Sports in Denmark
Encyclopedia
| Sport | Members (% of pop) |
|---|---|
| Football | 313,674 (5.7%) |
| Golf | 149,509 (2.7%) |
| Aquatics (swimming etc.) | 124,366 (2.3%) |
| Handball | 121,953 (2.2%) |
| Gymnastics | 112,251 (2.0%) |
| Badminton | 100,508 (1.8%) |
| Equestrian | 78,508 (1.4%) |
| Tennis | 59,880 (1.1%) |
| Sailing | 59,348 (1.1%) |
| Shooting | 52,540 (1.0%) |
Sport in Denmark is diverse. The national sport is Football (soccer)
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
with the most notable results being qualifying for the European Championships six times in a row (1984–2004) and winning the Championship in 1992
1992 UEFA European Football Championship
The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was hosted by Sweden between 10 and 26 June 1992. It was the ninth European Football Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. Eight national teams contested the championship, which was won by Denmark, one of...
. Other significant achievements include winning the Confederations Cup in 1995 and reaching the quarter final of the 1998 World Cup
1998 World Cup
1998 World Cup may refer to:*1998 IAAF World Cup*1998 Men's Hockey World Cup*1998 Women's Hockey World Cup*1998 FIFA World Cup*1998 Alpine Skiing World Cup...
.
Other popular sports include handball
Team handball
Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team...
, cycling
Cycling
Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Persons engaged in cycling are cyclists or bicyclists...
, sailing
Sailing
Sailing is the propulsion of a vehicle and the control of its movement with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to move the boat relative to its surrounding medium and...
sports, badminton
Badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...
, ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
, swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
and recently also 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....
.
A few youths also play basketball.
Sport is encouraged in school, and there are local sports clubs in all cities and most towns.
The national stadium is the Parken Stadium
Parken Stadium
Parken Stadium is a football stadium in the Indre Østerbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark, built from 1990–1992. It currently has a capacity of 38,065 for football games, and is the home ground of F.C. Københaven and the Danish national football team...
.
Football
Football (soccer)Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
is the most popular sport in Denmark, with over 313,000 players in more than 1600 clubs. The national football team in Denmark
Denmark national football team
The Denmark national football team represents Denmark in association football and is controlled by the Danish Football Association , the governing body for the football clubs which are organized under DBU...
have reached high and notable results, like qualifying for the European Championships six times in a row (1984–2004) and winning the UEFA Championship in 1992
1992 UEFA European Football Championship
The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was hosted by Sweden between 10 and 26 June 1992. It was the ninth European Football Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. Eight national teams contested the championship, which was won by Denmark, one of...
. Other significant achievements include winning the Confederations Cup in 1995 and reaching the quarter final of the 1998 World Cup
1998 World Cup
1998 World Cup may refer to:*1998 IAAF World Cup*1998 Men's Hockey World Cup*1998 Women's Hockey World Cup*1998 FIFA World Cup*1998 Alpine Skiing World Cup...
.
Denmark national football team reached #3 ranking in the FIFA ranking in May 1997, and #1 at the World Football Elo Ratings
World Football Elo Ratings
The World Football Elo Ratings is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football. The method used to rank teams is based upon the Elo rating system method but modified to take various football-specific variables into account...
system in (1912–1920).
The top-league in Danish football is called The Danish Superliga
Danish Superliga
The Danish Superliga is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest association football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams to be relegated, which proves to be one of the...
.
Golf
GolfGolf
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....
has become a highly popular sport in recent years in Denmark with more than 180 courses
Golf course
A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
across the country.
Golf is mostly popular among the older demographic, with more members over the age of 24 than any other sport in Denmark.
In pro golf, Thomas Bjørn
Thomas Bjørn
Thomas Bjørn is a professional golfer from Denmark who plays on the European Tour. He is the most successful Danish golfer to have played the game having won thirteen tournaments worldwide on the European Tour. In 1999 he also became the first Dane to qualify for a European Ryder Cup team...
has dominated the Danish scene for many years, along with Anders Hansen
Anders Hansen
Anders Rosenberg Hansen is a Danish professional golfer.Hansen was born in Sønderborg, Denmark. He turned professional in 1995...
, Søren Hansen
Søren Hansen
Søren Hansen is a Danish professional golfer.Hansen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He won the 1997 Danish Amateur Stroke Play Championship and turned professional later that year....
and Steen Tinning
Steen Tinning
Steen Tinning is a Danish professional golfer.Tinning was born in Copenhagen. After a successful amateur career he turned professional in 1985 and soon won a place on the European Tour. This career was interrupted when he and his wife were involved in a multiple car crash in Germany in 1990, which...
on the European Tour. On the Ladies European Tour
Ladies European Tour
The Ladies European Tour is a professional golf tour for women which was founded in 1979. It is based in England. Like many UK-based sports organisations it is a company limited by guarantee, a legal structure which enables it to focus on maximising returns to its members through prize money,...
, Iben Tinning is the most successful Danish player.
Handball
There are over 146.000 licensed handball players in Denmark. Both the male, and female national teams have reached high international rankings.Denmark women's national handball team
Denmark women's national handball team
The Denmark women's national handball team is the national team of Denmark. It is governed by the Dansk Håndbold Forbund and takes part in international handball competitions....
have won the Olympics gold medal 3 times, the European Women's Handball Championship
European Women's Handball Championship
The European Women's Handball Championship is the official competition for senior women's national handball teams of Europe, and takes place every two years. In addition to crowning the European champions, the tournament also serves as a qualifying tournament for the World Championship...
3 times, and the World Women's Handball Championship
World Women's Handball Championship
The World Championship in team handball for women has been organized by the International Handball Federation since 1957.- Championships :- Overall medal count :- Participation history :-Largest winning margin:Source: - External links :*...
1 time. The male national team won the European Men's Handball Championship
European Men's Handball Championship
The European men's handball championship is the official competition for senior men's national handball teams of Europe, and takes place every two years. In addition to crowning the European champions, the tournament also serves as a qualifying tournament for the World Championship...
in 2008.
Cycling
Thorvald Ellegaard
Thorvald Ellegaard was a leading Danish track racing cyclist in the 1900s and 1910s. He won the world professional sprint title six times, three European titles, and 24 Danish titles. Over the course of his long career, which spanned 31 years, he competed in 1,560 significant races, winning 925 of...
won the world professional sprint
Sprint (cycling)
The sprint or match sprint is a track cycling event involving between 2 and 4 riders, though they are usually run as a one-on-one match race between opponents who, unlike in the individual pursuit, start next to each other.- Racing style :...
title in six times, three European titles, and 24 Danish titles.
In recent years, Denmark has made a mark as a strong cycling
Cycling
Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Persons engaged in cycling are cyclists or bicyclists...
nation, with Bjarne Riis
Bjarne Riis
Bjarne Lykkegård Riis , nicknamed The Eagle from Herning , is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer who placed first in the 1996 Tour de France, and is now the team owner and manager of Danish UCI ProTour outfit Team Saxo Bank Sungard...
winning Tour de France
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
in 1996, and Michael Rasmussen
Michael Rasmussen
Michael Rasmussen is a Danish professional road bicycle racer who rides for the Danish team Christina Watches-Onfone. In the 2007 Tour de France, Rasmussen, while in the yellow jersey, had his contract terminated by his team and was removed from the Tour...
reaching King of the Mountains
King of the Mountains
The King of the Mountains is the title given to the best climber in a cycling road race; usually and officially known as the Mountains classification...
status, in the Tour 2005 and 2006. Other well-known Danish riders are Matti Breschel
Matti Breschel
Matti Breschel is a Danish professional road bicycle racer who currently rides for UCI ProTeam .-Career:He got his breakthrough with small Danish Team PH, finishing 6th at the U/23 Cycling World Championship in Verona in 2004 where he helped fellow Dane Mads Christensen finish 3rd...
, Nicki Sørensen
Nicki Sørensen
Nicki Sørensen is a Danish professional road bicycle racer currently riding for . He has competed in five consecutive editions of the Tour de France from 2001 to 2005, riding as an all-round rider who rides well in hilly terrain, Sørensen is a valued support for the team captain without many wins...
, Bo Hamburger
Bo Hamburger
Bo Hamburger is a former Danish professional road racing cyclist. He retired in 2006.He was fired from Team CSC in 2001, after a positive EPO test. He was later cleared legally since the B test was below the limit, but still higher than normal. Since then, the Danish Cycle Union refused to let Bo...
, Jesper Skibby
Jesper Skibby
Jesper Skibby was born 21 March 1964 in Silkeborg, Denmark. He was a professional rider in road bicycle racing, and one of the most popular in Denmark, not only because of his talent, but also because of his wit and his constant banter...
and Lars Michaelsen
Lars Michaelsen
Lars Michaelsen is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer who last rode for Team CSC. He got his break through in his second year as a professional, when he won the 1995 edition of Gent–Wevelgem. In the 1997 Vuelta a España he won stage 1 and wore the leader's jersey for three days...
Team Saxo Bank is the best cycling team in Denmark, led by Bjarne Riis. In 2008, Carlos Sastre
Carlos Sastre
Carlos Sastre Candil is a retired Spanish professional road bicycle racer and champion of the 2008 Tour de France. Sastre rides in 2011 for UCI Professional Continental team...
, won the Tour de France
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
while riding for Saxo Bank.
In the past years, the Danish cycling has suffered from dope-cases. Bjarne Riis, Bo Hamburger, Jesper Skibby, Michael Rasmussen all confessed doping use, or were related with doping. But despite all the bad publicity, cycling is still quite a popular sport in Denmark. In 2011, Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
will host the UCI world championships on the road.
Motor Sports
In Denmark there is also a small but successful group of people doing motorsport. The driver with the most 24 Hours of Le Mans24 Hours of Le Mans
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the world's oldest sports car race in endurance racing, held annually since near the town of Le Mans, France. Commonly known as the Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency, race teams have to balance speed against the cars' ability to run for 24 hours without sustaining...
wins so far is Denmark's Tom Kristensen
Tom Kristensen
Tom Kristensen is a Danish racing driver. He has won many championships in auto racing but his most famous achievement is being the only person to win the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans eight times, six of which were consecutive...
with 8 1st places.
Motorcycle speedway
Denmark have marked their status as one of the leading motorcycle speedwayMotorcycle speedway
Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. Speedway motorcycles use only one gear and have no brakes and racing takes place on a flat oval track usually...
countries. Denmark won the Speedway World Cup
Speedway World Cup
The Speedway World Cup is an annual speedway event held each year in different countries. The first edition of the competition in the current format was in 2001 and it replaced the old World Team Cup competition.-Format:...
in 2006, and came 2nd in 2007 missing only 2 points to Poland.
Danish Speedway World Championship
Speedway World Championship
The World Championship of Speedway is an international competition between the highest ranked motorcycle speedway riders of the world. Today, it is organised as a series of Speedway Grand Prix events, where points are awarded according to performance in the event and tallied up at the end of each...
Champions include Ole Olsen, Erik Gundersen, Hans Nielsen
Hans Nielsen (speedway rider)
Hans Hollen Nielsen - a prominent speedway rider active from the 1970s to the late 1990s; a former World Champion....
(nicknamed "The Professor", 4-times World Champion), and Nicki Pedersen
Nicki Pedersen
Nicki Pedersen is a Danish motorcycle speedway rider. He has won the World Championship in 2003, 2007 and 2008 and was a World Cup winner with Denmark in 2006 and 2008. His brother, Ronni Pedersen, has also ridden in the Speedway Grand Prix and World Cup.-Domestic teams:Pedersen began speedway...
, the 2003 2007 and 2008 World Champion.
Erik Gundersen and Hans Nielsen
Hans Nielsen (speedway rider)
Hans Hollen Nielsen - a prominent speedway rider active from the 1970s to the late 1990s; a former World Champion....
occupied the first two places at Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
in 1984. And, in fact, there were two Danes on top of the table in each and every World final from 1984 to 1988 - a somewhat extraordinary record. Gundersen and Nielsen took three titles each as the Danes won six successive and seven out of eight titles from 1984 to 1991.
Rugby union
The Danish Rugby UnionDanish Rugby Union
The Danish Rugby Union is the governing body for rugby union in Denmark. Rugby began being played in Denmark in 1931 but it was not until 1950 that the DRU was established. In 1971 the DRU joined FIRA - Association of European Rugby followed by the Skandinavisk Rugby Union in 1974 before finally...
dates back to 1950, and joined the IRB in 1988. There are about 3,000 registered players.
Rugby League
Rugby LeagueRugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
in Denmark is organised by Danmark Rugby League, and the national representative team played their first international against Norway on 22 August 2009 at the DTU in northern Copenhagen. A reconstitution of Rugby League in Denmark in 2011 saw a return to international competition in which Danmark Rugby League beat Sweden in Gothenburg on 2nd July 2011 by 52 points to 18 in the Rugby League Nordic Cup.
Boxing
Denmark have got many great boxers, including former Super MiddleweightSuper middleweight
Super Middleweight is a boxing and Muay Thai weight division that has a weight limit of 168 pounds .- 1960s–1983 :There was interest in a division between Middleweight and Light Heavyweight in the late 1960s, the mid-1970s, and the early 1980s...
World Boxing Council
World Boxing Council
The World Boxing Council was initially established by 11 countries: the United States, Argentina, United Kingdom, France, Mexico, Philippines, Panama, Chile, Peru, Venezuela and Brazil plus Puerto Rico, met in Mexico City on February 14, 1963, upon invitation of the then President of Mexico, Adolfo...
World Champion and Super Middleweight World Boxing Association
World Boxing Association
The World Boxing Association is a boxing organization that sanctions official matches, and awards the WBA world championship title at the professional level. It was previously known as the National Boxing Association before changing its name in 1962...
World Champion, Mikkel Kessler
Mikkel Kessler
Mikkel Kessler is a Danish professional boxer and former two time WBA & WBC Super Middleweight champion. In his professional career he has a record of 44–2 with 33 knockouts...
. Former great boxers include Johnny Bredahl
Johnny Bredahl
Johnny Bredahl , aka Johny Wahid Johansen, is a retired professional boxer in the bantamweight division. Bredahl is the former WBA world bantamweight champion...
a former WBO and WBA
World Boxing Association
The World Boxing Association is a boxing organization that sanctions official matches, and awards the WBA world championship title at the professional level. It was previously known as the National Boxing Association before changing its name in 1962...
champion. Brian Nielsen who fought Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson
Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson is a retired American boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles, he was 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old...
in 2001. The active boxer Ahmed Khaddour
Ahmed Khaddour
Ahmed "Babyface" Khaddour is a professional boxer.-Personal life:Originally Lebanese, he grew up in Denmark and now lives in the United States - his multi-cultural background has contributed to him being able to speak five languages.-Boxing career:Khaddour started his career in Europe, fighting in...
who was in the American reality TV show The Contender also comes from Denmark.
Cricket
The Denmark national cricket team has been performing well and has reached World Cricket LeagueWorld Cricket League
The ICC World Cricket League is a series of international one-day cricket tournaments for national teams without Test status, administered by the International Cricket Council. All associate and affiliate members of the ICC are eligible to compete in the league system, which features a promotion...
's Division two
2007 ICC World Cricket League Division Two
The 2007 ICC World Cricket League Division Two is a tournament that forms part of the ICC World Cricket League. It was played in Windhoek, Namibia between 24 November and 1 December 2007, and forms part of the qualification structure for the 2011 Cricket World Cup.-Teams: The 2007 ICC World...
which kept their hopes to qualify for the 2011 Cricket World Cup
2011 Cricket World Cup
The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was the tenth Cricket World Cup. It was played in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. It was Bangladesh's first time co-hosting a World Cup...
. Cricket has been played in Denmark since the mid 19th century, brought there by British. Along with the men's team Denmark national women's cricket team also has some introduction into cricket.