"Biggest" sport in your country

[Zam_Olyas]

I like both Gaelic football and hurling. Never played it but watch whatever is on youtube. Hurling seems like a difficult sport.

 

[purcell]

You missed ...... um...what about........ what is it? or maybe ..... um no its hockey And CFL football for one sunday for the grey cup where the sports guys are usually telling us about the last hockey game

And curling.

Curling is probably the most widely participated in sport in the country. TV coverage is huge.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

And curling.

Curling is probably the most widely participated in sport in the country. TV coverage is huge.

I suppose there is no doping in Curling.

 

[gooner]

I like both celtic football and hurling. Never played it but watch whatever is on youtube. Hurling seems like a difficult sport.

Hurling is a great sport. Fastest field sport in the world. Great double header on Sunday where Offaly play Kilkenny and Limerick play Tipperary. Look forward to it.

Brilliant game. Really gets your passion going.

As for the football I was at a couple of Championship games between Cork and Kerry before and they're great battles with an intense rivalry.

Overall hurling is the stand out one.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Hurling is a great sport. Fastest field sport in the world. Great double header on Sunday where Offaly play Kilkenny and Limerick play Tipperary. Look forward to it.

Brilliant game. Really gets your passion going.

As for the football I was at a couple of Championship games between Cork and Kerry before and they're great battles with an intense rivalry.

Overall hurling is the stand out one.

Thank you. Will be on the look for a dodgy stream

 

[ferryman]

What's the popularity of shinty like in Scotland? I heard it was popular in the Highlands but would it be a minority sport?

They used to play our guys in hurling in internationals years ago where they combined the two aspects of the games. While I like hurling myself, I found the game between the two quite entertaining on the occasions I watched it. I don't think they play each other anymore if memory serves me right.

As a lowlander I shamefully don't know. But I think they still have the shinty/hurling game annually and I think the hurlers(sp) won handsomely

 

[Alex Simmons/RST]

I suppose there is no doping in Curling.

You do realise that Armstrong was popped for doping in wheelchair curling...
http://www.nj.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/03/dalessandro_even_wheelchair_cu.html

no, not that Armstrong

 

[Microchip]

You do realise that Armstrong was popped for doping in wheelchair curling...
http://www.nj.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/03/dalessandro_even_wheelchair_cu.html

no, not that Armstrong

That is too funny!

 

[The Hitch]

Poland has some great players right now though and is light years ahead of my country.... and football is still the biggest sport here That's what I call pathetic Although on the other hand who cares if you are good at it or not, if people like it then who are we to judge them...

For Luxembourg it is hard to say... Football probably has the most people who actively practice it. It gets probably the most coverage in the papers too. But the games are pretty sparsely visited. I think Basketball and Handball games have more spectators than football and the ambiance is much better. So it really depends how you look at it.

I would say

1. Football
2. Basketball
3. Handball

In terms of cycling the most popular, despite Schlecks et al is Cyclocross I would say. In the winter there are races every week with sometimes pretty good international fields and they have a lot of spectators and a good ambiance. But that comes with the nature of the sport, it is spectacular, muddy and they do laps. Road cylcing doesn't offer that so much

It's not the people that decide it's the media. If you take twin brothers seperate them and raise 1 in Canada and 1 in Brazil one will come out ahockey fan and the other a football fan.

I always had the impression that ski jumping seemed quite popular in Poland?

The sport wasn't popular. Malysz was

though they do show wintersports live on polish channels in Poland during winter weekends. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that. Would never happen here.

Cricket and then probably rugby and then tennis even if the professional aspect of it we are rubbish at, but of course Football is light years ahead.

South Africa is a proper nation with both Rugby and then Cricket ahead of Football.

I would say rugby is more popular. The 6 nations and the rugby world cup are 2 of the sporting events protected by the UK tv authorities from getting hijacked by sky. England ru team is very match the second national team.

On a domestic level rugby league is probably second to football.

After ru and cricket would probably be tennis though hard to measure cos it revolves heavily around 2 weeks in June.

then f1 then horse racing then darts and maybe after that cycling.

 

[The Hitch]

Cricket and then probably rugby and then tennis even if the professional aspect of it we are rubbish at, but of course Football is light years ahead.

South Africa is a proper nation with both Rugby and then Cricket ahead of Football.

I would say rugby is more popular. The 6 nations and the rugby world cup are 2 of the sporting events protected by the UK tv authorities from getting hijacked by sky. England ru team is very match the second national team.

On a domestic level rugby league is probably second to football.

After ru and cricket would probably be tennis though hard to measure cos it revolves heavily around 2 weeks in June.

then f1 then horse racing then darts and maybe after that cycling.

 

[plooton]

Czech

1. hockey, closely followed by (2.) football
....

after that comes only crumbs (tennis, athletics, cross country skiing or biathlon, maybe shooting).

 

[greenedge]

Can do better than anecdotally for Australia:



http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@...10~Main+Features~Most+popular+sports+attended

Well tonight our whole nation will be watching Origin

I know that's not true, but i'm looking forward to it.

Also Rugby League in the UK is quite good, they should have more club games of British squads against Australia.

 

[BroDeal]

united states:

1.politics
2.american football (as opposed to *real* football)
3.baseball

basketball & motorsports (nascar)

No way. In the U.S. it is:

1) Playstation
2) XBox
3) Football

 

[Master50]

And curling.

Curling is probably the most widely participated in sport in the country. TV coverage is huge.

Curling! Really? I'd be surprised if curling rises above bowling. Does not compare for attendance maybe to bike racing.
Curling worlds max 7500 seats.
Hamilton mens elite Worlds was close to 1/4 million?

 

[purcell]

Curling! Really? I'd be surprised if curling rises above bowling. Does not compare for attendance maybe to bike racing.
Curling worlds max 7500 seats.
Hamilton mens elite Worlds was close to 1/4 million?

Yes, and every single draw for 10 days is televised. And televised for a reason.

Every single town, hamlet and village in the country has at least one curling rink and there is league play at that one rink.

Bike racing, even the elite worlds doesn't even hit the radar screen. Number of people standing or sitting in person isn't the issue.

 

[elapid]

You missed ...... um...what about........ what is it? or maybe ..... um no its hockey And CFL football for one sunday for the grey cup where the sports guys are usually telling us about the last hockey game

So true

 

[elapid]

Yes, and every single draw for 10 days is televised. And televised for a reason.

Every single town, hamlet and village in the country has at least one curling rink and there is league play at that one rink.

Bike racing, even the elite worlds doesn't even hit the radar screen. Number of people standing or sitting in person isn't the issue.

As an Aussie who has now lived in Canada for 10 years, I hear about curling, baseball, hockey, soccer and even cycling, but nothing dominates news (and I don't just mean sports news) like hockey. Even Canada's national sport rarely gets a mention. Aussie's are a sports mad nation (and I desperately miss my cricket, Aussie Rules and rugby), but we don't compare to Canadians and their hockey ... and I like it!

 

[RedheadDane]

Denmark:

1st: Soccer
2nd: Handball
3rd: Cycling

With handball and cycling close to each other. Huge gap down to number 4.

Very huge probably. What would be number 4? NFL?

My guess would be whatever sport Denmark is currently having some sort of success at...

 

[plooton]

I would put it like this for Sweden when it comes to general interest.

#1 Football
#2 Ice hockey
#3 XC-skiing, Biathlon and Alpine skiing (they are broadcasted together at weekends during the winter).

Innebandy (floorball) is very popular to play on a recreational level and getting more and more popular at a professional level. Ice hockey is not so popular to play anymore since it's expensive but alot of people care about the national team, especially in the olympics and world cup play offs.

What's so expensive about hockey? You buy some basic equipment once for a life-time, twice as for skates and a stick for a season. Then hire an ice ring 2-4 x a month in cca 20 people (what I guess isn't more then twice as expensive as skating for public). Or at least to go outdoors several times during winter.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

You do realise that Armstrong was popped for doping in wheelchair curling...
http://www.nj.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/03/dalessandro_even_wheelchair_cu.html

no, not that Armstrong

That is depressing, i was asked to follow another sport because i keep talking about the doping in cycling and curling was a good alternative, i have to change that to..lawn bowling it will be

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

Belgium:
1)Football
2)Cycling/CX
3)Tennis? Athletics?

 

[woodenswan]

Hungary

1. bloody soccer
2. F1...
3. handball, probably

Poland

1 Football (even though they absolutely suck at it it's still the only sport anyone watches, absolutely pathetic)
(Huge gap)
2 F1, again because western Europe says it's big, therefore it must matter right.

3 anything Poland happen to be good at atm. Doesn't last a moment past the success. Some boxers have loyal fanbases and volleyball gets some interest I suppose.
Pudzianowski did not get much media attention but he probably has as many fans as anyone from the last decade

what kind of media attention do guys like Niemec, Majka or Kwiatkowski get?

back in the days when we had László Bodrogi participating in the Tour, he was always mentioned during the evening news. i can remember gems like this: "Bodrogi finished 56th today, and moved up to 87th on the general classification, 2 hours 17 minutes down on current leader Lance Armstrong"

 

[hrotha]

For Spain I'd say it's something like
1) Football





2) Hmm. Tennis, maybe
3) F1 & Moto GP


4) Basketball
5) Cycling

 

[The Hitch]

Hungary

1. bloody soccer
2. F1...
3. handball, probably





what kind of media attention do guys like Niemec, Majka or Kwiatkowski get?

not much but none were ever as good as they have been this year. When kwiatkowski had the leaders jersey at tirreno my dad told me that he heard about it so must have made the news.

and during the tdp it's on the news. The tdp gets covered by the state broadcaster and makes 2nd to back page news. Theres definately room for cycling to work it's way into one of the top sports in the country if majka and kwiatkowski become top riders. I tell you what if Sagan had been born a few hundred k north, pff, forget about it.

 

[woodenswan]

I tell you what if Sagan had been born a few hundred k north, pff, forget about it.

u mean south.. Poland is a cycling paradise right now compared to Hungary..
WE HAVE NO ONE! NOT A SINGLE SOUL! THE SITUATION IS DIRE!