most popular team sports in the United States are American football, basketball, baseball/softball, ice hockey, and soccer (association football). All five of these team sports are popular with fans, are widely watched on television, have a , are played by millions of Americans, enjoy varsity status at many , and are played in high schools throughout the country.
TV viewing
(since 2005)1
Major professional league
Participants
NCAA DI Teams
(Men + Women)
8.9 million
249 (249M + 0W)
24.4 million
698 (351M + 349W)
23.3 million
589 (298M + 291W)
13.6 million
531 (205M + 332W)
3.1 million
95 (59M + 36W)
TV viewing record measures the game with the most TV viewers in the U.S. since 2005 for each sport: 2016 Super Bowl, 2016 NBA Finals Game 7, 2016 World Series Game 7, 2014 FIFA World Cup Final, and 2010 Winter Olympics Gold medal ice hockey game.
The column titled "States (HS)" represents the number of states that sponsor the sport at the high school level.
American football, known in the U.S. simply as football, has the most participants of any sport at both high school and college levels, the vast majority of its participants being male.
is the preeminent professional football league in the United States. The NFL has 32 franchises divided into two conferences. After a 16-game regular season, each conference sends six teams to the , which eventually culminate in the league's championship game, the .
Nationwide, the NFL obtains the highest television ratings among major sports. Watching NFL games on television on Sunday afternoons has become a common routine for many Americans during the football season.
is the biggest annual sporting event held in the United States. The
itself is always among the highest-rated programs of all-time in the .
Millions watch
throughout the fall months, and some communities, particularly in rural areas, place great emphasis on their local
teams. The popularity of college and high school football in areas such as the
() and the
( and ) stems largely from the fact that these areas historically generally did not possess markets large enough for a professional team. Nonetheless, college football has a rich history in the United States, predating the NFL by decades, and fans and alumni are generally very passionate about their teams.
hoisting the
for the fifth time in his career after winning .
During football season in the fall, fans have the opportunity to watch high school games on Fridays and Saturdays, college football on Saturdays, and
games on Sundays, the usual playing day of the professional teams. However, some colleges play games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, while the NFL offers weekly games on
(since 1970) and
(since 2006). As recently as 2013, one could find a nationally televised professional or college game on television any night between
Notable NFL players include , , , , , , , , , , , , and . Notable current NFL players include , , , and .
or , a form of football played in indoor arenas, has several professional and semi-professional leagues. The
was active from 1987 to 2008 and folded in 2009, but several teams from the AFL and its former minor league, , relaunched the league in 2010. Most other extant indoor leagues date to the mid- and are regional in nature.
is seldom seen. A few amateur and semi-professional leagues exist, of varying degrees of stability and competition. Football is unique among scholastic sports in the U.S. in that no women's division
in high school or college must compete directly with men.
This section needs additional citations for . Please help
by . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2017) ()
is the oldest stadium in .
Baseball and a variant, , are popular participatory sports in the U.S. The highest level of baseball in the U.S. is . The
of Major League Baseball is the culmination of the sport's postseason each October. It is played between the winner of each of the two leagues, the
and the , and the winner is determined through a best-of-seven playoff.
batting in 2007
developed over 150 years ago in the northeast, it has been played and followed in this region longer than in others.[] The
is noted for having won more titles than any other US major professional sports franchise. The Yankees' chief rivals, the , also enjoy a huge following in
and throughout . The fierce National League rivalry between the former Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants was transferred to the West Coast when the teams became the
and the , and California has always been among the US states which have supplied the most players in the major leagues.
sports fans also avidly follow the
and to a lesser extent the
despite the comparative lack of success for the teams, with Chicago Cub fans being known throughout the country for their passionate loyalty to the team despite their not having won a championship from 1908 to 2016. Historically, the leagues were much more competitive, and cities such as Boston,
had rival teams in both leagues up until the 1950s.
Notable American baseball players in history include
(714 career home runs),
(career leader in batting average and batting titles), , ,
(.344 career batting average), , , , , ,
(18-time All-Star),
(career home run leader from 1974 to 2007),
(career strikeouts leader),
(7 Cy Young awards),
and , who was instrumental in dissolving the
and allowing African-Americans into the major leagues. The more noted players of today include , , , , and .
An extensive
system covers most mid-sized cities in the United States. Minor league baseball teams are organized in a six-tier hierarchy, in which the highest teams (AAA) are in major cities that do not have a major league team but often have a major team in another sport, and each level occupies progressively smaller cities. The lowest levels of professional baseball serve primarily as development systems for the sport's most inexperienced prospects, with the absolute bottom, the rookie leagues, occupying the major league squads'
complexes. Some limited independent professional baseball exists, the most prominent being the , which occupies mostly suburban locales that are not eligible for high level minor league teams of their own.
Outside the minor leagues are
leagues, which occupy towns even smaller than those at the lower end of minor league baseball and typically cannot support professional sports. Summer baseball is an amateur exercise and uses players that choose not to play for payment in order to remain eligible to play
for their respective universities in the spring. At the absolute lowest end of the organized baseball system is senior amateur baseball (also known as ), which typically plays its games only on weekends and uses rosters composed of local residents. Further below that is
softball, which is primarily played for recreation.
Of those Americans citing their favorite sport, basketball is ranked second (counting amateur levels) behind American football.[] However, in regards to money the NBA is ranked third in popularity. More Americans play basketball than any other team sport, according to the National Sporting Goods Association, with over 26 million Americans playing basketball. Basketball was invented in 1891 by Canadian physical education teacher
in Springfield, Massachusetts.
(NBA) is the world's premier men's professional basketball league and one of the major professional sports leagues of North America. It contains 30 teams (29 teams in the U.S. and 1 in Canada) that play an 82-game season from October to June. After the regular season, eight teams from each conference compete in the playoffs for the .
has been a member of the USA Olympic basketball team a record four times, winning a bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and gold medals at the , and 2016 Summer Olympics. He is the United States Olympic men's national basketball team all-time leading scorer, leader in rebounds and games played.
Since the , NBA players have represented the United States in international competition and won several important tournaments. The
was the unofficial nickname of the United States men's basketball team that won the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics.
Basketball at both the college and high school levels is popular throughout the country. Every March, a 68-team, six-round, single-elimination tournament (commonly called ) determines the national champions of NCAA Division I men's college basketball.
Most U.S. states also crown state champions among their high schools. Many high school basketball teams have intense local followings, especially in
has 10 of the 12 , and is famous for its basketball passion, known as .
Notable NBA players in history include
(4 time MVP),
(5 time MVP),
(11 time all NBA team),
(12 time all NBA team), ,
(12 time all NBA team), ,
(6 time MVP),
(3 time MVP),
(3 time MVP),
(6 time finals MVP),
(#1 in career assists and steals),
(14 time all NBA team),
(NBA's third all-time leading scorer),
(15-time NBA all-star),
(3 time finals MVP) and
(#2 in career assists and steals).
Notable players in the NBA today include
(4 MVP awards),
(2 time MVP, 1st unanimous MVP),
(5 time all-star),
(10 time all-star), and
(4 NBA scoring titles). Ever since the 1990s, an increasing number of players born outside the United States have signed with NBA teams, sparking league interest in different parts of the world.
Professional basketball is most followed in cities where there are no other sports teams in the four major professional leagues, such as in the case of the , the , the , the , or the . New York City has also had a long historical connection with college and professional basketball, and many basketball legends initially developed their reputations playing in the many playgrounds throughout the city. , the home arena of the , is often referred to as the "Mecca of basketball."
is the premier women's basketball league in the United States. Several of the 12 teams are owned by NBA teams. The
has won seven
gold medals and nine .
, usually referred to in the U.S. simply as "hockey", is another popular sport in the United States. In the U.S. the game is most popular in regions of the country with a cold winter climate, namely the northeast and the upper Midwest. However, since the 1990s, hockey has become increasingly popular in the
due in large part to the expansion of the
to the southeast and southwest U.S., coupled with the mass relocation of many residents from northern cities with strong hockey support to these Sun Belt locations.[]
, home to the
is the major professional hockey league in North America, with 24 U.S.-based teams and 7 Canadian-based teams competing for the . While NHL stars are still not as readily familiar to the general American public as are stars of the NFL, MLB, and the NBA, average attendance for NHL games in the U.S. has surpassed average NBA attendance in recent seasons,[] buoyed in part by the
being played in large outdoor stadiums.
Minor league professional hockey leagues in the U.S. include the
and the . Additionally, nine U.S.-based teams compete in the three member leagues of the .
is the official governing body for amateur hockey in the U.S. The
is located in .
One of the nation's greatest ever sporting moments was the "",[] which came during the
beat the Soviet Union 4–3 in the first game of the medal round before going on to beat Finland to claim the gold medal.
won their 11th cup in 2008
Historically, the vast majority of NHL players had come from Canada, with a small number of Americans. As late as 1969–70, Canadian players made up 95 percent of the league. By the 1979–80 season, more than 10 percent of NHL players were American-born. During the 1970s and 1980s, European players entered the league. Many players from the former
flocked to the NHL beginning in the 1990s. Today, the majority of NHL players are Canadian, more than 20% are Americans, and virtually all of the remainder are European-trained. (For a more complete discussion, see .)
Notable NHL players in history include
(leading point scorer),
(3 time MVP), , ,
(6 time MVP),
(7 times NHL top defenseman), , and
(8 times NHL's best defenseman). Famous NHL players today include
has a regional following in the northeastern and upper midwestern United States. It is increasingly being used to develop players for the NHL and other professional leagues (the U.S. has junior leagues, the
and , but they are more restricted to protect junior players' college eligibility). The
is college hockey's national championship.
Women's ice hockey is less popular. The , founded in 2015, is the first in the country to pay its players, and featured four teams from the Northeast.
has a following as an amateur an several tournaments exist for the game where the climate allows it.
The U.S. now has more youth hockey players than all other countries, excluding Canada, combined.
representing the
has been increasing in popularity in the United States in recent years. Soccer is played by over 13 million people in the U.S., making it the third most played sport in the U.S., more widely played than ice hockey and American football. Most
colleges field both a men's and women's varsity soccer team, and those that field only one team almost invariably field a women's team.[]
The United States
and , as well as a number of national youth teams, represent the United States in international soccer competitions and are governed by the
(U.S. Soccer). The U.S. men's team is one of only seven teams in the world to have qualified for every
since 1990. The U.S. women's team holds the record for most
championships, and is the only team that has never finished worse than third place in a World Cup. The U.S. women beat Japan 5–2 in the
final to claim their third Women's World Cup title, and first since 1999.
scored three goals in 16 minutes, achieving the fastest
in World Cup history.
A parade in
celebrates the winning of the
is the premier soccer league in the United States. MLS has 22 clubs (19 from the U.S. and 3 from Canada). The 34-game schedule runs from mid-March to late October, with the playoffs and championship in November.
continue to be built for MLS teams around the country, both because American football stadiums are considered to have excessive capacity, and because teams profit from operating their stadiums. MLS has a particularly solid following in the , where there is a strong rivalry between the
(see ). Other professional men's soccer leagues in the U.S. include the two leagues that now form the sport's second division in the country, the
and , the latter of which now has a formal relationship with MLS and features several affiliate teams.
Many American sports fans, as compared to decades ago, now follow international soccer competitions such as the . Soccer fans also follow foreign club competitions such as the , England's
and Mexico's
on television.
takes a corner kick
Younger generations of Americans are developing stronger fan appreciation for the sport, due to factors such as the U.S. hosting of the
and the formation of Major League Soccer, as well as increased U.S. television coverage of soccer competitions. Many immigrants living in the United States continue to follow soccer as their favorite team sport.
Women's professional soccer in the United States has not seen sustained success. U.S. Soccer has established a new professional league, the , which started in 2013. However, at the lower levels of the salary scale, the NWSL is effectively semi-professional.
Many notable international soccer players played in the U.S. in , albeit at the end of their playing careers—including , , , , and —or in MLS—including , , , , , , , and .
The best American soccer players enter the . Particularly notable American male players in the Hall of Fame include , , , , , , and . Notable female American players in the Hall of Fame include , , , , and .
The following table shows additional sports that are played by over 500,000 people in the United States.
Participation
NCAA teams
(Men + Women)
Semi-Pro League(s)
Attendance Record
(single game)
10.7 million
(109M + 1,064W)
17,209 (2006)
4.9 million
1,175 (2013)
1.4 million
61,500 (2014)
(339M + 443W)
48,970 (2008)
Women playing
is a team sport that is believed to have originate with the , a confederacy of
tribes that reside in Canada and what is now , and the
to their southeast. The sport was popular among numerous tribes both within and outside the Iroquois and Lenape in the eastern United States well before the arrival of European settlers. The Iroquois field their own separate national team, the , in recognition of the confederacy's hand in the creation of the sport.
Lacrosse is most popular in the East Coast area. The
are the national
leagues, respectively, with both leagues operating on a fully professional level. The most popular Division I college lacrosse teams draw 1,000–4,000 fans per game, especially in the
is also a notable sport in the United States, especially at the college and university levels. Unlike most Olympic sports which are sponsored widely at the collegiate level for both sexes, the support for college volleyball is dramatically skewed in favor of the women's game. In the 2011–12 school year, over 300 schools in NCAA Division I alone (the highest of three NCAA tiers) sponsored women's volleyball at the varsity level, while fewer than 100 schools in all three NCAA divisions combined sponsored varsity men's volleyball, with only 23 of them in Division I. This
female-oriented sports such as volleyball help balance a college's athletic opportunities for women with those for men.
The U.S. Women's Volleyball team in 2007
has won three gold medals at the Olympic Games, one FIVB World Championship, two FIVB Volleyball World Cup, and one FIVB World League. Meanwhile, the
has won the one FIVB World Championship and six editions of the FIVB World Grand Prix.
has increasingly become popular in the United States, in part due to media exposure during the Olympic Games.
A scrum showing the body positions of the forwards, as well as the position of both
and the referee.
is played professionally, recreationally and in colleges, though it is not governed by the
(see ). An estimated 1.2 million people in the United States play rugby. The
has competed at the . In , the
is one of 15 "core teams" that participate in every event of the annual , and the
is one of 11 core teams in the . The professional domestic club competition
began play in April 2016.
Rugby union participation in the U.S. has grown significantly in recent years, growing by 350% between 2004 and 2011. A 2010 survey by the National Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association ranked rugby union as the fastest-growing sport in the U.S. The sports profile in the U.S. has received a tremendous boost from the IOC's announcement in 2009 that rugby union would return to the
in 2016. Since the Olympic announcement, rugby union events such as the , the , and the Rugby World Cup have been broadcast on network TV. The USA Sevens, held every year in February as part of the World Rugby Sevens Series and adding a parallel women's event in the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series in 2017, regularly draws more than 60,000 fans to Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas.
the two sports were nearly identical in the late 19th century but diverged into distinct, incompatible codes by the start of the 20th century.
is the most popular game of all the disc sports
played with a . The object of the game is to score points by passing the disc to members of your own team until you have completed a pass to a team member in the opposing teams end zone. Over 5.1 million people play some form of organized ultimate in the US.
Alternative sports, using the flying disc, began in the mid-sixties, when numbers of young people looked for alternative recreational activities, including throwing a . What started with a few players experimenting with a
later would become known as playing . Organized disc sports in the 1970s began with a few tournaments, and professionals using
show tours to perform at universities, fairs and sporting events. Disc sports such as ,
(with a human handler throwing discs for a
to catch), , , , and
became this sport's first events.
was invented in the 1950s and developed at the International Frisbee Tournament. , the most widely played disc sport, began in the late 1960s. In the 1970s it developed as an organized sport with the creation of the .
was invented and introduced in the early 1970s. In 1974,
was created. In 1976, the game of
was standardized by the . Beginning in 1974, the International Frisbee Association (IFA) became the regulatory organization for all of these sports.
Disc sports includes both
and . Ultimate has added two leagues: the
(AUDL), which began play in 2012, and
(MLU), which began play in 2013, however these leagues are still competing at a lower level than club teams established across the US.
In 2015, the
(IOC) granted full recognition to the
(WFDF) for
sports including .
The development of
was inspired by skateboarding, sledding, surfing and skiing. It was developed in the United States in the 1960s, became a Winter Olympic Sport at Nagano in 1998 and first featured in the Winter Paralympics at Sochi in 2014.
executes a heel-side turn
was first played in the country in 1996. The
is the governing body for the sport in the U.S, with various clubs and leagues around the country. The
are held annually. The
and the women's national team both regularly play international matches, and play in the , an international tournament. The sport also benefits from an active fan based organization, the .
is only played in .
regularly plays in Division A of the . In terms of licensed athletes, it is the second biggest winter sport in the world.
is not a popular sport, but has a
with limited inroads, mainly in immigrant communities. The
governs cricket in the United States. Historically, cricket used to be the most popular sport in America during the 18th and early 19th centuries,[] but declined as baseball overtook cricket. The first intercollegiate tournament in America was the , played since 1844, when it was attended by 10,000 spectators in New York.[], and the annual match is the oldest international sporting event in the modern world. The
plays in , the
and qualified for .
Curling at Youth Olympic Games 2012
is popular in northern states,[] possibly because of climate, proximity to Canada, or Scandinavian heritage. The national popularity of curling is growing after significant media coverage of the sport in the
are governed by
and . They do not have a high profile, but are developing sports, with New York fielding a representative team in the .
is played in the United States predominantly by women. It is played widely at numerous NCAA colleges, where it is used as a sport to offset
regulations assuring equal opportunities for men and women in sports (it thus offsets male-dominated sports such as college football).
, a common sport in European countries, is seldom seen in the United States. The sport is mostly played in the country on the amateur level. Handball is played in the , but is not sanctioned by the NCAA; all college and university teams play as club teams. The sport's governing body is USA Team Handball.
was invented by Americans as a way to play the sport in all climates. The
is the league with the largest number of
in the nation.
is a non-standard version of inline hockey played by amateurs in informal games.
Goalkeeper blocking a shot in water polo
is played by the
() is a 14 team semi-professional
competition based on the East Coast of the United States. The league was founded in 2011 by clubs that had broken with the established American National Rugby League (), plus expansion franchises. The
began its inaugural season in 2011. In November 2014, the USARL were granted Affiliate membership of the
and are now the official governing body for the sport in the USA. The
played in their first
in 2013 losing to
in the quarter finals 62–0. The United States, along with Canada, will host the .
does not have a professional competition in the U.S., so the highest level of competitive play is at the college level and in the Olympics. The NCAA sanctions water polo as a varsity sport for both men and women, but sport is not popular in the U.S. beyond the west coast, and no team outside of California has ever reached the finals of the NCAA Division I men's water polo championship.
– Skateboarding culture was born in the U.S., which holds many of the top tournaments and produces the majority of professional skateboarders.
is a sport developed as a way to maintain . Angleball is used for conditioning and for fun by colleges, schools, camps and all-age groups. Angleball's gameplay emphasizes skill, accuracy and endurance. Angleball gameplay is simple. Two large balls are placed atop standards at opposite sides of a field. Teams pass a smaller ball back and forth, attempting to knock the other team's ball off its perch with the smaller ball.
is played recreationally by adults and children.
is played traditionally by children in school, though adult leagues in urban areas have formed within the past 10 years. A caricatured version was portrayed in the 2004 film comedy .
is also played recreationally by adults and children, especially at the
level. Its rules are largely identical to baseball, except that no bat is used and instead a large rubber ball is rolled along the ground for the "batter" to kick.
is a contact sport played on
that has had brief surges of popularity throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Roller Derby was portrayed in the 2009 film . Since September 2009, there were 350 women's, men's, and junior leagues in the U.S.A.
, a game played inside giant inflatable balls, has risen in popularity since its introduction to the US in 2014.
An adaptation of the fictional sport of
held its first U.S. championship in 2015.
, live animal
For the most part, unlike sports in Europe and other parts of the world, there is no system of
in American professional sports. Major sports leagues operate as associations of . The same 30–32 teams play in the league each year unless they move to another city or the league chooses to expand with new franchises.
All American sports leagues use the same type of schedule. After the regular season, the 10–16 teams with the best records enter a
tournament leading to a championship series or game. American sports, except for soccer, have no equivalent to the cup competitions that run concurrently with leagues in European sports. Even in the case of soccer, the cup competition, the , draws considerably less attention than the regular season. Also, the only top-level U.S. professional teams that play teams from other organizations in meaningful games are those in . Since the 2012 season, all U.S.-based MLS teams have automatically qualified for the U.S. Open Cup, in which they compete against teams from lower-level U.S. leagues. In addition, three or four U.S.-based MLS teams (depending on the results of the U.S. Open Cup) qualify to play clubs from countries outside the U.S. and Canada in the . NBA teams have played
teams in preseason exhibitions on a semi-regular basis, and recent
have pitted top players from the league against major European soccer teams, such as members of the .
International competition is not as important in American sports as it is in the sporting culture of most other countries, although
ice hockey and basketball tournaments do generate attention. The first international baseball tournament with top-level players, the , also generated some positive reviews after its inaugural tournament in 2006.
The major professional sports leagues operate
once a year, in which each league's teams selected eligible prospects. Eligibility differs from league to league. Baseball and ice hockey operate
systems for players who have finished education but are not ready or good enough for the major leagues. The NBA also has a
for players who are not ready to play at the top level.
Pre-game activities at University of Tennessee football game
The extent in the United States to which sports are associated with secondary and tertiary education is rare among nations. Millions of students participate in athletics programs operated by high schools and colleges. Student-athletes often receive
to colleges in recognition of their athletic potential. Currently, the largest governing body of collegiate sports is the
(orange and blue home uniforms) play against the
(all-white away uniforms) in 2012 in .
Especially in football and basketball, college sports are followed in numbers equaling those of professional sports.[]
games can draw over 100,000 spectators. For upper-tier institutions, sports are a significa for less prominent teams, maintaining a high-level team is a major expense. To ensure some semblance of competitive balance, the NCAA divides its institutions into three divisions (four in football), sorted by the number of athletic scholarships each school is willing to offer.
The most practiced college sports, measured by NCAA reporting on varsity team participation, are: (1) football (64,000), (2) baseball/softball (47,000), (3) track and field (46,000), (4) soccer (43,000), (5) basketball (32,000), (6) cross-country running (25,000), and (7) swimming/diving (20,000). The most popular sport among female athletes is soccer, followed closely by track and field.
athletics are governed separately by the
High school . Whether cheerleading constitutes an actual sport is a major source of contention in the U.S.
Most public high schools are members of their respective state athletic association, and those associations are members of the . Some states have separate associations for public and non-public high schools.
The high school sports with the highest number of participants are:
Team sports
Football – 1,085,182
Basketball – 970,983
Baseball/Softball – 862,915
Soccer – 808,250
Volleyball – 486,594
Individual sports
Track & field (outdoor) – 1,057,358
Cross country – 472,597
Tennis – 340,116
Swimming & diving – 303,925
Wrestling – 269,704
11-man football only. An additional 29,071 students played in variants with reduced team sizes (6-man, 8-man, 9-man).
Softball totals include fast-pitch and slow-pitch variants, with more than 97% of all softball players participating in fast-pitch.
Popular high school sports in various regions of the U.S. include the Texas High School football championships, the Indiana basketball championships, and ice hockey in Minnesota. The Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament is the largest high school sporting event in the country, with average attendance to the top tier, or "AA", games over 18,000.[]
consists of more than 670,000 participants and over 100,000 volunteers. The AAU has been around since 1888, and has been influential in amateur sports for more than 125 years.
A portrait of
as a member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, 2004.
No American government agency is charged with overseeing sports. However, the
advises the President through the Secretary of Health and Human Services about physical activity, fitness, and sports, and recommends programs to promote regular physical activity for the health of all Americans. The
has chartered the
to govern American participation in the
and promote amateur sports. Congress has also involved itself in several aspects of sports, notably
in college athletics,
in pro sports,
and the application of
law to sports leagues.
Individual states may also have athletic commissions, which primarily govern individual sports, such as the
and . Although these commissions only have jurisdiction over their own states, the
is often interpreted as forcing all other states to recognize any state athletic commission's rulings regarding an athlete's fitness for participating in a sport.
Sports have been a major part of American broadcasting since the early days of radio. Today,
pay millions (sometimes billions) of dollars for the rights to . Contracts between leagues and broadcasters stipulate how often games must be interrupted for . Because of all of the advertisements, broadcasting contracts are very lucrative and account for the biggest chunk of pro teams' revenues. Broadcasters also covet the television contracts for the major sports leagues (especially in the case of the ) in order to amplify their ability to promote their programming to the audience, especially young and middle-aged adult males.
The advent of
has greatly expanded sports offerings on American TV. , the first all-sports cable network in the U.S., went on the air in 1979. It has been followed by several sister networks and competitors. Some sports television networks are national, such as ,
and , whereas others are regional, such as ,
and . General entertainment channels like , , , and
also air sports events.
Some sports leagues have their own sports networks, such as , , , , ,
and . Some sports teams run their own television networks as well.
Sports are also widely broadcast at the local level, ranging from college and professional sports down to (on some smaller stations) recreational and youth leagues.
has allowed these broadcasts to reach a worldwide audience. A major issue at the college level is the question of paying the athletes from the television revenues.
"Just Say No" paraphernalia at the
In the broadest definition of sports—physical recreation of all sorts—the four most popular sports among the general population of the United States are exercise walking (90 million), exercising with equipment (53 million), swimming (52 million) and camping (47 million). The most popular competitive sport (and fifth most popular recreational sport) is bowling (43 million). Other most popular sports are fishing (35 million), bicycling (37 million), weightlifting (33 million), aerobics (30 million), and hiking (28 million).
According to the 2013 Harris Poll, the six sports with most fans are American football (46%), baseball (14%), basketball (10%), auto racing (7%), ice hockey (5%) and tennis (3%). In the 1985 poll, 31% of fans preferred football, 23% baseball, 12% basketball, 5% auto racing and 5% tennis.
Though baseball has historically been called the "national pastime", American football has considerably grown in popularity with the advent of television over the last several decades. Most debates about "America's most popular sport" tend to center on the degree of Americans' identification with eithe the question is a difficult one to resolve.
Advocates of baseball point to the overwhelming number of baseball tickets sold annually in the United States and Canada, compared to NFL football. It is likely that the average American sports fan will attend many more major league baseball games than NFL football games in his or her lifetime, due in part to baseball's longer schedule and football's (generally) higher ticket prices.[]
Advocates of football, in turn, point to football's large television audience, including the Super Bowl, though the sport is also facing some negative publicity in the world of youth sports due to media coverage of documented health and injury risks posed to players, including the potential long-term health concerns that concussions pose for children or teenagers. Certain teams of both sports, such as the Green Bay Packers, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, New England Patriots, Washington Redskins, Oakland Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers, have cultivated famously loyal fan bases across the country.
In many cases, identification with a certain football or baseball team is a matter of family inheritance going back many generations and local identity. Furthermore, the popularity of each, as well as of other major team sports, may vary depending on region, ethnicity and age.
The following table shows the major professional sports leagues, which average over 15,000 fans per game and that have a national TV contract that pays rights fees.
National TV contract
Attendance
CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, NFLN
Fox, FS1, ESPN, TBS, MLBN
Fox, FS1, ESPN, Univision
ABC, ESPN, TNT, NBATV
NBC, NBCSN, NHLN
(was Indy Racing League (IRL), merged with )
(IMSA, sanctions )
, for men's golfers 50 operated by the PGA Tour
The U.S. is guaranteed four places in the CONCACAF Champions League. Three places are automatically reserved for MLS teams: the
winner (league champion), the
winner (best regular-season record), and the team with the best regular-season record in the opposite conference from the Shield winner. The fourth place goes to the U.S. Open Cup winner, which is not necessarily an MLS team. Note that Canada-based MLS teams are not eligible to fill Champions League places reserved for MLS; those teams compete in the , the winner of which receives that country's sole Champions League place. If a team qualifies for the Champions League by more than one method, or if a Canada-based team fills an automatic qualifying spot, the Champions League place passes to the U.S.-based MLS team with the best regular-season record among those not already qualified.
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The NCAA defines a participant as someone who "as of the day of the varsity team's first scheduled contest: (a) is lis (b) practices with the varsity team and receives coaching from one or
or (c)received athletically-related student aid."
The NCAA does not give a number for total track and field, but breaks the figures into outdoor and indoor. The number given is for outdoor track and field. The total is likely to be somewhat higher.
(PDF). National Federation of State High School Associations 2015.
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