Russia is a keen sporting country, successful at a number of sports and continuously finishing in the top rankings at the Olympic games. During the Soviet era the team placed first in the total number of medals won at 14 of its 18 appearances; with these performances, the USSR was the dominant Olympic power of its era. Since the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 and continuing today, the Soviet and later Russian athletes never went below third place in the world (never below 2nd until the most recent Olympics), in number and gold medals collected at the Summer Olympics. The 1980 Summer Olympic Games were held in Moscow while the 2014 Winter Olympics will be hosted by Sochi. Among the most played sports are football and ice hockey. Other sports widely played in Russia include weightlifting, gymnastics, boxing, wrestling, martial arts, volleyball, basketball and skiing. One thing we can say for certain is the similarities between Russian and American sports - first place in both countries is football. (In Russia football is soccer and in America it is football). The Russian soccer team was the first European champion in the history of the game since 1960. They were
also three-time finalists and Olympic champions. Although these achievements happened in the past, the football traditions are still alive. The best Russian teams are Spartak, Lokomotiv and CSKA. Hockey has even more traditions and titles in Russia than football. The famous matches with the Canadians in the1960s and 1970s brought Russia to the top of the hockey pedestal. There are three legendary offensive hockey players Krutov, Larionov and Makarov. These players continued the Russian success in to the 1980s. The 1990s became the decade years for NHL victories for Russian superstars such as Mironov, Konstantinov, Mogilniy and Larionov. Detroit Red Wings' Sergei Fedorov and Florida's Pavel Bure were two phenomenal players. Nowadays, there are more than 70 Russians in the best World League with such leader as Ilya Kovalchuk, from Atlanta Thrashers. Russia is in the 2006 Olympic Games in Italy has a good chance at winning the gold medal. Figure-skating is another popular sport; in the 1960s the Soviet Union rose to become a dominant power in figure skating, especially in pairs skating and ice dancing. At every Winter Olympics from 1964 until the present day, a Soviet or Russian pair has won gold, often considered the longest winning streak in modern sports history. As the Soviet Union, Russia was traditionally very strong in basketball. At the moment they various players in the NBA, notably Andrei Kirilenko, although they are not considered as strong as much of a basketball force as some of their Eastern European Counterparts such as Serbia or Lithuania. However in 2007, Russia defeated world champions Spain to win Eurobasket 07. Tennis finally became popular in the beginning of the 1990s when the first president of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin, started playing tennis. His love for this sport was passed to the people and since then, Russians started playing tennis and passing the tradition on to their chialdren. The most
important player in Russian tennis was Evgeniy Kafelnikov, who was the first premiere tennis player and winner of the Davis Cup last year. Lots of Russian tennis players, Anna Kournikova and Maria Sharapova are popular in America. Chess is a favourite pastime, and a sport that has been dominated by Russians in the post-war (1945-) era. The winner of the 1948 World Chess Championship, Russian Mikhail Botvinnik, started an era of Soviet dominance in the chess world. Until the end of the Soviet Union, there was only one non-Soviet champion. Rugby union is a growing sport in Russia. Russia is ranked 18th worldwide by the International Rugby Board (lRB) with a little over 13,000 players nationally. Russia has a professional domestic competition, the Firepower Professional Rugby League, including teams from Moscow (two clubs), Krasnoyarsk (two clubs), Chita, Krasnodar, Novokuznetsk and Penza. Krasnoyarsk, a large Siberian city, has traditionally been the stronghold of Russian rugby union. Domestic matces are covered in in the local media, and the intra-city derby match between sides Krasny Yar and Enisei-STM can attract large crowds. Rugby league is a team sport in Russia. Russia competed at the 2000 Rugby League World Cup and was knocked out in the group stage. The premier rugby league competition is called the Russian Championship. It is currently ranked 13th in the world by
the Rugby League International Federation.