We live in a world where a healthy lifestyle has overcome bad habits. And what is healthy lifestyle without sports? Each country has its own traditional sports that are popular with the population. America is in the first position on this issue. In fact, more than 70% of the inhabitants of the United States are attracted by four major American sports, each of which is characterized by fierce competitions, enhanced training, which not every athlete can withstand. But success is multimillion-dollar contracts, advertising campaigns, cooperation with world brands and even our own line of clothes and shoes. This list is impressive, therefore, every American who is professionally involved in sports, wants to get into the “big league”.
Number One - Baseball
The real business card of the United States is an American sport with a ball and a bat - baseball. In any film that depicts the lives of Americans, a baseball game is indispensable. Children begin to play it almost from the moment they begin to walk. Each school has its own team, playing baseball is very prestigious. Periodically, competitions are held between school and city teams that determine the leader. The game is popular not only in America, but also in Europe. But it was the States that were the founder of the American bat sport.
How did baseball come about?
The first rules for playing baseball were developed in 1845 not at all by an athlete, but by the seller and part-time firefighters from New York, Alexander Cartwright. Only a year later, the national championship of America was held, the game took root, and is very popular to this day.
What are the famous baseball caps that were put on sale in 1954 by New Era. Initially, they were intended to protect players from sunlight, but by the end of the 70s this headgear became so popular that it was worn not only by fans who had the logo of their favorite team on the visor, but also American fashionistas.
The popularity of baseball is proved by many films made on this subject. The most famous of them can be called “The Man Who Changed Everything”, “Hand in a Million”, “Fan”.
Every American, young and old, knows all the best baseball players and their teams. The game collects complete stadiums of fans, and in schools and universities even a separate round of sports culture, where baseball players are peculiar stars.
Basketball: Game Made in America
It makes no sense to be surprised that the USA takes first place in basketball. This game has a true American origin, appeared in 1891. Its creator is a regular teacher James Naismith, a resident of the city of Springfield. His goal was not to come up with a new sport, but to bring diversity to all the boring physical education lessons. An inventive teacher decided to fix two fruit baskets on the railing in the gym, after which he divided the students into two teams and gave the task - to throw as many balls into the “original” goal as possible. From here comes the simple name of the game: basket - from English "basket", ball - "ball".
What is the popularity of baseball?
In the rules developed by James Naismith, there were 13 points that underwent changes until 2004. Only then it was decided to leave the game alone and not edit anything else.
In the first rules, the teams consisted of 9 people, now from each team on the field there can be no more than 5, and with spare ones no more than 12. Basketball developed rapidly, and in 1936 was included in the category of Olympic sports. There is a National Basketball Association, whose tournaments are the most popular in the world. Basketball is not inferior to baseball in popularity; the game is popular among Americans of different age categories. And school teams, as well as baseball teams, are incredibly popular and respected among peers. Sometimes schools hire a physical education teacher and a basketball coach separately.
Hockey - bread and circuses!
Hockey in America is no less popular than in Russia. The games are broadcast on all TV channels, the most powerful and prestigious in America is the National Hockey League (NHL).
There is a funny tradition in the USA: each NHL team has its own mascot in the form of an animal, which supports its team throughout the game. The most famous are killer whale, dog, panther. Some Russian players (Ovechkin, Malkin), who are firmly in the top 20 players, managed to get into the NHL.
Hard american football
Americans are big fans of football, but not of the kind we are used to seeing it, but of our own. A sport like American football is a mixture of regular European football and rugby. The most important difference from the usual game for us is that the ball is not moved around the field with legs, but with hands. Moreover, the ball, so that it is more comfortable in the hands, does not have a round shape, but an oblong one. The task of the players is to bring the ball to the desired area of ​​the field or to score it into the goal, here you can hit the ball and foot. Attention should also be paid to the fact that the players' uniforms are very unusual, as are the gates, which are an interesting design.
American football is not a game for the faint of heart. This sport is recognized as one of the toughest in the world and is not far from fighting without rules. Here, no one will blame you for the use of physical force. To reduce the risk of injury, an unusual form has been created that performs a protective function. Players even have a helmet! Since 2024, American football has been an Olympic sport.
Sokker, or regular football
Of course, this sport cannot be attributed to the most popular. Students of universities and colleges most often prefer to play regular football, or as it is called in America “sokker”. Despite this, there is a major league - MLS, which was created in order to distinguish this sport from American football.
Sport occupies an important part not only in the cultural development of the country, but also in the education system of the United States, it greatly affects the lifestyle of schoolchildren and students. Almost every school, college and university has its own teams for all these sports, competitions are held on a regular basis. The best of the best are invited to study or to more promising teams. There is a National University Sports Association, which tracks the movement of players on teams and their progress. The most popular American sports have authority around the world.
America and the Olympics
The love of sports in America is growing every year. For the first time, the United States took part in the Olympic Games in 1896, and during all this time, American athletes missed just one game. In 1980, for political reasons, the leadership decided to ignore the Olympics in Moscow.
America more often than other countries hosts the Olympic Games - 4 times summer and 4 times winter. Athletes from the USA have the largest number of awards in the entire history of the existence of games: the total amount of medals is 2500, of which more than 1000 are gold. American athletes take first place not only in the total number of medals (separately gold, silver and bronze), not only in the summer and winter games in general, but in particular - only in the summer competitions. As for the Winter Olympics, America is second only to Norway. In general, the main competitor of the USA is China.