There are a wide range of Sports played in the continent of South America, with football being the most popular.

Other popular Sports include Basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

, Rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

, Tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

, Golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

, Volleyball

Volleyball

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

, Hockey

Field hockey

Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

, Beach Volleyball

Beach volleyball

Beach volleyball, or sand volleyball, is an Olympic team sport played by two teams of two players on a sand court divided by a net.Like volleyball, the object of the game is to send the ball over the net in order to ground it on the opponent’s court, and to prevent the same effort by the opponent....

, Baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

  and Motorsports.

South America will hold its first Olympic Games in 2016, when Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

 will host the 2016 Summer Olympics

2016 Summer Olympics

The 2016 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, are a major international multi-sport event to be celebrated in the tradition of the Olympic Games, as governed by the International Olympic Committee...

.

Association Football

South America shares with Europe the supremacy over the sport, as all national team winners in FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...

 history and all winning teams at the FIFA Club World Cup

FIFA Club World Cup

The FIFA Club World Cup is a football competition between the champion clubs from all six continental confederations.The first FIFA Club World Championship took place in Brazil in January 2000...

 came from these two continents.

Brazil detains the world record at the FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...

 with five titles in total. Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 and Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

 also 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

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

 (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

Copa América

The Copa América —previously known as South American Championship—is an international football competition contested between the men's national teams of CONMEBOL, the sport's continental governing body...

, which has been regularly contested since 1916

South American Championship 1916

The 1916 South American Championship of Nations was the first continental championship for national teams in south America. It was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina from July 2 to July 17 during Argentina's independence centenary commemorations...

. The continent has produced many of the most famous and most talented players including Pelé

Pelé

However, Pelé has always maintained that those are mistakes, that he was actually named Edson and that he was born on 23 October 1940.), best known by his nickname Pelé , is a retired Brazilian footballer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time...

, Diego Maradona

Diego Maradona

Diego Armando Maradona is a retired Argentine football player and widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time. Over the course of his professional club career Maradona played for Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli, Sevilla and Newell's Old Boys, setting...

, Alfredo Di Stéfano

Alfredo Di Stéfano

Alfredo Stéfano Di Stéfano Laulhé, born into a family of Italian immigrants from Capri, is a former Argentinian footballer and coach, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time...

, Ronaldo

Ronaldo

Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima , commonly known as Ronaldo, is a retired Brazilian footballer who last played for Corinthians. Ronaldo is widely considered to be the greatest 'pure' striker in the history of the modern game, and by some accounts, in the history of football. Ronaldo was one of the...

, Ronaldinho

Ronaldinho

Ronaldo de Assis Moreira , commonly known as Ronaldinho or Ronaldinho Gaúcho, is a Brazilian footballer who plays for Flamengo and the Brazilian national team as an attacking midfielder or forward. He is a two-time winner of the FIFA World Player of the Year, awarded to the best player over the year...

, Teófilo Cubillas

Teófilo Cubillas

Teófilo Juan Cubillas Arizaga is a Peruvian former footballer. He was selected as Peru's greatest ever player in an IFFHS poll, in which he was also included in the world's Top 50...

, César Cueto, Enzo Francescoli

Enzo Francescoli

Enzo Francescoli Uriarte is a former uruguayan football player of Italian and Spanish origin, who retired in 1997. An elegant and highly skillful dribbler, passer, and goal-scorer, Francescoli was nicknamed El Príncipe or Le Prince...

, Arsenio Erico

Arsenio Erico

Arsenio Pastor Erico was a Paraguayan football forward. He is the all-time highest goalscorer in the Argentine first division...

, Carlos Valderrama, Elias Figueroa

Elías Figueroa

Elías Ricardo Figueroa Brander is a former football player from Chile. He is considered the best Chilean footballer of all time, as well as one of the greatest defenders ever to play the game....

, Alex Aguinaga

Álex Aguinaga

Álex Dario Aguinaga Garzón is a Ecuadorian retired footballer midfielder and former mananger. As a player, he is one of the all-time cap leaders for Ecuador with 109 matches, scoring 23 goals. Aguinaga is known as one of the best Ecuadorian footballers of all time...

, Neymar and Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi

Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi is an Argentine footballer who plays for FC Barcelona and captains the Argentina national team, mainly as a striker. Messi received several Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations by the age of 21, and won in 2009 and 2010...

.

Basketball

Basketball is particularly popular in Argentina, one of the most important achievements was Argentina

Argentina national basketball team

The Argentina national basketball team represents Argentina in basketball international competitions, and is controlled by the Argentine Basketball Federation....

 gold medal in the Mens Basketball

Basketball at the 2004 Summer Olympics

Basketball at the 2004 Summer Olympics took place at the Helliniko Olympic Indoor Arena in Athens, Greece for the preliminary rounds, with the latter stages being held in the Olympic Indoor Hall at the Athens Olympic Sports Complex....

 at the 2004 Summer Olympics

2004 Summer Olympics

The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...

. Also they won the World Championship

FIBA World Championship

The FIBA World Championship is an international basketball competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of the International Basketball Federation , the sport's global governing body...

 in 1950

1950 FIBA World Championship

The 1950 FIBA World Championship was an international basketball tournament held by the International Basketball Federation in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from October 22 to November 3, 1950. Ten nations participated in the inaugural tournament. All competition was held at the Luna Park, Buenos Aires...

.
In Brazil, Basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 used to be very popular with the Brazilian national basketball team

Brazil national basketball team

The Brazilian National Basketball Team represents Brazil in FIBA's basketball competitions.-Men's team:First drafted in 1922, the men's team has won two World Championships , three bronze Olympic medals , four Americas Championships and five Pan American Games .-Olympic Games:-FIBA...

 winning the World Championship 2 times. The Woman Basketball team is also one of the best teams in the world, it won the World Championship of 1994 and with two players at tha Hall of Fame, Hortencia and Magic Paula. In Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

 and Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

, Basketball is widely played too.

Motor Sports

South America have several drivers who won the Formula One

Formula One

Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...

 championship multiple times, including five-time champion Juan Fangio of Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 and Brazilian drivers Emerson Fittipaldi

Emerson Fittipaldi

Emerson Fittipaldi |São Paulo]], Brazil) is a Brazilian automobile racing driver who throughout a long and successful career won the Indianapolis 500 twice and championships in both Formula One and CART.-Early and personal life:...

 (2 titles), Nelson Piquet

Nelson Piquet

Nelson Piquet Souto Maior , known as Nelson Piquet, is a Brazilian former racing driver. He was Formula One world champion in , and . He is one of eight drivers to win three or more world championships, the others being Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna , Alain Prost , Juan...

 (3 titles) and Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna da Silva was a Brazilian racing driver. A three-time Formula One world champion, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time...

 (3 titles). Brazil has hosted the Brazilian Grand Prix every year since 1973 and Argentina has hosted Formula One on 21 occasions.

The Dakar Rally

Dakar Rally

The Dakar Rally is an annual rally raid type of off-road automobile race, organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation...

 is also hosted by South America since 2009.

Baseball

Baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 is the most popular Sport in Venezuela, the only country in South America where Football is not considered the most popular Sport. A wide list of players from Venezuela are in the major leagues in the United States. Venezuela is the only country in this region to participate in the Baseball World Classic and Serie del Caribe cup. In others countries like Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, Baseball has been gaining popularity recently.

Rugby Union

Rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 is becoming popular in South America, following the recent successes of Argentina

Argentina national rugby union team

The Argentina national rugby team, nicknamed Los Pumas, represents Argentina in international rugby union matches. The team, which plays in sky blue and white jerseys, is organised by the Argentine Rugby Union .Argentina played its first international rugby match in 1910 against a touring British...

 in recent Rugby World Cup

Rugby World Cup

The Rugby World Cup is an international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board and held every four years since 1987....

s. The popularity of the game has spread across the continent. Uruguay

Uruguay national rugby union team

The Uruguay national rugby union team is the representative side of Uruguay, governed by the Unión de Rugby del Uruguay. They have been playing international rugby since 1948. Their jersey is blue and black and they are known as Los Teros. They qualified twice for the Rugby World Cup, in 1999 and...

, Paraguay

Paraguay national rugby union team

The Paraguay national rugby team is the team governed by the Paraguayan Rugby Union that represents Paraguay in the international rugby competitions organized by the International Rugby Board....

, Colombia

Colombia national rugby union team

The Colombia national rugby union team represents Colombia in the sport of rugby union. The team is classified as a tier three nation by the International Rugby Board . They have thus far not qualified for a Rugby World Cup, but have participated in qualifying tournaments...

, Brazil

Brazil national rugby union team

The Brazil national rugby union team is the national side of Brazil, representing them at rugby union. Brazil is a third tier rugby union side, and have yet to make their debut at the Rugby World Cup. Rugby union has been growing substantially in Brazil since 2005 and the number of players is...

, Chile

Chile national rugby union team

The Chile national rugby union team is a rugby union nation representing Chile. They first played in 1935 and have yet to qualify for the Rugby World Cup. Rugby union in Chile is administered by the Federación de Rugby de Chile...

, Venezuela

Venezuela national rugby union team

Venezuela is a third tier rugby playing nation. They joined the IRB in 1998. They entered the Rugby World Cup qualification matches for Australia 2003 and France 2007, but were twice eliminated by Brazil- Coaches :* Rex Lawrence* Carlos de Pascual...

 and Peru

Peru national rugby union team

The Peru national rugby team, nicknamed los Tumis, is an emerging team in the Americas and a member of the Confederación Sudamericana de Rugby ....

 all have Rugby Federations.

Tennis

South America has produced a number of talented Tennis players such as 4 times Grand Slam winner Guillermo Vilas

Guillermo Vilas

Guillermo Apolinario Vilas is a retired and former World No. 2 professional tennis player from Argentina. He was the second Latin-American to win a Grand Slam tournament.-Career:...

, 3 time French Open winner Gustavo Kuerten

Gustavo Kuerten

Gustavo Kuerten is a retired former World No. 1 tennis player from Brazil. He won the French Open three times between 1997 and 2001, and was the Tennis Masters Cup champion in 2000...

, US Open winner Gabriela Sabatini

Gabriela Sabatini

Gabriela Beatriz Sabatini is a former professional Argentine tennis player. She was one of the leading players on the women's circuit in the late-1980s and early-1990s...

, 2004 French Open winner Gastón Gaudio

Gastón Gaudio

Gastón Norberto Gaudio is a former tennis player from Argentina. His career-high ATP ranking was World No. 5 in 2005...

, 2009 US Open winner Juan Martín del Potro

Juan Martin Del Potro

Juan Martín del Potro is an Argentine professional tennis player. Del Potro achieved a top-10 ranking by the Association of Tennis Professionals for the first time on October 6, 2008. In January 2010, he reached a career-high ranking of world no. 4...

 and double Olympic Gold medalist Nicolás Massú

Nicolás Massú

Nicolás Alejandro Massú Fried , nicknamed Vampiro , is a Chilean tennis player, a former world number nine in singles, and a two-time Olympic gold medalist...

. Marcelo Ríos

Marcelo Ríos

Marcelo Andrés Ríos Mayorga is a former World No. 1 tennis player from Chile. Nicknamed El Chino and El zurdo de Vitacura , he became the first Latin American player to reach the top position on the Association of Tennis Professionals singles rankings in 1998. He held the World No...

 was No. 1 in the ATP

Association of Tennis Professionals

The Association of Tennis Professionals or ATP was formed in 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to protect the interests of male professional tennis players. Since 1990, the association has organized the worldwide tennis tour for men and linked the title of the tour with the...

 rankings.

Jai Alai

Jai Alai

Jai alai

Jai alai is a sport involving a ball bounced off a walled space. It is a variety of Basque Pelota. The term, coined by Serafin Baroja in 1875, is also often loosely applied to the fronton where the sport is played...

 or Basque pelota is played in many parts of South America.

Although this sport is mostly played in Spain and France, there are also federations of Basque ball in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

, Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

, Paraguay

Paraguay

Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...

, Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

, Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

 and Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

. Due to the origin of the game, there are many good players who are Basques, either natives or from the Basque diaspora

Basque diaspora

The Basque diaspora is the name given to describe people of Basque origin living outside their traditional homeland on the borders between Spain and France...

.

Cricket

Cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 is mostly played in the Southern Cone

Southern Cone

Southern Cone is a geographic region composed of the southernmost areas of South America, south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Although geographically this includes part of Southern and Southeast of Brazil, in terms of political geography the Southern cone has traditionally comprised Argentina,...

, especially in areas settled by English people.

Although a number of SAn nations have teams, none of them are major. See - Argentina national cricket team, Brazil national cricket team Falkland Islands cricket team

Falkland Islands cricket team

The Falkland Islands cricket team is the team that represents the British overseas territory of the Falkland Islands in international cricket matches. They played their first international against Chile in February 2004, and gained affiliate membership of the International Cricket Council on 29...

, Guyana national cricket team

Guyana national cricket team

The Guyana cricket team is the representative first class cricket team of Guyana.It does not take part in any international competitions, but rather in inter-regional competitions in the Caribbean, such as the Carib Beer Cup and the KFC Cup, and the best players may be selected for the West Indies...

, Uruguay national cricket team

Uruguay national cricket team

The Uruguay national cricket team was the team that represented the county of Uruguay in international cricket matches. They mainly played against regional rivals Argentina, playing them 29 times between 1868 and World War II, winning on six occasions....

, Chile national cricket team, and Peru national cricket team

Peru national cricket team

The Peru national cricket team is the team that represents the country of Peru in international cricket matches.-History:Peru gained affiliate membership of the International Cricket Council on 29 June 2007. They have played in every edition of the South American Championships from 1997 onwards,...

.