SPORTS IN SPAIN
BY LUKA LAMPE and Patri's feedback.
In Andalusia football is through the years most predominant sport. But in recent decades basketball has become increasingly popular, unlike basketball handball has never really taken off in Andalusia. If we leave this big and main known sports one of the strongest showing sports has been in tennis and also in table tennis.
FOOTBALL
-Football was introduced to Spain by British men who worked in mining for Rio Tinto in the province of Huelva, the sport soon became popular with the local population. As Spain's oldest existing football club, Recreativo de Huelva, founded in 1889, is known as El Decano. First footbal divison in Spain is called Liga BBVA in which Barcelona and Real Madrid are playing constantly but there are also three Andalusian teams playing in it in the season 2017/18 and those teams are: Malaga CF, Real Betis and Sevilla. Other Andaulisan teams play in the second division such as: Cordoba CF, UD Almeria, Granada...
Andalusia has also its own football team but it is not in any league and plays only friendly matches. In recent years they have played mostly during the Christmas break of the football leagues. They play mostly against national teams from other countries, but they would not be eligible to play in the international league, where Spain is represented by a single national team.
BASKETBALL AND HANDBALL
Like I said in the intro basketball has become increasingly popular, with the club CB Malaga also known as Unicaja malaga who have won the Liga ACB in 2007 and the Korac Cup in 2001 and usually play in the Euroleague. CB Sevilla and CB Granada are also two big Andalusian teams who play in the top level in the Liga ACB.
Handbal has never really been a big sport in Andalusia, because there is no Andalusian tema in the Liga Asobal, which is the first divison in handball in Spain. There is just BM Puente Genil playing in the provincia of Cordoba.
OTHER SPORTS
The main sport from those who are not really known is table tennis, because Andalusia has got two professional teams: Cajasur Priego TM and Caja Granada TM. Caja Granada TM is the leading team in Spain with more than 20 league championships in nearly consecutive years and 14 consecutive Copas del Rey and dominating the Liga ENEBE. If we look on other sports that are not really well known there are sports like surfing, kitesurfing, windsurfing, golf, baseball and horse racing. Spain has also hosted the 1999 Championships in Athletics in Seville, the 2005 Mediterranean Games in Almeria and the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in 1996 in Granada, among other major events.
OLYMPICS
220 Andalusian athletes have competed in a total of 16 summer or winter Olympic Games. Athletes have won 6 gold medals, 11 silver and 2 bronze. Most of the medals have been won in sports such as: Sailing, tennis, skiing, horse riding, rowing... . Spain has also been a pre-candidate to host the Summer Olympics in Seville in 2004 and in 2008, and Granada has been a pre-candidate to host the winter olympics but unfortunately neither of them has ever suceeded in its candidature.
SOURCES:www.andalucia.com>sports,wikipedia.org
Congratulations, Luka. You really did a good job on sports in Spain!
By Patricia Muñoz. I would like to add that...
I'm a supporter of Real Betis Balompie from Sevilla
The largest number of Olympic appearances were by the Malagueña swimmer María Peláez (five appearances), the Granadan skier María José Rienda (four), the Sevillian rider Luis Astolfi (four), and the Sevillian rower Fernando Climent (four, including a silver at Los Angeles, California, US, in 1984).
and fresh news ...
Carolina Marín from Huelva has just won her fourth European Badminton Championship (April 2018)