Sport in Africa

Association Football (also known as Soccer) is the most popular sport in almost all African countries, and in 2010 South Africa become the first African nation to host the world cup.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Some African nations, like Kenya and Ethiopia, are very dominant at long distance running, whilst north African countries such Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia are dominant in Handball, and countries such as Zimbabwe. Rugby and golf are reasonably popular in just a couple of African countries, though rugby is very popular in South Africa.^[7] African lack of success in international sports is due to lack of infrastructure.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]}

Team sports

Basketball

Basketball is also reasonably popular throughout the continent.^{[17][18][19][20][21][22][23]}

Cricket

Cricket is a popular summer sport in the United Kingdom and has been exported to other parts of the former British Empire.^{[24][25][26][27][28]} Cricket has its origins in south east Britain. It is popular throughout England and Wales, and parts of the Netherlands. It is also popular in other areas and also played in northwest Europe. It is however very popular worldwide, especially in southern Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Indian subcontinent. It is played to test cricket level in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Football

Association Football (also known as Soccer) is the most popular sport in almost all African Countries. African club teams compete in the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup. African national teams compete in the Africa Cup of Nations and also in the African Nations Championship for local teams.

Ice hockey

Ice hockey is a minority sport in Africa which only a handful of African countries particpate in.^{[29][30][31][32][33]}

Rugby union

Rugby union is popular in South Africa but also in Morocco, Namibia and some others countries.^[34][35][36] The major competition in the continent is the Africa Cup that contains the teams in the first level of African rugby, and African Development Trophy contains the teams in the second level. Only South Africa team compete in the intercontinental tournament, The Rugby Championship

Other sports

handball and volleyball are popular especially in North Africa. basketball is popular in most of all Africa continent.

Other team sports like Cricket, water polo, roller hockey, and field hockey are also popular in some Eastern and South African countries.

Individual sports

Individual sports are also very important. In fact Africa have a major multisports competition called All-Africa Games that started in 1965 held in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo.

Athletics

The athletics is one of the major single competition in Africa. The most prestigious sporting event related to athletics is the African Athletics Championships.

Cycling

Kenya and Rwanda are risng forces in world cycling.^{[37][38][39][40][41][42][43]}

Golf

Golf is a minority sport in Africa.^[44] The Sunshine Tour is based in South Africa but also visits other neighbour countries.

Notable African golfers include Bobby Locke, winner of the The British Open four times in 1949, 1950, 1952 and 1957; Gary Player, winner of the British Open in 1959, 1968 and 1974, The Masters in 1961, 1974 and 1978, the PGA Championship in 1962 and 1972 and the U.S Open in 1965; Ernie Els, winner of the 1994, 1997 U.S. Open and 2002 British Open; Nick Price, winner of the 1992 and 1994 PGA Championship and 1994 British Open; Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel.

Tennis

Tennis is minority sport in Africa.^{[45][46][47][48][49]}

Combat sports

Martial arts and Combat sport are too a major competitions in the continent.

Boxing

Africa has produced many world champions with Azumah Nelson the most well known.^{[50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57]}

Judo

Africa was yet to produce a winner in world Judo.^[58]

Karate

Karate was first introduced in Africa in the 1960s.^[59][60][61]

Mixed Martial Arts

EFC Africa is the largest MMA organisation in Africa as MMA is growing.^{[62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74]}

Taekwondo

Taekwondo is growing as more people compete in the olympics.^{[75][76][77][78]} Africa is emerging as powerhouse in Taekwondo.^[79][80]

Events

South Africa has hosted the 1995 Rugby World Cup, 2003 Cricket World Cup and 2010 FIFA World Cup.^[81][82] Africa has hosted six editions of the Pan Arab Games and five editions of the Mediterranean Games, whereas the 2022 Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held in Durban, South Africa.

Notable continental tournaments are the African Games, Africa Cup of Nations, CAF Champions League, African Championships in Athletics, African Rally Championship and Sunshine Tour.

See also

• Association of African Sports Confederations
• Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa
• African Sports Confederation of Disabled
• African Youth Games
• Africa Military Games
• Sport in Asia
• Sport in Europe
• Sport in Oceania
• Sport in South America

Bibliography

• Bogopa, D. (2001). ”Sports Development: Obstacles and solutions in South Africa”. In The African Anthropologist, vol. 8, No. 1.
• Chiweshe, M. K. (2014). “The problem with African Football:Corruption, and the (under)development of the game on the continent”. In African Sports Law and Business Bulletin/2014.
• Keim, M. and de Coning, C. (ed.) (2014).Sports and Development Policy in Africa: Results of a Collaborate Study of Selected Country Cases. Cape Town: Interdisciplinary Centre of Excellence for Sports Science and Development (ICESSD), University of Western Cape.
• Mwisukha, A. and Mabagala, S. (2011). “Governance challenges in sports in East Africa”. Unpublished paper presented at the international conference of the African Sports Management Association held on 2-4 December 2011, Kampala, Uganda. Available from http://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/13541.
• Pannenborg, A. (2010): “Football in Africa: Observations about political, financial, cultural and religious influences”, NCDO Publication Series Sports& Development.
• Steiner, A (2008) “Challenges of sports development in Ghana”, 27 October 2008. Available from https://www.modernghana.com/news/188252/challenges-of-sports-development-in-ghana.html.

References