Sport in Italy

Participation by sport

Sports

Football

Water sports

• Swimming is a popular sport in Italy. The Italian [Swimming Federation], founded in 1899 is the principal Swimming Federation in Italy. It brings together more than 1200 clubs. The Italy national swimming team represents Italy in International swimming competitions such as Olympic Games or World swimming Championships. Notable Italian swimmers are Novella Calligaris, Giorgio Lamberti, Domenico Fioravanti, Massimiliano Rosolino, Alessio Boggiatto, Federica Pellegrini, Filippo Magnini and Gregorio Paltrinieri.

• The Italy men's national water polo team represents Italy in men's international water polo competitions. The national men's team has the nickname of Settebello, a reference to both the Italian card game scopa and a standard water polo team having seven players. The Italian men's water polo team has won 8 Olympic medals, 7 World Championships, 5 World Cup, 11 European Championships medals and 3 World League medals, making them one of the most successful men's water polo teams in the world. They have won a combined twelve championships in those five competitions, with the World League, the last competition which Italy won in 2022.
• Sailing and rowing are popular sport in Italy. Notable Italian sailors are Agostino Straulino and Alessandra Sensini, while noteworthy Italian rower are Peppiniello Di Capua, Giuseppe Abbagnale, Carmine Abbagnale and Agostino Abbagnale.

• On the second Sunday of October in the Gulf of Trieste the Barcolana is held: established in 1969, it is today the largest regatta in the world. The Barcolana became the Guinness World Record holder in February 2019 when it was named "the greatest sailing race" with its 2,689 boats and over 16,000 sailors on the starting line. The Barcolana is organized by the yacht club Società Velica di Barcola e Grignano. Thanks to its particular formula, the Barcolana is a unique event on the international sailing stage: on the same starting line expert sailors and sailing lovers race side by side on boats of different sizes divided into several divisions according to their overall length. Still on the subject of boat racing, another noteworthy race is the Regatta of the Historical Marine Republics. The Regatta of the Historical Maritime Republics is a sporting event of historical re-enactment, established in 1955 with the aim of recalling the rivalry of the most famous Italian maritime republics: those of Republic of Amalfi, Republic of Pisa, Republic of Genoa and Republic of Venice, during which four rowing crews representing each of the republics compete against each other. This event, held under the patronage of the President of Italy, takes place every year on a day between the end of May and the beginning of July, and is hosted in rotation between these cities.
• In 1972, synchronized swimming took hold in Italy, thanks to the commitment of a swimming teacher at the Lanciani swimming pool in Rome, who decided to let boys and girls try to train the alternating backstroke, rhythmizing the movements. In 1976 the first synchronized swimming team was formed, the "clams", made up of seven girls and one boy. At the Italian swimming pools athletes and swimming teachers began to study and practice the discipline, teaching it and making the sport grow.
• Towards the end of the 19th century the diving also spread to Italy and in particular to Rome where the Ponte Milvio became an ideal place for acrobatics on the Tiber. In Italy, the first national diving championship was held in 1900 in Milan, at Bagni di Diana. Notable Italian diver is Klaus Dibiasi, while noteworthy Italian free-diver is Enzo Maiorca.
• Other popular water sports in Italy are water skiing, surfing and water basketball.

Basketball

Athletics

Cycling

Rugby union

Tennis

Volleyball

Attendances

Winter sports

• Alpine skiing or ski is a very popular sport in Italy, with more than 2,000,000 skiers, most of them in the northern regions near the Alps and in the central provinces near the Apennine Mountains. Italian skiers have achieved good results in the Winter Olympic Games, World Cup, and World Championship, most notably Zeno Colò, Gustavo Thoeni, who won 4 Overall World Cups between 1970 and 1975; Piero Gros, who was Overall World Cup champion in 1974, Alberto Tomba who won the Overall World Cup in 1995 and Federica Brignone, who was overall World Cup champion in 2020 and 2025. Tomba, Brignone, Deborah Compagnoni, and Isolde Kostner received many medals in different editions of the Winter Olympic Games. Giorgio Rocca and Manfred Mölgg won the Slalom World Cup in 2006 and 2008 respectively, whilst Giuliano Razzoli was Olympic slalom champion in 2010 and Sofia Goggia was Olympic downhill champion in 2018. Other Italian winners of World Cup discipline titles include Peter Fill, Peter Runggaldier, Denise Karbon, Marta Bassino and Dominik Paris, with the latter two also winning World Championship golds.
• Cross-country skiing is popular in northern Italy, with athletes, who have won medals at the Winter Olympics, of the likes of Franco Nones, Maurilio De Zolt, Stefania Belmondo, Marco Albarello, Giuseppe Pulie, Giorgio Vanzetta, Silvio Fauner, Bice Vanzetta, Manuela Di Centa, Gabriella Paruzzi, Fulvio Valbusa, Fabio Maj, Karin Moroder, Pietro Piller Cottrer, Cristian Zorzi, Giorgio Di Centa, Arianna Follis, Antonella Confortola, Sabina Valbusa and Federico Pellegrino.
• Alpinism is followed, because Italian alpinists wrote several pages of history in this sport. Italians Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli conquered first the summit of K2 in 1954, in the expedition led by the geologist Ardito Desio. Reinhold Messner was the first man in the world to reach the 14 summits, over 8,000 meters, and the first one to climb Mount Everest alone and without oxygen. Cesare Maestri conquered the Cerro Torre in Patagonia in 1959. Walter Bonatti is considered one of the best alpinists in Europe in 1950s, realizing some ascents considered impossible by the competitors.
• Figure skating is a popular sport and professional figure skaters often starring in events of exhibition. Notable Italian athlete in figure skating is Carolina Kostner.
• Bobsleigh is very followed, because Italian bobsledder Eugenio Monti was the most successful athlete in the international history of this sport.
• Luge is followed from its history, with Paul Hildgartner and Gerda Weissensteiner to the recent dominance of Armin Zöggeler.

Bodybuilding

Combat sports

• Fencing is a very successful sport and Italy is the most successful fencing country at the Olympics. Italy national fencing team represents Italy in International fencing competitions such as Olympic Games or World [Fencing Championships]. The national Italian fencing team participated to all the Summer Olympics editions, from Paris 1900, 26 times on 28. Noteworthy fencers are Nedo Nadi, Giulio Gaudini, Edoardo Mangiarotti, Giuseppe Delfino, Irene Camber, Mauro Numa, Giovanna Trillini and Valentina Vezzali.
• Boxing is a sport, that Italy ranks in at 4th all-time at the Olympics. Notable Italian boxers are Francesco Damiani, Primo Carnera, Nino Benvenuti, Bruno Arcari, Patrizio Oliva, Duilio Loi, Sandro Mazzinghi and Roberto Cammarelle.
• Kickboxing is participated in Italy, both amateur and professionally. Notable Italian kickboxers are Gery Bavetta, Alessandro Campagna, Gabriele Casella, Mathias Gallo Cassarino, Roberto Cocco, Mustapha Haida, Gregorio Di Leo, Armen Petrosyan, Giorgio Petrosyan, Alessandro Riguccini, Mara Romero Borella, Annalisa Bucci, Silvia La Notte, Gloria Peritore, Chantal Ughi, Jleana Valentino, Veronica Vernocchi, Martine Michieletto and Chiara Vincis.
• Karate is participated in Italy, both amateur and professionally. Notable Italian karateka are Luigi Busà, Mattia Busato, Angelo Crescenzo, Luca Maresca, Simone Marino, Michele Martina, Carlo Pedersoli Jr., Pino Presti, Luca Valdesi, Luigi Zoia, Sara Battaglia, Viviana Bottaro, Sara Cardin, Carola Casale, Terryana D'Onofrio, Michela Pezzetti and Silvia Semeraro.
• Italy ranks 8th all-time in judo at the Olympics. Notable Italian judoka winners of gold medals at the Olympics are Ezio Gamba, Giuseppe Maddaloni, Fabio Basile and Giulia Quintavalle.
• Notable Italian athlete in Greco-Roman wrestling is Vincenzo Maenza.

Equestrian sports

Baseball

Cricket

Handball

Ice hockey

Futsal

Motorsports

• Well-known racetracks include the Monza and Imola, the Mugello and Misano Adriatico circuit. The Monza Circuit is a historic racetrack near the city of Monza, north of Milan. Built in 1922 in the Royal Villa of Monza park in a woodland setting, the site has three tracks – the Grand Prix track, the Junior track, and a high speed oval track with steep bankings which was left unused for decades and had been decaying until it was restored in the 2010s. The circuit's biggest event is the Italian Grand Prix. With the exception of the 1980 running, the race has been hosted there since 1949. The Italian Grand Prix of Formula One is the fifth oldest surviving Grand Prix, having been held since 1921. It is also one of the two Grand Prix present in every championship since the first one in 1950. In addition to Formula One, the circuit previously hosted the 1000 km Monza, an endurance sports car race held as part of the World Sportscar Championship and the Le Mans Series. Monza also featured the unique Race of Two Worlds events, which attempted to run Formula One and USAC National Championship cars against each other. The racetrack also previously held rounds of the Grand Prix motorcycle racing, WTCC, TCR International Series, Superbike World Championship, Formula Renault 3.5 Series and Auto GP. Monza currently hosts rounds of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, International GT Open and Euroformula Open Championship, as well as various local championships such as the TCR Italian Series, Italian GT Championship, Porsche Carrera Cup Italia, Italian F4 Championship, and the Monza Rally Show.

• In auto racing in Italy is extremely popular, from Formula One to endurance racing to rallies. In speed, from the first races of the 20th century, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Ferrari, Abarth and Lancia, have won in the most important races and won world and continental titles in all categories. The Italian driver Giuseppe Farina, in his Alfa Romeo, won the first Formula One World Driver Championship in. Italian Scuderia Ferrari is the oldest surviving team in Grand Prix racing, having competed since 1948, and statistically the most successful Formula One team in history.
• In motorcycling, the great champions of the past, such as Umberto Masetti, Carlo Ubbiali, Tarquinio Provini and Giacomo Agostini, the most successful rider in the history of the World Championship,.

• Powerboating has a long history linked to the Italian country. With the founding of the Italian Motorboat Federation in 1923, whose president was Prince [Ferdinando, Duke of Genoa (1884–1963)|Prince Ferdinando, Duke of Genoa], this sport immediately attracted prominent personalities of the time with frequenters of the first major events including Guglielmo Marconi, Benito Mussolini and Gabriele D'Annunzio. This sport in Italy has grown in particular from the 1970s onwards and counts Angelo Moratti and subsequently Massimo Moratti among the presidents of its federation. In 1929 the Pavia-Venice Raid was born, the longest powerboat race in the world at the time. In the 1930s, Gabbriele D'Annunzio offered the Oltranza Cup for the Gardone Riviera races. The main centers of the Italian Power Force settled in the Lombardy area and in particular in Como, Milan.

Golf

American football

Gymnastics

Rugby league

Lacrosse

Floorball

Traditional sports

• The traditional sport of bocce is a popular sport and pastime. Bocce is a ball sport belonging to the boules family. Developed into its present form in Italy, it is closely related to British bowls and French pétanque, with a common ancestry from ancient games played in the Roman Empire. Bocce is played around western, southern and southeastern Europe, as well as in overseas areas with historical Italian immigrant population, including Australia, North America, and South America, principally Argentina and the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Initially played just by the Italian immigrants, the game has slowly become more popular with their descendants and more broadly.
• Cue sports are played on traditional billiard table in many forms: five-pins, goriziana, and boccette. There are almost 6,000,000 amateur players and professional players who compete in national circuit of tournaments and international championships.
• Palio or annual athletic contest is followed very much, because every comune celebrates ancient events in these competitions. The most famous in the world is Palio di Siena. The first Palio di Siena took place in 1633. Ten horses and riders, bareback and dressed in the appropriate colours, represent ten of the seventeen contrade of Siena, or city wards. The Corteo Storico of Siena, a pageant to the sound of the March of the Palio, precedes the race, which attracts visitors and spectators from around the world.

• Calcio Fiorentino is an early form of football that originated during the Middle Ages in Italy. Once widely played, the sport is thought to have started in the Piazza Santa Croce in Florence. There it became known as the giuoco del calcio fiorentino or simply calcio, which is now also the name for association football in the Italian language. The game may have started as a revival of the Roman sport of harpastum. This traditional sporting event attracts tourists from all over the world.
• Saracen Joust of Arezzo is an ancient game of chivalry. It dates back to the Middle Ages. It was born as an exercise for military training. This tournament was regularly held in Arezzo between the 16th century and the end of the 17th century, when memorable jousts in baroque style were organized. The joust – which became a typical tradition of Arezzo at the beginning of the 17th century – declined progressively during the 18th century and eventually disappeared, at least in its "noble" version. After a brief popular revival between the 18th and 19th century, the joust was interrupted after 1810 to reappear only in 1904 in the wake of the Middle Ages reappraisal operated by Romanticism. Finally, the joust was definitely restored in 1931 as a form of historical re-enactment set in the 14th century, and quickly acquired a competitive character. Saracen Joust attracts tourists from all over the world.
• The Giostra della Quintana was a historical jousting tournament in Foligno, central Italy. It was revived as a modern festival in 1946. The tournament event takes place in June during a Saturday night and September the 2nd or 3rd Sunday of September, and is proceeded each time by a festival with a 17th-century costumed parade. The definition of Quintana comes from the 5th road of the Roman military camps, where the soldiers were trained in lance fighting. This is the origin of the tournament's name, but the first definition and documented "Quintana" as a knights' jousting tournament during a festival, dates back to 1448. In 1613 the build-up to the Quintana tournament included the carnival festivals we see today. Giostra della Quintana attracts tourists from all over the world.

Italy at the Olympics

• 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
• 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.
• 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
• 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo.

Walk of Fame of Italian sport