Sport in Azerbaijan
Below are details of sports, sporting events and sports people related to Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan was once part of the Soviet Union, and did not compete in world sport under its own name until the 1990s.
People have been living in Azerbaijan since the late Stone Age and there are a lot of cave drawings to attest to mankind's presence in there. And when mankind started flourishing, recreation started getting practiced and a lot of these became Azerbaijan's traditional sports. One of these is freestyle wrestling which is the national sport of Azerbaijan but football and chess have gained popularity in the recent years.
Gary Kasparov, one of the long term chess champions actually was born in Azerbaijan. Other notable Azerbaijan chess players are Shahriyar Mammadyarov, Vugar Gashimov, Teimour Radjabov and Zeinab Mamedyarova. The 2009 European Chess Championship was also held in Azerbaijan.
Football is the most loved sport in Azerbaijan and the major football governing body, the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan, has well over 9,000 registered players. In the 60's Azerbaijan enjoyed what they called "The Golden Age" of football having produced Alakbar Mammadov and Anatoliy Banishevskiy. Azerbaijan was also the venue for the 2012 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. They also had made some mark in other sports like futsal where the Azerbaijan national futsal team took fourth place in the 2010 UEFA Futsal Championship and Araz Naxçivan, one of the local teams snatched bronze medals at the 2009–10 UEFA Futsal Cup and 2013–14 UEFA Futsal Cup.
Azerbaijan also loves martial arts. Elnur Mammadli brought home medals from the 2008 Summer Olympics and European Championships. Movlud Miraliyev also won bronze in 2008 Summer Olympics as well as the World Judo Championships (2003)
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Popular sports of Azerbaijan
- Football (Soccer), Wrestling, Boxing, Shooting, futsal, Martial Arts, Chess
Azerbaijan Sporting Success
- Azerbaijan national futsal team took fourth place in the 2010 UEFA Futsal Championship
Great athletes from Azerbaijan
- Elnur Mammadli
- Movlud Miraliyev
Azerbaijan Sports trivia
- The majority of the Olympic Games medals won by athletes from Azerbaijan are in the sport of wrestling.
Azerbaijan at major events
Past sporting events hosted in Azerbaijan
- 2011 Men's World Boxing Championships in Baku
- 2012 FIFA U/17 Women's World Cup
- 2015 European Games
Upcoming sporting events in Azerbaijan
Annual sporting events held in Azerbaijan
Sporting Facilities in Azerbaijan
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