# Sports only a handful, or less, countries are truly passionate about **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [July 1, 2016, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857 "2016-07-01T07:23:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/21 "2016-07-01T16:59:21Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Hockey is Serious Business in most barren icedust countries - Canada, Finland, Russia, Norway, Michigan… 🙂 Oh, I’m aware it’s a northern thing sense my it depends on how you define a hand full comment. It’s probably less then a dozen countries worldwide so obviously not obscure like some of the sports were talking about but still no where near major on an international level. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/22 "2016-07-01T16:59:33Z")
[Calcio Storico](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-B2EFxQ8fU) in Italy - people beat the crap out of each other in medieval/gladiator costumes in a disorganized fashion, and occasionally remember they’re supposed to move a ball forward. Great stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/23 "2016-07-01T17:00:40Z")
> [@gazpacho](#): > > Is Australian football sufficiently different from US and Canadian football that it should be considered a different sport? Yes, it’s much closer to rugby than to American or Canadian football. ---
**Author:** ![jsquire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@jsquire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsquire)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/24 "2016-07-01T17:22:27Z")
This may only count as part of another broader sport, but ekiden (long-distance road running relay) is a wildly popular spectator sport in Japan and basically nowhere else. The biggest one is the two-day Hakone Ekiden on January 2-3, which gets tens of millions of TV viewers and has [its own museum](http://www.hakoneekidenmuseum.jp). ---
**Author:** ![Wilson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@Wilson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wilson)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/25 "2016-07-01T17:31:49Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Yes, it’s much closer to rugby than to American or Canadian football. Australian rules is actually closest to the previously mentioned Gaelic Football. But you’re right that it’s closer to rugby than to American football. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/26 "2016-07-01T17:38:02Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > Oh, I’m aware it’s a northern thing sense my it depends on how you define a hand full comment. It’s probably less then a dozen countries worldwide so obviously not obscure like some of the sports were talking about but still no where near major on an international level. I think hockey is too popular for this question. Once you consider all of the European countries that have some serious skill and the World Juniors. I would put field hockey into consideration though. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/27 "2016-07-01T17:50:07Z")
> [@Poysyn](#): > > I > I would put field hockey into consideration though. :dubious: The Subcontinent. Most of Europe, including UK, Ireland, Germany, Dutch, Spain; Australia, New Zealand, Argentina… I would say its probably more popular than Ice Hockey. I would put forth some Gaelic Sports too. As well as [Tent Pegging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tent_pegging), which is only really big in rural Punjab. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/28 "2016-07-01T18:36:49Z")
> [@jsquire](#): > > This may only count as part of another broader sport, but ekiden (long-distance road running relay) is a wildly popular spectator sport in Japan and basically nowhere else. The biggest one is the two-day Hakone Ekiden on January 2-3, which gets tens of millions of TV viewers and has [its own museum](http://www.hakoneekidenmuseum.jp). It’s not much of a spectator sport, but long distance running relays are becoming increasingly popular in the US - [https://www.runragnar.com/](https://www.runragnar.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Shearer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/57b2e6/32.png) [@Shearer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shearer)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2016, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/29 "2016-07-02T00:05:40Z")
Not sure how popular Cyclocross is outside of Flanders. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2016, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/30 "2016-07-02T01:16:31Z")
[Shinty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinty) is the Scottish version of hurling, but I don’t think it’s as popular. [Caber toss](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caber_toss) - Scotland, though also in Highland games events worldwide. [Wife carrying](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wife-carrying) - Finland and Estonia. [Korfball](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korfball) - Netherlands [Sepak takraw](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepak_takraw) - SE Asia I would say rugby league applies. Is cricket too popular? > [@Mr.Greenjeans](#): > > Sumo wrestling is popular only in Japan. You’re probably right when talking about popularity, but note: [most of the top sumo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_yokozuna) are originally, despite their adopted Japanese names, of Hawaiian or Mongolian origin. > [@gazpacho](#): > > Is Australian football sufficiently different from US and Canadian football that it should be considered a different sport? It’s really one of the weirdest football codes to watch. It’s the only one I know where [you can use other players as a platform](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectacular_mark). ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2016, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/31 "2016-07-04T04:27:28Z")
It looks like only Canada and Finland take ringette seriously (although I suspect it’s being cannibalized by women’s hockey nowadays). > **[Ringette](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringette)** > > Ringette is a non-contact winter team sport played on an ice rink using ice hockey skates, straight sticks with drag-tips, and a blue, rubber, pneumatic ring designed for use on ice surfaces. The sport is among a small number of organized team sports created exclusively for female competitors. Ringette is played on ice hockey rinks with markings which are specific to ringette, and its strategic play bears a closer resemblance to basketball than it does to ice hockey. > The sport was created in C... ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2016, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/32 "2016-07-04T12:42:44Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Hockey is Serious Business in most barren icedust countries - Canada, Finland, Russia, Norway, Michigan… 🙂 Hockey is, however, may be the most popular sport in only one country; Canada. Even in Russia, the most popular sport is soccer. (I have seen arguments that hockey might be more popular in Finland or the Czech Republic, but sources argue over this.) So in that regard hockey can, or might, be said to be somewhat different from other well known sports; widely played, but in first place only on one country. That cannot be said of baseball, which is clearly the most popular sport in at least three or four countries on two and maybe three continents (and arguably NOT in the country that created it.) Of course, precisely measuring a country’s most popular sport is itself a bit of a debate. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2016, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/33 "2016-07-04T19:21:15Z")
You don’t see much jai-alai except in Basque country and Miami. [American handball](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_handball) is famous in New York City, where an estimated 2,299 public handball courts occupy the five boroughs. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/34 "2016-07-06T03:24:29Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Baseball essentially doesn’t exist outside of the US (and Japan since 1945). The Japanese been playing baseball since the 1880s and actually are the ones who spread baseball to Korea and Taiwan when those countries were Japanese colonies. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/35 "2016-07-06T03:59:39Z")
I just finished reading “The Ball” by John Fox, which has a few contenders for this thread. Kirkwall Ba’: Only played in the town of Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands a few times a year. It’s in the tradition of old mass-football games of medieval times where the men of the upper and lower halves of the town scrum to force the ball through the town into the other half’s goal. Eton Wall Game: In the style of rubgy, but shaped by the very narrow (5 meters wide) field along side a brick wall. Ulama: The ancient ball game of the Olmecs, Mayans, and Aztecs is still played in a few villages in Western Mexico. Played with a large, heavy rubber ball that is bounced off the hip across a center line for the other team to attempt to return service. Jeu de Paume (or Real/Royal Tennis): Only a handful of courts left in the world in France and England, plus America and Australia. An indoor court game played on a court with sloping walls, and lots of ledges and protrusions to bank balls off of. Box Lacrosse: Field lacrosse is the popular form of the game that everyone knows. Box Lacrosse is played indoors, usually on a de-iced hockey rink. Huge in Canada (Canada has never lost an international game), and minor everywhere else except for the Northeastern U.S and the Native American tribes of upstate New York. The Iroquois Nation competes independently in international play. Bandy: A form of ice hockey played outdoors on a soccer-sized field. It’s played with a ball, not a puck, and sticks curved more like field hockey sticks. Very limited by climate and has been cannibalized by ice hockey for decades. Really only played in Russia, Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Vintage Baseball: The U.S. Archaic-rules baseball combined with historical re-enactment. Teams play games using rules from the 1860s or 1870’s while wearing old-timey uniforms and equipment (or lack thereof). ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/36 "2016-07-06T04:05:08Z")
> [@jsquire](#): > > This may only count as part of another broader sport, but ekiden (long-distance road running relay) is a wildly popular spectator sport in Japan and basically nowhere else. The biggest one is the two-day Hakone Ekiden on January 2-3, which gets tens of millions of TV viewers and has [its own museum](http://www.hakoneekidenmuseum.jp). Japan also has Gateball, a kind of amped-up team croquet. Also, there is Kemari, a type of hackey-sack played by courtiers in Kyoto dating back well over a thousand years. Sumo has been mentioned. If judo is considered a sport, how about other competitive martial arts like kendo and naginata-do? ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/37 "2016-07-06T04:05:48Z")
Bocci is particularly popular in Malta with league play attracting quite a following. [Maltese bocci](http://english.cntv.cn/program/sportsscene/20121221/106008.shtml) is slightly different than its Italian cousin and, as far as I can tell, not widely played elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/38 "2016-07-06T04:54:56Z")
Curling was my first guess, although it seems to be catching on elsewhere, if only for the novelty factor. Jai-alai is big in some areas, although I understand it’s mostly because people bet on it. Marathons are a big deal in Japan for the same reason. Six-player half-court girls’ basketball was a big thing in Iowa, until they wisened up and made it five-on-five, full court, and therefore much more interesting to watch. ---
**Author:** ![denquixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/39 "2016-07-06T07:19:19Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Candlepin is much more widespread. I can count a dozen lanes near me and I couldn’t find a single duckpin lane. But you’re correct that it’s also only played in the US and Canada. Do you live in Massachusetts? I’ve never seen candlepins anywhere else? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857/40 "2016-07-06T07:32:08Z")
“_Matkot_”, or beach racquetball, is immensely popular in Israel and, apparently, in Brazil, where it’s known as “_frescobol_”. For those not familiar with, you stand on the surf line and use a wooden paddle to hit a squash ball back and forth and… well, that’s about it, really. It’s not so much a sport as it is a form of exercise and a way to show off your beach body. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-only-a-handful-or-less-countries-are-truly-passionate-about/758857.md?page=3)