In our country, team sports have always been the most successful ones and people’s favorites. Undoubtedly, football (soccer) is the Argentines favorite sport. It’s hard to find an Argentine man (most of the women too) that doesn’t know about football. In many cases, fanaticism gets as far as becoming fan of a team in each world league (besides the own team in Argentina and, of course, the national team).Anything else other than football? Well, the second place has been historically contested by several sports. The particular success of each one of them has made it more or less popular throughout the years. We’re talking about basketball (the second sport with more weekend attendance in its national league), volleyball, rugby and tennis (by far the most successful individual sport).
The most victorious team of these has been the basketball national team. First World Champion in 1950, current losing finalist and Olympic Champion in 2004. Although, the recent third place in the World Cup by the rugby team “The Pumas” is a major achievement, considering that rugby is still an amateur sport with no financial support (like basket and volley leagues). The Pumas have recently been included in the prestigious tournament “Three Nations” (along with world best teams South Africa, New Zealand and Australia). Volleyball has achieved a third place in the 1982 World Cup and a bronze medal in 1988 Olympics.
Curiously, the national sport is none of these, but “Pato” (Duck in Spanish). A traditional sport on horses where you have to put a ball with handles in a basket. The name of the sport comes from the lost tradition of placing a living duck inside the ball. Speaking of horses, the most successful Argentine sport in all our history is polo. For more than 40 years, Argentina has been the best team in the world. Our local polo league is like American NBA, with a superlative level that exceeds the specialty World Cup.
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