Sport is an important part of German culture, with over 27.5 million Germans belonging to over 991,000 sport clubs. Football is the most popular sport in Germany, with over 26,000 football clubs. Germany has won the men's World Cup 3 times. Germany has hosted the Summer Olympics twice and the Winter Olympics once. Germany is also very successful in ice hockey, tennis, basketball, motor sports like Formula One, and handball, the sport which originated in Germany.
3. SPORT IN GERMANY
• Sport is an important part of German culture and society.
• About 27.5 million people were members of the more than
991,000 sport clubs in Germany.
• Almost all sports clubs are represented by the
Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund
(DOSB,
German
Olympic Sports Federation). With a total of 26,000 clubs
and 178,000 teams the German Football Association
(DFB) is the largest individual body in the DOSB.
• The national sport of Germany is football (Soccer).
• Soccer is the biggest sport played over there and has
about 26,000 soccer clubs.
• Germany has won the world cup 3 times with brazil in the
lead after winning it 5 times in soccer.
4. OLYMPICS
In
the
all-time Olympic Games medal count
through 2006 Germany ranks fifth,
East Germany
seventh
and
West Germany twenty-first. If all the
medals are combined Germany ranks
third.
Germany
has
hosted
the
Summer Olympic Games twice, in Berlin
in 1936 and in Munich in 1972. Germany
hosted the Winter Olympic Games in
1936 when they were staged in the
Bavarian twin towns of Garmisch and
Partenkirchen.
Olympiastadion Berlin
Germany claimed the most gold medals
and the most total medals during the
2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
5. FOOTBALL
Since
the
Germany national football team
's first official match in 1908,
it has been one of the most
successful national teams in
world
football,
having
participated in seventeen
World Cups
and
ten
European Championships and
won three of each. In doing
so, twenty of its players have
won both titles, and five have
won gold, silver and bronze
medals at the World Cup.
6. ICE HOCKEY
•Ice hockey is one of Germany's most
popular sports, although considering its
importance and spectator popularity in the
nation it is ranked far behind football.
• There are many leagues but the top one
is the 14 team Deutsche Eishockey Liga.
•The men's national team is currently
ranked 9th in the world.
•In 2010, Mannheim and Cologne cohosted
the
Ice Hockey World Championships.
•Germany defeated the USA in the
opening game in front of a record breaking
crowd of 77,803 in Gelsenkirchen's
Veltins-Arena.
•Germany finished the tournament in fourth
place, the nation's best finish since 1953.
•German goaltender Dennis Endras was
named the tournament's top goaltender by
the IIHF directors and the top goaltender
and most valuable player by the media.
7. MOTOR SPORT
Germany is one of the leading
motorsports countries in the world.
While countless race winning cars
have come from Germany, only
Michael Schumacher
and
Sebastian Vettel have been Formula
One world champions (they both won
10 titles together).
8. MOTOR SPORT
Michael
Schumacher
(German
pronunciation: born on 3 January 1969)
he is a former racing driver from Germany
.
Schumacher
is
a
seven-time
Formula One World Champion and is
widely regarded as one of the greatest F1
drivers of all time
Michael Schumacher
Sebastian Vettel born 3 July 1987 is a
German Formula One racing driver, currently
driving for the Austrian racing team
Red Bull Racing.
He
is
the
current
World Champion,
having
won
the
championship in 2010, 2011, and 2012.
Sebastian Vettel
9. TENNIS
The two most successful German tennis players of all time are Steffi Graf
and Boris Becker.
Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles,
second among male and female players. In
1988, she became the first and only tennis
player (male or female) to achieve the
Calendar Year Golden Slam by winning all
four Grand Slam singles titles and the
Olympic gold medal in the same calendar
year.
Steffi Graf
Becker became the youngest champion in
the history of the men’s singles at
Wimbledon, won six-time Grand Slam
singles titles and an Olympic gold medal
together with Michale Stich.
Boris Becker
10. BASKETBALL
Together with football, ice hockey and
handball, basketball in Germany is among
the most popular spectator sports.
One of the most popular non-football
athletes to come out of Germany is
Dirk Nowitzki, who plays power forward for
the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA. In 2007,
he became the first player trained totally
outside the U.S. to be named league MVP
, and in 2011 led the Mavericks to their
first NBA title.
Dirk Nowitzki
The
German national basketball team's
biggest successes are the victory in the
European Championship of 1993 at home
in Germany, the silver medal in the
2005 European Championships and the
bronze medal
in
the
2002
FIBA World Championship.
11. HANDBALL
Handball is a popular team sport and
evolved historically in Germany.
Germany is regarded as the birthplace
of handball. The first match of the
modern era was officially recorded on
29 October 1917 in Berlin, Germany.
Outdoor Handball had its only Olympic
Games appearance in the XIth
Olympiad (1936 Berlin Games). The
first international match recorded was
played on 3 September 1925 with
Germany and Austria.
Today handball is a major team sport
being played and watched in all of
Germany. The German Handball
Bundesliga is considered to be the most
competitive professional league in the
world. As a spectator sport it ranks
popular in smaller cities around the
country and draws attention comparable
to other indoor sports such as ice
hockey or basketball.