Sport in Armenia
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Many types of sports are played in Armenia, among the most popular being football, chess, boxing, basketball, hockey and volleyball [1]. Armenia's mountainous terrain gives the opportunity for certain sports such as skiing and climbing to be practised. Being a landlocked country, water based sports can only be practised on lakes, notably Lake Sevan. Competitively, Armenia has been successful in weightlifting and wrestling. Armenia is also active in the international sports community with full membership in the Union of European Football Associations and International Ice Hockey Federation. It also hosts the Pan-Armenian Games.
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[edit] Olympics as part of the USSR
Prior to 1992, Armenians would participate in the Olympics representing the USSR. As part of the Soviet Republic, Armenia was very successful, winning plenty of medals and helping the USSR win the medal standings at the Olympics on numerous occasions. The first medal won by an Armenian in modern Olympic history was by Hrant Shahinian, who won two golds and two silvers in gymnastics at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. To highlight the level of success of Armenians in the Olympics, Shahinian was quoted saying:
| “ | Armenian sportsmen had to outdo their opponents by several notches for the shot at being accepted onto any Soviet team. But those difficulties notwithstanding, 90 percent of Armenian athletes on Soviet Olympic teams came back with medals.[2] | ” |
[edit] Olympics after Independence
Armenia first participated at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona under a unified CIS team, where it was very successful, winning three golds and one silver in weightlifting, wrestling and sharp shooting, despite only having 5 athletes. Since the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Armenia has participated independently.
Armenia participates in the Summer Olympic games in boxing, wrestling, weightlifting, judo, gymnastics, track and field, diving, swimming and sharp shooting. It also participates in the Winter Olympics in alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and figure skating.
[edit] Football
Armenia used to play as part of the USSR national football team at the international level. Their most successful team was Yerevan's FC Ararat, which had claimed most of the Soviet championships in the 70s and had also gone to post victories against professional clubs like FC Bayern Munich in the Euro cup. Armenia played as part of the USSR until 1992, when the Armenian national football team played their first official match representing solely Armenia, against Moldova. The national team is controlled by the Football Federation of Armenia. The Armenian Premier League is the top football competition in Armenia. The league currently consists of eight teams, and relegates to the Armenian First League. Over the years, the league has evolved from a small league consisting of only eight teams to two divisions. Armenia also has many football venues such as Hrazdan Stadium and Hanrapetakan Stadium.
Armenia and the Armenian diaspora have produced many world class players, notably Youri Djorkaeff, Alain Boghossian, Andranik Eskandarian, Andranik Teymourian, Edgar Manucharyan, Nikita Simonyan, among others.
[edit] Chess
Chess remains the most popular mind sport in Armenia. It is widely played in Armenia and in the Armenian diaspora, where the Armenian schools encourage it as a curricular activity. Ethnic Armenian chess players have been very successful in the international chess scene. Notable chess players of Armenian descent include Tigran Petrosian, Gary Kasparov, Levon Aronian and Vladimir Akopian. In 2006 Armenian Chess Team (Levon Aronian, Vladimir Akopian, Gabriel Sargissian, Karen Asrian, Artashes Minasian, Smbat Lputian) won Chess Olympiad in Torino.
[edit] Wrestling
Wrestling has been a successful sport in the Olympics for Armenia. In the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Armen Nazaryan won gold in Men's Greco-Roman Flyweight (52 kg) and Armen Mkertchian won silver in Men's Freestyle Paperweight (48 kg), securing Armenia's first two medals in its Olympic history.
Traditional Armenian wrestling is called Kokh and practiced in traditional garb; it was one of the influences included in the Soviet, combat sport of Sambo.
[edit] Weightlifting
Weightlifting has also been a successful sport for Armenia in the Olympics with Arsen Melikyan winning the bronze medal in Men's middleweight (77 kg). In April 2007, the Armenian national team won the European Championship in Strasbourg with 10 golden medals.[3]
[edit] Boxing
Boxing is also a popular sport in Armenia. It has regularly sent competitors in the Olympics but with little success. Among the bright stars of boxing in the Armenian world are Vic "the Raging Bull" Darchinyan, Arthur Abraham and Alexan Nalbandian, though Darchinyan and Abraham compete representing Australia and Germany respectively.
[edit] Other sports
Other sports played in Armenia are ice hockey, played internationally by the Armenian national ice hockey team, rugby union, played internationally by the Armenia national rugby union team, basketball (Armenian basketball) and tennis, where certain diaspora Armenians have excelled such as Andre Agassi and David Nalbandian.
[edit] Organizations
Homenetmen and AGBU are the two biggest organizations that are devoted to athletics among Armenians. They, notably Homenetmen, have opened chapters all across the globe, wherever an Armenian community is present. Homenetmen organises each year pan-homenetmen games, where the organization's members gather in a host city to play friendly matches against each other in various sports such as football, basketball, track and field, hockey and volleyball.
[edit] Modern rebuilding effort
The government of Armenia budgets about $2.8 million for sports, which goes to the National Committee of Physical Education and Sports which determines which programs should get the government money.
Due to the lack of success lately on the international level, in recent years Armenia has rebuilt 16 Soviet era sports schools and furnished them with new equipment for a total cost of $1.9 million. The rebuilding of the regional schools was financed by the Armenian government. $9.3 million has been invested in the resort town of Tsaghkadzor to improve the winter sports infrastructure because of dismal performance at that event. In 2005, a cycling center was opened in Yerevan, with the hopes of improving Armenian cyclists. Armenia has also pledged to hand $700 000 to Armenians who win gold at the Olympics. [4]
[edit] References
[edit] External Links
[edit] See also
- Armenian Premier League
- Armenia national football team
- Armenian U-21 National Football Team
- Armenian national ice hockey team
- Armenia national rugby union team
- Armenia at the Olympics (wikipedia)
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