Sport in South America

There are a wide range of sports played in the continent of South America, with football being the most popular, while baseball is the most popular in Venezuela.

Other popular sports include basketball, rugby union, tennis, golf, volleyball, hockey, beach volleyball, and motorsports.

South America will hold its first Olympic Games in 2016, Rio de Janeiro will host the 2016 Summer Olympics. Prior to this, major cities Brazil will host the 20th edition of the Football Championship in 2014.

Fútbol South America shares with Europe the supremacy over the sport, as all national team winners in FIFA World Cup history and all winning teams at the FIFA Club World Cup came from these two continents.

Brazil detains the world record at the FIFA World Cup with five titles in total. Argentina andUruguay have two titles each. So far four South American nations hosted the tournament including its first edition in Uruguay (1930). The other three were Brazil (1950), Chile (1962), and Argentina (1978). Brazil is also set to be a host country for the second time in 2014.

South America is home to the longest running international Football tournament; Copa América, which has been regularly contested since 1916. Uruguay have won the Copa America a record 15 times, beating hosts Argentina in 2011 to reach 15 titles (they were previously equal on 14 titles each during the 2011 Copa America). The continent has produced many of the most famous and most talented players including Diego Maradona, Pelé, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho,Kaká, Teófilo Cubillas, César Cueto, Enzo Francescoli, Arsenio Erico, Alberto Spencer, Carlos Valderrama, Ivan Zamorano , Elias Figueroa, Alexis Sánchez, Antonio Valencia, Juan Arango,Neymar, Radamel Falcao, and Lionel Messi.