Sport in the Basque Country
Sports in the Basque Country is the term that encompasses different sports that are practiced in the Basque Country, Spain.
Although the Basque sport par excellence is pelota, particularly in its "mano" variety. The Basque Country is rich in rural sports of all kinds.
Basque pelota: generic name for several games that all consist of throwing a ball into a fronton made up of two walls (front and left side), which can be played individually (one against one) or in pairs (two against two). The main types are: "hand", "shovel" and "basket-point", the first being played simply with the hands, the second with solid wooden shovels and the last with a basketry glove that forms a long pointed concavity with which to pick up and throw the basket again. ball.
Another modality is the so-called "remonte", which is played with a less concave basket, and in which the ball is hit, instead of picking it up and throwing it. A variety called "ratchet" with the characteristic that the side wall of the pediment presents a curious elongated booth. Although the ball has its center in the Basque Country, it also extends to other areas, such as La Rioja and Latin American countries. Likewise, the basket-tip has become a mass spectacle, under the name of "Jai-Alai" in places like Miami (USA) and Macao (China).
Non-traditional Basque sports
The Basque Country has great athletes, in sports that are not of Basque origin, especially in football, cycling and rugby.
The main sport, as in the rest of Spain and France, is soccer. The main teams, Athletic Club and Real Sociedad, are the regulars in the Spanish professional football league. The policy of the Athletic Club de Fútbol de Bilbao is to have only Basque players, or players who have formed in Basque teams of lower categories, despite the fact that their founders were English.
Cycling is a very popular sport in the Basque Country.All Basque cyclists, from any professional team, are followed by the fans, who also admire the great figures of this sport, even if they are not Basque. The Kas team competed from 1958 to 1978 and then from 1985 to 1988, sponsored by the Basque beverage company Kas. The Euskaltel-Euskadi, belonging to the telecommunications company Euskaltel, and partly subsidized by the Basque government and the provincial councils, competed professionally between 1994 and 2012. Abraham Olano won the Tour of Spain and the Cycling World Championship. Going further back in time, Jesús Loroño took the Vuelta a España in 1957 and in 1982 Marino Lejarreta won the Vuelta a España.
Basque pelota and Jai Alai are Basque versions of the family of European games that includes tennis and squash. Basque players, both in French and Spanish teams, stand out in international competitions.
Mountaineering benefits from the mountainous character of the Basque terrain, and from the proximity of the Pyrenees. Juanito Oiarzabal, Alberto Iñurrategi, Josune Bereziartu and Edurne Pasaban.
One of the main basketball teams in Spain, Saski Baskonia, is based in the Basque capital, Vitoria. In Bilbao there is another basketball team in the ACB League, Bilbao Basket, as in San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa Basket.
In recent years surfing has settled on the Basque coast despite the cold Atlantic waters, Mundaca having become an important point in the world surfing circuit, although, due to port works in Bermeo, Mundaca lost its famous 'left wave', although it was finally recovered, after some reconstruction works on the land.
In the French Basque Country, rugby is very popular among the Basque community. Two Basque clubs belong to the first division of the French rugby league (the Top 14): the "BOPB" or the "Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque" in Biárriz and the "Aviron Bayonnais" in Bayonne. The colors of Biárriz are red and white and those of Bayonne, white and blue.
In terms of rhythmic gymnastics, the Basque Country has had several outstanding gymnasts, such as the four-time Olympian Almudena Cid, the Olympic champions Tania Lamarca, Estíbaliz Martínez and Lorena Guréndez, or the world champions Beatriz Nogales and Paula Orive.
In Quidditch, the Basque Country is one of the most successful regions of the country. Bizkaia Boggarts has won the silver medal twice and the bronze medal once in its three participations in the Spanish Cup, having participated as a result on one occasion in the European Quidditch Championship.
Traditional Basque sports
There are several Basque sports derived from everyday tasks. The workers hung out with them and made bets to see who did better. Some examples are:
- Regattas trainers: from when the fishermen returned row to get the first ones to the sale of the fish.
- Sokatira: force test between two teams pulling from the ends of the same string.
- Harri Jasoketa: erection of stones, of quarries.
- Aizkolari and tronkolaritza: cutting of logs, wood industry.
- Segalaritza: follow with guadaña, from the works of the field.
- Dema: drag blocks of stone, of construction works:
- Idi probak: with a pair of oxen.
- Asto probak: with donkeys.
- Zaldi probak: with horses.
- Gizon probak: only with two people.
- Competitions Shepherd dogs.
- Txinga erute: carry weights, one in each hand, representing the vessels of the dairy.
- Competitions sweepers: make barrens in stone blocks with a metal bar. Only in the old mining areas of the western Vizcaya.
Bets
Another characteristic of Basque sports is betting, especially in traditional sports, since there is a Basque government law that protects it.
Filmography
- Documentary TVE (19/11/2015), « Vintage Connection - Eight Basque sports» in rtve.es