4 Most Played Sports In Africa And Quick History

 

African people should be proud of being one of the most ancient corners of the world where sports were practiced even before than anywhere else. When the Old Greeks invented the Olympic Games, sports in Africa were already a solid reality among several tribes and ethnic groups.

It’s All A Matter Of Physical Characteristics

Probably it’s not a random fact that today black athletes are worldwide recognized for their excellence in various sports. Of course, not all sports demand the same physical requirements and features. But we can fairly say that black athletes can stand out in multiple disciplines, especially in sports that demand physical strength, rather than in sports that demand elasticity and flexibility, for example, like artistic gymnastics.

Other sports where it’s more than rare to see black athletes include horse racing. Horse riders have to be thin, light-weighted, and most black people can’t be physically like that. If you are interested in horse racing and you want to learn more about this sport, read about horse racing online at a7labet.com. It’s an emerging sports guide where you can find plenty of news and updates about so many different sports.

These Sports Are Most Popular In Africa

Africa is currently having an active role in hosting sports events, which gives a strong and generous contribution to the African economy. Moreover, several talented African athletes attract the attention of sports leagues overseas, so today it’s pretty common to see black football players in Swedish teams.

We’ve made the following list of sports, just to make a comprehensive table of the most popular sports that are currently played in the African Continent:

 

 

  1. Soccer football
    As we’ve mentioned a few lines up, soccer football is one of the most popular and played sports in Africa, not different than how it is elsewhere. There’s no country in Africa where soccer isn’t played. Maybe not every football follower knows that soccer was introduced in Africa by Portuguese, French, and British colonialists who first put their feet on this continent. Reason #1 why soccer had such a non-stop success is because it requires only a ball and at least two people to be played. Minimal resources are key to the rapid diffusion of any sports and soccer had the good luck to be extremely easy to play. Moreover, the rules of the games are also very simple and everyone can learn them in a few minutes. That’s also why soccer is successfully played by kids, as well. African soccer clubs started to proliferate 50 years ago and since then the number of new soccer clubs has been rising over time.
  2.  Rugby
    This sport is pretty more recent in the African sport’s history than soccer. Its popularity began to increase in recent years. Currently, rugby is played in a large number of African countries of which South Africa can boast up to 600,000 registered rugby players. Consider that South Africa ranked 5th worldwide for this sport. There are also more countries where rugby is rising and gaining new space in the sports environment, like Kenya, Namibia, Ghana.
  3.  Cycling
    Probably, we still don’t know any black athlete for cycling who is internationally popular. However, this sport is also increasing its popularity among African countries, too. South Africa is once again the country #1 to promote and see a quick growth of cycling. Its beautiful cycling routes allow the public and the athletes to enjoy spectacular natural ecosystems. In particular, the Cape Town Cycle Tour stands out for its size as it involves over 35,000 cyclists. Along with South Africa, Algeria, Kenya, and Eritrea are other emerging nations for cycling with athletes participating in overseas events, as well. Because of the Italian colonialism, cycling is pretty well diffused all through Eritrea.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Sports in the American Education
  4.  Athletics
    Probably, this is the ensemble of sports specialties where we happen to see more black athletes. Athletics demands physical features that African people seem to have all together. That’s why the continent can offer excellent talents for several disciplines of athletics. Kenya is one of the major nations in Africa to have gold-medal winners at the Olympic Games, for example, like the Kenyan 1500-meter winner at the Olympic Games in 1968 and the Ethiopian javelin thrower in 2015 World Champion.

Other sports that are also gaining space in the African sports industry include cricket, basketball, rallying, and even wrestling. It seems that the overall market trend leads to a growing diffusion and popularity of sports that were usually associated with European and western culture.

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