Sport in Spain: our point of view

It is undeniable that the most popular sport in Spain is football, given that it is a mark of identity for which we are recognized abroad. On the other hand, also other disciplines are gathering our attention lately as we are living a remarkable stage of the Spanish sport, thanks to some national sportsmen that have become world idols. This is why with this post we are going to reflect on whether there is life beyond football for Spanish people.
The collected data objectively indicate that the sport supporting and practice in our country continues to be monopolized by football and it is increasing. According to official researches, a 1 out of 4 sports license in our country belongs to the Football Federation. As for the supporting, the most followed television broadcasts are always football matches and the most followed ever was predictably the final of the 2010 World Cup when Spain won the match. Specifically, it was followed by 9 million people.
However, in our country we have also been witnesses of great sporting feats that attracted our attention to other kind of sports. A key moment in Spanish sport history was the celebration of the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992. The event promoted investments and financial support to athletes of all disciplines with the consequence that Spain obtained a good result in terms of medals and leaded to the modernization of sports in our country. In 1992 Games, Spain won 22 medals, when we had never exceeded the 6 medals before.
Later, during the XXI century, there have been lots of athletes attracting attention for their successes, without being football players: the Pau and Marc brothers in basketball, Rafael Nadal and Garbiñe Muguruza in tennis, Mireia Belmonte in swimming, Fernando Alonso in Formula 1, Alberto Contador in cycling… The majority of these champions is still active and represents a generation of athletes who achieved to be the best of the world and our country of course celebrated it. This particular moment has been declared by mass-media as an historical era of successes, and has been baptized as the “golden age” of the Spanish sport.
By that time, on the contrary, Spanish football supporters were experimenting a huge disappointment: we were seeing our athletes winning in other competitions, while the national football team was losing the European and World Cup, just when everybody was expecting a success. Everything changed between 2008 and 2012, when our football selection reached the highest level and couldn’t stop winning from that moment onwards.
In conclusion, football is a mass sport that – except for some exceptional situations – always gains the newspapers titles (sport and non-sport newspapers) and that wakes up everybody interest. Here at Spaneasy we would like to know what you think about the passion Spanish people have for football and if you have already been passed on it. Or are you supporters of other kind of sports that are not so popular in Spain? Leave your comments in the section below.