The sport is very popular in South Africa, and SA is one of the few nations on the African continent that is passionate about more than one or two major sports. Especially since the country’s multi-year international ban on sports (due to apartheid) was lifted. South Africa’s rich sports history has become a major source of national pride.
Part of this is due to the legalization of sports games in the early 2000s. Which has made support sponsors (cricket), Bafana Bafana (football), and The Springboks (rugby) an even more exciting pastime. Which sport is “the biggest” is a topic of discussion. But few below claim 5 Most Popular Sports In South Africa.
Read: 5 Most Popular Sports In The USA- Websplashers
Table of Contents
What are the 5 most popular sports in South Africa
Cricket
Named after The Proteas, the national flower of South Africa. The South African cricket team became the first national team in 2012 to finish first in all three sports (test, ODI, T20). Although cricket has a reputation as a “strangler” on the big stage and has never made it to the semifinals of the Cricket World Cup, ICC World T20, or ICC Champions Trophy. Cricket is still very popular in South Africa, especially for English-speaking, Asian / Muslim, and African-speaking white. among.
Golf
South Africa has some of the best golf courses in the world, so it’s no surprise that it has been the most successful single sport in the country. Originally on the world golf map in the 1950s and 60s.
When Bobby Locke won the British Open four times in just nine years. The country’s reputation for golf was further strengthened in the 1970s with the rise of Gary Player. “The Black Knight” is just one of five players in the game’s modern history that has won all four major careers.
Since then, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman, Louis Oosthuizen, and Charl Schwartzel have all won big and recognizable South African faces at some point.
Cycling
Cycling is becoming increasingly popular among South Africans, in part because SA hosts two of the largest individually organized bike races in the world. The largest of these, the Cape Town Bike Tour, has attracted more than 35,000 participants in recent years and was the first event in UCI’s Golden Bike Series to be held outside Europe.
South Africans have also been successful in the international cycling perspective. In 2007, Johannes Hunter, who lives in Johannesburg, won the first South African to win a stage at the Tour De France, and just six years later, Daryl Impey dressed in his first yellow jersey as a guide.
Rugby
More than 430,000 South Africans are registered, rugby players. The making it the second or third most popular sport in the country, depending on who you ask. Rugby was an integral part of the start of a new post-apartheid era in South Africa. The South African national team hosted its first major international sporting event, the 1995 Rugby World Cup, and would win its disadvantage to win the entire tournament. The image of Nelson Mandela presenting the Webb Ellis Cup to Captain Francois Pienaar is still one of the best known in the nation’s history.
President Nelson Mandela presents the 1995 Rugby World Cup Prize to Francois Pienaar, one of the most iconic moments in the history of the nation (and the whole sport).
Boks won the Second World Cup in 2007 and has five teams competing in the Super Rugby. Which also includes teams from Australia, Japan, Argentina, and New Zealand. The Pretorian Bulls are currently the only non-New Zealand or Australia to have won the Super Rugby Award and raised it three times between 2007 and 2010.
Football
Football, or soccer, is the most popular sport in South Africa. It is estimated that more than two million South Africans are playing, and although the sport has split over a century, both the Bafana Bafana and the Premier Soccer League are sources of national pride and attract large crowds.
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