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The sports that Italians are most fanatic about in every day life are soccer, tennis, swimming, boxing, rowing, boating, golf, and basketball. (DiFranco, 103). Some of these sports are new to the Italians, however, they are catching on quite quickly and starting to be played at higher levels of competition. The Italians’ range of levels go from the Olympic games, to a high level of league play, all the way down to recreational sports. Some of the Olympic games they enjoy are skiing, fencing, tennis, cycling, boxing, track and many others. (DiFranco, 103). Italy has already sent numerous fine athletes to the Olympics many times. They usually win in fencing, skiing, bobsledding, and tennis. (DiFranco, 103). In the Olympics held in Rome in 1960, the Italians had a fantastic showing. They took home 13 gold metals, 10 silver, and 13 bronze. These metals were all taken in either track, boxing, fencing, cycling, or gymnastics. (Wallechinsky, 65-67). In the 1964 Olympics Italy won 10 gold metals, 10 silver, and 7 bronze. These metals were won in either shooting, judo, wrestling, boxing, swimming, or track. (Wallechinsky, 269-273). In the 1980’s Italy showed another outstanding performance in these sports again. They took home 8 gold metals, 3 silver, and 4 bronze metals. (Wallechinsky, 292-296). The last Olympics the Italians showed very well in was the 1984 Olympics. The Italians won 14 gold medals, 6 silver, and 12 bronze. This time they received these metals in sports like track, boxing, weightlifting, judo, fencing, modern pentathlon, rowing, cycling, and shooting. (Wallechinsky, 298-302). As seen the Italians have had some significant exhibitions in the Olympics, this shows that they have a great compassion for many sports. This also says that by having such a great compassion about a wide variety of sports, it would make them a good candidate for the next Olympics, because they would want to make sure that everything was perfect for the athletes and the fans. Soccer (a.k.a.: football) is the most popular spectator sport in Italy. (Travis, 160). In Italy, soccer has more fans by far than any other sports played in this country. Statistics show that it has more fans than the fans of American football, baseball, basketball, and hockey put together. (DiFranco, 98). All major cities in Italy, and most smaller cities, have teams that play in one league or another. The league games are played every Sunday afternoon in September through May. (Fodor’s, 38). Every Sunday the teams play under the eyes of sellout crowds of 100,000 fans or more per game. (Stein, 83). However, the excitement of the crowds can rise to an exuberant level at times. The fans are known to hold massive celebrations after a big win such as a World Cup or other international tournaments. (Travis, 160). In many of the celebrations the fans were known to go into the streets of Italy and sometimes get out of control. For example, after the World Cup in Spain the Italians filled the streets to celebrate. However, as time went on the excitement raised and in the end, vehicles, monuments, shops and much more was damaged. (Travis, 160). So if the Olympics are going to be held here we must warn you that on Sundays you should watch out for mobs of celebrating Italians. Not to worry too much though, because if we are picked, I am sure we will be able to postpone some of our games to make room for the rest of the exhilarating sports. Other sports that Italians are wild about are aquatic sports such as swimming, rowing and boating. Since Italy has a long coastline and mild weather, Italians love these water sports. (DiFranco, 94). As seen earlier, the Italians have done very well in these sports in past Olympics. This could be due to all of the competitions they hold nationally and internationally for themselves in their home cities. For example, there are annual rowing races between the top rowers in Italy, held in Venice. Many spectators and competitors come for this race because they love the thrill of watching the best rowers compete with one another. (Facaros, 358). Another race that is held is for kayaking. These races are held in the Dolomites and the Aniene River. These races are held for fun, and in preparation for the Olympic games. However, no matter what the race is being held for, many Italians love to come and watch the excitement. (Fodor’s, 37). Some popular boating competitions for the Italians are yacht races, which are held along the coves of the Tuscan archipelago. (Facaros, 358). These aquatic sports that were just mentioned deal with many forms of boats, however, Italians are enthusiastic about swimming as well. The enthusiasm starts at young ages when children take a quick dip in the nearby coastlines. They learn to love the recreational activity as a sport, and as they get older, the Italians become more and more competitive. Soon enough they are ready for the Olympics, and to "bring home the gold". (Fodor’s, 37). As stated before, I feel that the mild climate, and the fact that Italy is surrounded by water, contributes greatly to the fact that they are so good in many aquatic sports. The next set of sports really have to deal with one competitor, competing by themselves rather than with a team. Many Italians seem to enjoy these sports due to the fact that they are so enthralled in sports like tennis, cycling, and boxing. (Fodor’s, 37). In the Olympics the Italians always seem to do very well in tennis competitions. Part of the results may be due to the way the Italians prepare for this competition. In Italy they hold a major international tournament in Rome, called the Grand Prix. This is one of the most popular spectator competitions that the Italians love to watch, because the love to see how engaged the players become in the sport. (Fodor’s, 37). Another sport that Italians love to speculate is boxing. In Italy boxing draws huge, wild, cheering crowds. The Italians love boxing so much, that the greatest boxers in Italy are looked upon as heroes. There really are not any huge venues that are held for it, however the competitions they do hold still gather large crowds. (Stein, 83). Lastly, there is cycling. Even though there may not be wild crowds, or heroic positions to be won, the Italians are still very interested in cycling. Their most favorite aspect of cycling is racing. When Italy holds The Tour of Italy, it draws national attention and live television coverage to make sure that even if the spectators are not able to attend the race, they can still feel free to watch it. (Travis, 161). So as you can see these one man sports play a big role in the Italian’s life of sports. There are also some sports that the Italians love to play just for recreation with a small amount of competition. These sports also catch the eyes of many tourists who come and visit Italy who want to be active on their vacations. The two sports that are most common are golf and basketball. (Fodor’s, 37). Golf is a new sport to Italy, however they have adapted very nicely to it. It is actually catching on very quickly, and many golf ranges and courses are popping up all around many major cities. (Fodor’s, 37). Basketball has actually been around longer than golf has, and is quite popular. In Italy there are two semiprofessional leagues, which combined have a total of 33 teams. In fact, most Americans who are not good enough for the professional teams in the US usually end up going to the semiprofessional teams in Italy. (Travis, 160). However, not all Italians who like basketball want to be committed to a team, so if you ever visit, you will probably see many pick up games being played in the streets like you do in the US. (Travis, 161) The next couple of sports are not very popular in the US, however, Italians love to play them in their spare time. These sports actually have there own category, which is called old medieval sports. Even though these games were probably played in the medieval time period, the Italians still enjoy playing them. (Facaros, 358). The first of these sports are horse races, or palios as they would call them. There are actually very intense rivalries between neighborhoods and cities. Next is Renaissance football played in costume. There are three games held a year really for fun, and as a great activity to watch. Many of the tourists who come to Italy love to watch this medieval game the most. Lastly there are crossbow archers who compete from different city quarters, and is again a very fun activity to watch for tourists. (Facaros, 358). If the Olympics were to be held in Florence, Italy, these would be the sports that the tourists would probably like to watch and maybe have a try at on their free time. Believe it or not, Italy is also interested in many of the same sports as the Australians. This could be due to the fact Australia is surrounded by water and beaches just as in Italy. ("Facts About Australia", 1). Australians are very enthusiastic about many sports. It is estimated that 6.5 million people are registered sports participants. Some people prefer to endure in competitive games, and others like to take it easy and join in on occasional recreational ones. ("Facts About Australia", 1). The recreational activities that most Australians like to participate in are: fishing, bushwalking, golf, fitness programs, boating, and other water sports. ("Facts About Australia", 1). This is quite a different look that the Italians have. It is quite obvious that the Australians are not as competitive in their water sports as the Italians are. However both countries agree that golf should be, and is, a good sport to do as a fun recreational game. The Australians also have some new and interesting activities like the bushwalking, and fitness programs. These are two other sports that the Italians never seemed to participate in. For the most part however, Italy’s and Australia’s views on recreational activities are quite the same. Australia is however, into swimming just as the Italians are. ("Facts About Australia", 1). Like the Italians, Australians start to learn how to swim when they are very young. This actually is a very important aspect due to the fact that there are many pools and beaches in Australia. The Australians, like the Italians, also usually win in swimming competitions in the Olympics. ("Facts About Australia", 1). They do not however have such an extensive list of sports that they do win at in the Olympics. Unlike Italy, Australia is usually only known to win in swimming and track events. ("Facts About Australia", 2). Whereas stated before, Italy wins in sports like track, swimming, judo, boxing, tennis, and many others. Despite the fact that Australia only usually wins in two areas of the games, they do seem to have more extensive programs that can help the athletes to better prepare for the competitions. In Australia they have an organization called the Australian Institute of Sports. This program has been established to help young athletes train for the Olympics. ("Facts About Australia, 2). As seen in the aspect of winning in the Olympic games, Italy appears to be the stronger country, however Australia is also a very talented country as well. The major differences in the two countries sports would have to be which sport is played the most in each country. As was stated earlier, Italy is most fanatic about soccer. Australia however, feels the same way about rugby in the winter and cricket and tennis in the summer. ("Facts About Australia", 1). In the winter rugby matches draw massive crowds, usually amounting to more that 100,000 people. ("Facts About Australia", 1). This is about the same amount of people attending an average soccer game in Italy. The major differences in the crowds, is that in Australia, they do not get carried away like in Italy. In the summer, many international matches are played for the sports cricket and tennis. Also, on the first Tuesday of November every year, the people of Australia "come to a standstill" for the horse race known as the Melbourne Cup. ("Facts About Australia", 1). This also proves that the Australians are more fanatic about horseracing then the Italians. Earlier in the paper I mentioned that the Italians really only see horseback riding as a recreational activity. They do not really have any big races like they do in Australia. So as you can see, the Italians and the Australians are very different when it comes to their opinions on which sports they think they are most desirable. In conclusion, over all Italy would be a very good host for the next summer Olympics. Since it is well diverse in many areas of sports, Italy would be able to find many facilities in which to accommodate all the sports. Also since Italy is quite similar to Australia in most aspect of the sports they compete in, this would be a good indicator that Italy would be able to support the Olympics such as they plan to do for the 2000 games. So whether you travel to Italy for vacation with the family, or come to visit for the next Olympics, just remember that there will always be enough sports activities around you to keep busy. Bibliography: Citations DiFranco, Anthony. Italy: Balanced on the Edge of Time. Minnesota: Dillon Press, Inc., 1983. Facaros, Dana. Florence: Siena Pisa Lucca. Connecticut: Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls, 1994. Fodor’s. Italy: The Complete Guide with the Best of the Art Treasures, Hill Towns, and Food and Wine. New York: Fodor’s Travel Publications, Inc., 1994. Stein, R. Conard. Enchantment of the World Italy. Chicago: Regensteiner Publishing Enterprises, Inc., 1984. Travis, David. The Land and People of Italy. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992. Wallechinsky, David. The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics. Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1996. Internet Sites: "Facts About Australia." http://global.australia.com/pl/atc?US1964707:5002:13110 (17 May 2000). Word Count: 2310
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