Sports in North America
The North American continent is the birthplace of several organized sports, such as basketball, charrería/rodeo, gridiron football, ice hockey, jaripeo/bull riding, lacrosse, ollamaliztl (ancient Mesoamerican sport), mixed martial arts (MMA), racquetball, ultimate ("ultimate frisbee"), and volleyball. The modern versions of baseball and softball, skateboarding, snowboarding, stock car racing, and surfing also developed in North America.
Sports leagues in North America use a mix of organizational structures. While common in other parts of the world, not all North American countries use the
Liga MX soccer, Major League Baseball (MLB), Major League Soccer (MLS), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Football League (NFL), the National Hockey League (NHL), NCAA College Basketball/March Madness, Power Five College Football (Power Five), and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) MMA, are the predominant sports organizations in the North American sports landscape.
Other notable sports organizations include lower level sports leagues/orgs such as
Team sports
Association football (soccer)
Association football (soccer) is the most popular[clarification needed] sport in almost all North, Central American and Caribbean Countries.[1][circular reference] Unqualified, football is generally understood to refer to whichever form of football is the most popular in the regional context in which the word appears. For example, "football" unqualified primarily refers to American football in some parts of the U.S., Canadian football in Canada, and association football in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. The word soccer is used to refer to association football by many people in the U.S. and Canada.
The men's professional soccer league systems in both
Other countries with multi-level professional league systems include Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and Panama. Most of these use promotion and regulation.
The top three most popular football clubs on social media from North America as of 25 March 2021:[4]
# | Football club | Country | Followers |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Club América | Mexico | 36 million |
2 | CD Guadalajara |
Mexico | 13 million |
3 | Cruz Azul | Mexico | 6.6 million |
Baseball
Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century. This game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the national sport of the United States. The sport is currently popular in various other North American countries.
In the U.S. and Canada, Major League Baseball (MLB) is the top professional level of baseball, while Minor League Baseball (MiLB) comprises several levels and multiple component leagues below MLB. MiLB also has teams and component leagues in Mexico, with the Mexican Baseball League (LMB; Liga Mexicana de Béisbol), and in the Dominican Republic, with the Dominican Summer League.[5] The relationship between MLB and MilB is also the closed, franchise model, which has the same teams playing, and where the players are transferred between levels. Though not associated with MLB, the independent Mexican Pacific League (LMP; Liga Mexicana del Pacífico) is perhaps the top league in Mexico (winter league), comparable to the LMB (summer league).
Other professional leagues in North America include the Dominican Professional Baseball League, the Nicaraguan Professional Baseball League, the Panamanian Professional Baseball League, and the Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente in Puerto Rico.
The
Basketball
Canadian Dr. James Naismith is credited with creating the game of basketball in 1891.[6] While working as a physical education professor and instructor at the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School[7] (YMCA) (today, Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S., he primarily created the game as a way to could keep his gym class active indoors on a rainy day.[6] The sport quickly spread throughout the U.S. and Canada, with Naismith becoming instrumental in establishing college basketball.
Today, the
The Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional, is the top professional basketball league in Mexico, while Liga Nacional de Baloncesto is the top one in the Dominican Republic. The Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN) has teams in Puerto Rico.
The NBA also runs the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), with many teams having direct NBA counterparts and playing in the same arenas. Similarly, the Baloncesto Superior Nacional Femenino (BSNF) is the women's counterpart professional league to the BSN in Puerto Rico.
College basketball (particularly regarding NCAA Division I men's college basketball), technically considered an amateur sport, is as prominent in the U.S. as some of the major professional sports leagues around the world. College basketball draws average viewership of 10.7 million per game for its annual "March Madness" tournament.[10] By and large, most future NBA players come from these collegiate basketball programs, serving as the feeder system to the NBA.
Gridiron football
North America is the birthplace of gridiron football, the form of football that originally developed, and is primarily played, in the U.S. and Canada.[11] Both major forms, American football and Canadian football, developed in the late 19th century out of the original games now known as rugby football and association football. Gridiron football is distinguished by the forward pass, the system of downs, a line of scrimmage, measurements in yards, players wearing hard plastic helmets and shoulder pads, more specialist positions and formations, among others. Walter Camp, known as the "Father of American Football", is credited with creating the system of downs and line of scrimmage rules in the 1880s that originally differentiate gridiron football from its older counterparts.[12] Canada would later implement similar rules when the Ontario Rugby Football Union adopted the Burnside rules in 1903.[13]
American football
The
USA Football is the governing body for amateur American football in the U.S., and is a member of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), the international governing body of American football associations. Several other North American counties are a part of IFAF Americas, the federation of IFAF members in the Americas.
In Mexico, the
Canadian football
The Canadian Football League (CFL) is the highest professional level of Canadian football, with teams across Canada. Teams from Canadian universities compete in U Sports football. The Canadian Junior Football League and Quebec Junior Football League field teams with players aged 18–22.
Football Canada is the governing body for amateur Canadian football. Although it primarily focuses on the Canadian form of the game, it is also a member of the International Federation of American Football.
Ice hockey
With teams in both Canada and the U.S., the
Cricket
Conversely,
Individual sports
Boxing
While Boxing is a global sport, North America has a strong and lengthy history of dominance in the sport. The U.S. and Mexico have produced the 1st and 2nd most world champions in boxing history, while Puerto Rico, Panama, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic have produced the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th most world champions per capita in boxing history, respectively (as of January 2021).[21] At the amateur level Boxing in Cuba remains popular, with about 19,000 boxers hailing from that country.[22] It is also a major sport in Mexico, having produced over 179 professional world champions.[23] Boxing in Canada has been practiced in that country since before the Canadian Confederation in 1867. As for the United States, it became the center of professional boxing in the early 20th century.[24]
All four of the major world sanctioning bodies in boxing are based in North America: the International Boxing Federation (Springfield, New Jersey), the World Boxing Association (Panama City), the World Boxing Council (Mexico City), and the World Boxing Organization (San Juan, Puerto Rico).
Golf
Three of the four
The
Horse racing
A few North American countries hold their own
The Triple Crowns for both
The
Mixed martial arts
A relatively new sport, mixed martial arts (MMA) was first sanctioned and codified by the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) and the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board (SACB) in the year 2000, establishing the official rules of the modern version of the sport. Various versions of the sport have existed going back to antiquity; Lei tai in China, Pankration in Greece.
Motorsports
Tennis
The Women's Tennis Association, the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis, is headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida. Tennis Canada, the Central American & Caribbean Tennis Confederation, and the United States Tennis Association are the regional member organizations of the International Tennis Federation, and help organize various events in their respective areas of North America.
Games
See also
- Sport in Africa
- Sport in Asia
- Sport in Europe
- Sport in Oceania
- Sport in South America
References
- ^ "North, Central American and Caribbean nations at the FIFA World Cup".
- ^ "CONCACAF". 17 November 2020.
- ^ "A quick primer on Mexico's Liga MX". Media Life Magazine. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
- ^ https://sport-gsic.com/digital-impact-of-latin-american-football-teams/
- ^ "Teams by Name – MiLB.com Official Info – The Official Site of Minor League Baseball". MiLB.com. Retrieved July 22, 2015.
- ^ a b "The Greatest Canadian Invention". CBC News. Archived from the original on December 3, 2010.
- ^ "YMCA International - World Alliance of YMCAs: Basketball : a YMCA Invention". www.ymca.int. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
- Forbes.com. June 14, 2012. Retrieved June 14, 2012.
- ^ "REVEALED: The world's best paid teams, Man City close in on Barca and Real Madrid". SportingIntelligence.com. May 1, 2012. Retrieved June 11, 2012.
- ^ "2022 DI men's basketball championship game sets single-game viewing records". ncaa.com. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
- ^ "Gridiron football". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
- ^ Bishop, LuAnn (November 18, 2013). "11 Historic Tidbits About The Game". Yale News. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
- ^ "History – CFL.ca – Official Site of the Canadian Football League". CFL.ca. Archived from the original on November 9, 2014. Retrieved December 1, 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-7546-4185-8.
Since 1922, [the NFL] has been the top professional sports league in the world with respect to American football
- ^ "IIHF to recognize Montreal's Victoria Rink as birthplace of hockey". IIHF. July 2, 2002. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007.
- ^ Marsh, James (2006). "National Hockey League". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 11, 2006.
- ^ "Mexican hockey: Signs of hope south of the border". NHL.com. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
- ^ "What Are the Most Popular Sports in the Caribbean?".
- ^ Chetwynd, Josh. "Cricket, anyone? Obvious similarities make baseball, cricket sibling sports". Retrieved July 22, 2009.
- ^ "International Cricket Council – The ICC – About The Organisation – History". Archived from the original on July 6, 2009. Retrieved July 22, 2009.
- ^ "Which Countries Have the Most World Champions in Boxing History?". jdsports.co.uk.
- ^ Pettavino, Paula J. (2003) ”Boxing” in Encyclopedia Of Cuba. Eds. Luis Martinez-Fernandez, D.H. Figueredo, Louis Perez, and luis Gonzalez. Volume 2. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 536.
- ^ "World Champions By Nationality: Mexican World Champions". BoxRec.
- ISBN 9780275990206. Retrieved November 20, 2016 – via Google Books.