Sports in Canada
The Sport in Canada is diverse and includes numerous winter and summer sports. Ice hockey - simply referred to as hockey in Canada - is by far the most popular sport with the greatest success in international comparison. The most popular summer sport is Canadian football . Also generate interest Baseball , Basketball , Cricket , Curling , soccer , rugby union and softball . The most common individual sports are ice skating , golf , athletics , wrestling , swimming , skateboarding , skiing , snowboarding and tennis . Since the country has predominantly a cool climate, the successes in winter sports tend to be more numerous than in summer sports.
Canada has hosted the Olympic Games three times : the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal , the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary and the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver . Outstanding achievements by Canadian athletes are recognized with induction into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame . A jury determines the athlete of the year to whom the Lou Marsh Trophy is presented.
National sports
Canada is a country with two different national sports . Lacrosse, invented by the Canadians, has been an official national sport since the country was founded . In 1994, First Nations advocates objected to a government bill that would instead make ice hockey a national sport. They argued that doing so would diminish the cultural and historical importance of lacrosse. The House of Commons amended the law to designate ice hockey as the official winter national sport and lacrosse as the official summer national sport. The National Sports of Canada Act went into effect on May 12, 1994.
ice Hockey
Canada is considered the motherland of modern ice hockey , as students from Montreal transferred the popular Celtic sport Shinney to the ice at the end of the 19th century, thus laying the foundation for modern ice hockey. Today, ice hockey is far more popular than any other sport. The Canadian Wayne Gretzky is considered the best player of all time.
Although only six of the 30 franchises of the world's most important league, the National Hockey League (NHL), are based in Canada ( Canadiens de Montréal , Calgary Flames , Edmonton Oilers , Ottawa Senators , Toronto Maple Leafs , Vancouver Canucks ), the number is more Canadian Professional players in the NHL around four times as high as those from the USA . Canadian ice hockey is organized by the umbrella organization Hockey Canada . In addition to her main role, leading the Canadian national ice hockey team , she is also responsible for organizing various professional and non-professional ice hockey leagues in the country. Of paramount importance are the three professional junior leagues that are united in the Canadian Hockey League .
lacrosse
The Canadian Lacrosse Association organizes the game of the second national sport , lacrosse . This applies to national championships for men and women at junior and adult level. The men's national championship is called the Ross Cup and the women's Robertson Cup . The men's national team has won the World Cup twice so far .
However, the indoor variant, which is known as box lacrosse , is more popular than field lacrosse . The games are usually played in ice hockey stadiums, the ice surface of which has been defrosted and covered with artificial turf. The most important competition is the National Lacrosse League with teams from Canada and the USA. At the national level, men play for the Mann Cup and women for the Robertson Cup . Outstanding field and indoor players are inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame .
Other sports
baseball
→ Main article: Baseball in Canada
In 1838 a baseball- like game was played for the first time in Ontario , the first team was formed in 1854. The Toronto Blue Jays , founded in 1977, are currently the only Canadian team in Major League Baseball (MLB); as the first foreign team to win the World Series in 1992 and 1993 . The Expos de Montréal were also represented in the MLB from 1969 to 2004 , the team moved in 2005 and has since been known as Washington Nationals . There are several professional minor league teams as well as a semi-professional championship and championships for college teams.
basketball
Basketball is a popular sport with spectators , especially in southern Ontario . The National Basketball Association (NBA) expanded to Canada in 1995. The Vancouver Grizzlies have moved back to Memphis, USA, but the Toronto Raptors are still active and won the NBA final in 2019. Canadian professional teams are also represented in the minor leagues, the American Basketball Association , the Continental Basketball Association , the International Basketball League, and the Premier Basketball League . The inventor of basketball, James Naismith , was born in the province of Ontario. Steve Nash became the first Canadian to be named NBA Most Valuable Player in 2005 . In 2006 he repeated the success. Basketball has been on the rise in Canada since the 2010s. Canadian basketball talents were increasingly recruited from American colleges and later switched to the NBA via the NBA Draft . These include Andrew Wiggins , who was named the first Canadian NBA Rookie of the Year in 2015. Other well-known Canadian basketball players are Cory Joseph , Tristan Thompson and Kelly Olynyk .
According to surveys, basketball is now the most popular team sport among 12 to 17-year-olds even before the national sport of ice hockey.
Canadian football
Canadian football emerged from rugby and is very similar to American football . The Canadian Football League (CFL) is the only professional league, while the Football Canada Association is responsible for organizing the game. The CFL's championship final, the Gray Cup , has the highest audience rating for televised sporting events. Canadian football is also played in high school, college, and amateur leagues. University teams play for the Vanier Cup . The Canadian Football Hall of Fame is located in Hamilton . While there are no Canadian franchises in the US National Football League , American football games are regularly televised.
Cricket
Cricket has been played in Canada since the late 18th century, initially mainly by British soldiers stationed there. The first cricket club was founded in 1828, the first international game (between Canada and the United States) in 1844. Cricket was the most popular sport in the country until the beginning of the 20th century when ice hockey took its place. Canada does not qualify for test cricket , but the national team takes part in one-day internationals and first-class matches against non-test cricket countries. So far she has participated in the Cricket World Cup three times .
Curling
Curling is one of the most traditional sports in Canada and was spread by Scottish soldiers as early as the second half of the 18th century . The Montreal Curling Club, founded in 1807, is the oldest sports club in the country and built the first curling hall in 1837, and the first club for women was established in 1894.
The Canadian Curling Association estimates that around 750,000 Canadians play curling . Curling is particularly popular in the prairie provinces , with the best teams in recent years coming from Alberta . The national championship for men is called The Brier , the championship for women is called the Tournament of Hearts . The respective winners represent Canada on an international level. Canadian teams have won the most world titles in both men and women .
Soccer
Football , known as soccer in Canada , has been played in this country since at least 1876, but has never quite kept up with the popularity of other sports. The only international success worth mentioning was Galt FC's tournament victory at the 1904 Summer Olympics . The Canadian Football Association, the Canadian Soccer Association , was founded in 1912. While the women's national team is one of the best internationally (4th place at the 2003 World Cup), the men's national team has only been able to take part in a final round once (1986). Canada hosted the 1987 U-16 World Cup , the 2002 U-19 Women's World Cup and the 2007 Junior World Cup .
Canadian football clubs do not have a great tradition as they have had to stop playing for financial reasons. On a professional level, four teams currently belong to a US professional league, Toronto FC , Vancouver Whitecaps and Montreal Impact in Major League Soccer and FC Edmonton in North American Soccer League . The highest national league is the Canadian Soccer League , in the Canadian Championship the Canadian representative of the CONCACAF Champions League is determined.
golf
Golf is a popular sport in Canada. Founded in 1873, the Royal Montreal Golf Club is the oldest golf club in North America. The Royal Canadian Golf Association (RCGA) was founded in 1895; the association now represents over 1,600 golf clubs and more than 300,000 members. The RCGA also organizes the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour tournaments in Canada . The Canadian Professional Golf Tour is an organization that runs series of tournaments for professional players, some of which are held outside of Canada.
hockey
→ Main article: Hockey in Canada
There are 10-15,000 organized hockey players in Canada . The sport spread in Canada primarily through immigrants from the Commonwealth of Nations. The women have been taking part in international tournaments since 1956 and the men since 1964 . The men's national team is currently in 14th place in the world rankings and in 2nd place in the American list (as of December 10, 2012), the women are 23rd in the world and 3rd in the American list (as of October 8, 2012).
Motorsport
Is the internationally most outstanding motorsport event in the country since 1967, the discharged annually Canadian Grand Prix of Formula 1 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal . The circuit is named after the fatally injured racing driver Gilles Villeneuve , whose son Jacques Villeneuve became Formula 1 World Champion in 1997. Champ car races were held in several Canadian cities, including Toronto , Mont Tremblant , Edmonton , Vancouver and Montreal. The most successful Canadians in this series were Jacques Villeneuve and Paul Tracy . In 2008 the series merged with the IndyCar Series , which has since run races on a street circuit in Toronto and an airfield circuit in Edmonton. The stock car races are very popular . The Canadian Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (CASCAR) organized the CASCAR Super Series from 1986 to 2006. This was taken over by NASCAR and relaunched in 2007 as the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series . There is a speedway scene in the province of Ontario that has resulted in several internationally successful drivers such as John Kehoe , Chris Slabon and Kyle Legault .
Cycling
Because of the flat topography of most metropolitan areas, cycling is a widespread means of transport, and many cities have an extensive network of cycle paths . The association responsible for cycling , the Canadian Cycling Association , was founded in 1882, making it the oldest sports association in the country. Cycling practiced on the road is of little importance, there are only a few races and internationally successful road cyclists. Canadian athletes are far more successful in the fields of track cycling , BMX and especially mountain biking . The first North Shore Trails , special obstacle courses for mountain bikers , were created in British Columbia .
Rugby union
Rugby-like games were first played by British soldiers and immigrants in the 1820s, with the first game with set rules taking place in 1865. In Cambridge, Massachusetts , the universities of McGill (Montreal) and Harvard hosted North America's first international rugby game. Since the rugby league never prevailed, only rugby union is played today . The provinces of British Columbia , Newfoundland and Ontario are considered strongholds . Most important is the league by the Association of Rugby Canada organized Rugby Canada Super League , but the best players are active in European leagues. The Canadian national team takes part in the annual Churchill Cup . She is divided into the second class of strength by World Rugby and has so far qualified for all world championships; In 1991 she reached her best result when she reached the quarter-finals.
Ski and snowboard
Skiing (and recently snowboarding ) is one of the most popular recreational sports in the country. In 1986, a public opinion poll found that at least 900,000 Canadians practice the sport for at least one week each year. Alpine skiing clearly predominates , which is practiced particularly in the Rocky Mountains , but also in the Appalachian Mountains and the Laurentides . Although the topographical and climatic conditions would be favorable, Nordic skiing is far less common.
It is possible that the Vikings , who settled on Newfoundland for a short time around the year 1000 , already used skis for locomotion. Over 800 years later, it was again Scandinavians who brought modern forms of skiing to Canada. The Norwegian A. Birch undertook the first verifiable journey on cross-country skiing in 1879 between Montreal and Québec . Herman Smith-Johannsen in particular contributed to the popularization of Nordic skiing. Alpine skiing spread from around 1930 and its importance soon surpassed that of Nordic skiing. The freestyle skiing sector is dominated by Canadian athletes, but alpine and snowboarders can also regularly celebrate international successes.
Roller derby
Roller Derby has been experiencing a revival since 2006 - initiated by Montreal Roller Derby , the first new roller derby league in North America. The most common type of game is flat track , according to the regulations of the international umbrella organization Women's Flat Track Derby Association . The most successful Canadian teams include the all-stars of the Montreal Roller Derby, Terminal City Rollergirls and Toronto Roller Derby.
tennis
With Milos Raonic , Eugenie Bouchard and Bianca Andreescu , Canada has three top 10 players in the ATP and WTA world rankings. Raonic was third in the ATP men's world rankings in 2016, Bouchard was fifth in the WTA women's rankings in 2014 and Andreescu was also fifth in the women's world rankings in September 2019, after she was the first Canadian ever to enter the 2019 US Open Grand Slam tournament.
Major sporting events
Numerous major sporting events have taken place in Canada. Canadian athletes have participated in all Olympic Games so far, with the exception of 1896 and 1980 . The 1976 Summer Games took place in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary. Host of the 2010 Winter Games was Vancouver . The Canadian Olympic Committee has existed since 1907. At the Summer Games, Canadian athletes were predominantly successful in track and field , swimming , diving and rowing . Canada is usually one of the most successful countries at winter games, with its strengths being in ice hockey , speed skating (especially the short track variant), curling and freestyle skiing .
Canada is one of six countries that have participated in all Commonwealth Games to date . The first edition took place in 1930 in Hamilton ; other venues were Vancouver (1954), Edmonton (1978) and Victoria (1994). Hamilton lost its bid for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi , while Halifax withdrew its bid for 2014.
The Canada Games take place every two years , alternating between a summer and a winter edition. This is a sports event where amateur athletes represent their province or territory in various sports. The first Canada Games were held in the city of Québec in 1967 as part of the country's centenary. Other major events that have taken place in Canada so far include the Pan-American Games , Universiades , the World Police and Fire Games and the Gay Games .
organization
Since the 1920s, sport has become increasingly important in Canada. In sport, for example, there was a conflict between civil and socialist workers' sport . The labor sports movement in Canada was particularly well represented among immigrants who were used to working-class sports from home, particularly among Finns and Ukrainians. With the decline of the Communist Party , workers' sport also went under in Canada, so that the remnants are integrated into general sport development as a popular sport.
Both the federal government and the provincial governments are actively involved in promoting sport as they have overlapping competencies. Sports Canada, a division of the Department of Culture, coordinates federal sports activities and dictates general development. While the federal government generally takes on the leading role in the field of international sport, individual provinces (especially Québec) promote sport at all levels. As part of the educational system, school sport belongs to the remit of the provinces.
Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) is the national association for sports activities at universities, while the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association (CCAA) is responsible for the colleges. The organizations affiliated to the CIS only award scholarships that cover training costs. Because of this, many of Canada's top athletes move to US universities, where organizations like the National Collegiate Athletic Association can cover all costs (including training, books, accommodation, and transportation). Another organization that supports junior athletes is the Canadian Hockey League , which serves as the "training league " of the National Hockey League .
The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), based in Toronto, represents Canadian athletes in front of the IOC and supports the cities' applications for the Olympic and Pan-American Games .
Web links
- Canadian Olympic Committee
- Sport Canada (Sports Promotion)
- Sports history ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
Individual evidence
- ↑ National Sports of Canada Act ( Memento of June 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Wayne Gretzky ( Memento of the original from July 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - National Hockey League
- ^ A b Canadian Lacrosse Association
- ^ Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame
- ^ Baseball ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved March 14, 2015.
- ↑ Alicia Jessop: How Basketball Overtook Hockey As The Most Popular Youth Sport In Canada. Retrieved November 27, 2019 .
- ^ Cricket (Game) ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved March 14, 2015.
- ^ Curling ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved March 14, 2015.
- ↑ Curling facts ( Memento of the original from June 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Canadian Curling Association
- ^ Soccer ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved March 14, 2015.
- ^ Royal Canadian Golf Association
- ↑ http://www.fieldhockey.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&id=1&Itemid=31 Field Hockey Canada
- ↑ http://www.fieldhockey.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&id=5&Itemid=4 Field Hockey Canada
- ^ FIH Men's and Women's World Ranking. Retrieved April 14, 2013 .
- ↑ Canadian Cycling Association ( Memento of the original from July 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Rugby ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved March 14, 2015.
- ^ Alpine Skiing ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved March 14, 2015.
- ^ Cross-Country Skiing ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved March 14, 2015.
- ↑ Freestyle Skiing ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved March 14, 2015.
- ↑ Montreal Roller Derby (French, English ). Retrieved July 22, 2015.
- ↑ WFTDA ranking list , as of June 30, 2015 (English). Retrieved July 22, 2015.
- ↑ Arnd Krüger , James Riordan (Ed.): The Story of Worker Sport . Human Kinetics, Champaign, Ill. 1996, ISBN 0-87322-874-X ; Richard Gruneau: Class, Sports, and Social Development. Amherst: University of Mass. Press 1983.
- ^ Bruce Kidd : Worker Sport in the new World. The Canadian Story. Arnd Krüger , James Riordan (Eds.): The Story of Worker Sport , pp. 143–156. Human Kinetics, Champaign, Ill. 1996, ISBN 0-87322-874-X .
- ↑ Bruce Kidd : The Struggle for Canadian Sport. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996
