Russia Sports – The Most Popular Sports in Russia
Wondering what sports the Russians like to play?
Learn everything about the most popular sports in Russia in this post. ⚽️
The Most Popular Russian Sports
Find below Russia national sports, ranked by popularity:
| Rank | Sport |
|---|---|
| 1 | Football |
| 2 | Ice hockey |
| 3 | Handball |
| 4 | Basketball |
| 5 | Futsal |
| 6 | Boxing |
| 7 | Auto racing |
| 8 | Volleyball |
| 9 | Athletics |
| 10 | Tennis |
| 11 | Chess |
So there you have them, the most popular sports in Russia! Keep reading below for more information about each sport in Russia.
What is the National Sport of Russia?
The national sport of Russia is Bandy. Bandy is the traditional sport of Russia, and it is the ancestor of ice hockey, even though it is still played and watched to this day. The game is in fact called “Russian hockey” (informally of course), and its attendance has been on the decline for the past years. It is played on ice, and skaters use sticks to put a ball into the other team’s goal.
Learn More About Russia Popular Sports
Russia also called the Russian Federation, is the biggest country in the world, representing more than one-eighth of the planet’s inhabited land area, extends across 11 time zones, has the most borders of any country in the world, and is bordered by 16 nations, like China, Mongolia, Poland, Norway, Ukraine, and North Korea. Its capital city is Moscow, which counts more than 12,506,000 inhabitants.
An interesting part of the country that I wanted to tackle is its most popular sports. In light of that, I have listed all Russia popular sports, and I hope you will love them:
Football
The most popular sport in Russia is, by far and away, football. Like in many other countries, football is the number one sport. Everyone, from men to women to children, loves playing and watching the game, and there is both a national league and a national team. The Russian Premier League, even though it features some foreign talent, is definitely not very reputed.
Russia was the host of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and the country had its best performance, reaching the quarter-finals for the first time in several decades.
Beach soccer is also on the rise in Russia, ever since the end of the 1990s.
Famous Russian Football players: Arshavin, Lev Yachine, Akinfeev, Yuri Zhirkov, Roman Chirokov, Artyom Dziouba, Fedor Smolov, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Alan Dzagoev, Sergueï Ignachevitch, Dmitri Torbinski, Vladimir Gaboulov, Igor Netto, Kerzhakov, Aleksandr Anyukov
Ice hockey
Russia most popular sport after football is ice hockey. While bandy is Russia’s national sport, its more recent version, ice hockey, is undoubtedly more popular.
The national league, the Kontinental Hockey League, is vastly considered the second-best league in the world, right after North America’s NHL. This league is mostly made of Russian teams, but other countries also participate, even though only Russians have won the championship as of now.
For the national team, it is also very successful, having won 5 World Championships, from 1993 to 2014.
Number of Ice hockey licensed players in Russia: 100,701
Famous Russian Ice hockey players: Aleksandr Ovetchkine, Igor Larionov, Sergei Fedorov, Viatcheslav Fetissov, Pavel Bure, Evgeni Malkin, Pavel Datsiouk, Alexander Mogilny
Handball
The third most popular sport in Russia is handball. The governing body of handball in Russia is the Handball Federation of Russia, which was founded in 1989. It majorly rules the Russian Handball Super League, which is the best league in the country. It features 13 teams and has been in place since 1993. In handball, the undisputed historical champions are Chekhovskiye Medvedi, who won a grand total of 20 titles.
The national handball team won 1 Olympic Games gold medal, and 1 bronze.
Famous Russian Handball players: Andrey Lavrov, Vasily Kudinov, Sergey Pogorelov, Eduard Koksharov, Denis Krivoshlykov, Timur Dibirov, Oksana Romenskaya, Lyudmila Postnova
Basketball
The fourth most popular sport in Russia is basketball. Russia is very successful in basketball, like in many other sports. The national basketball team has won many international titles, including 2 gold medals at the Olympic Games (1972 and 1988) as well as 3 World Cup titles (1967, 1974, and 1982).
When it comes to clubs, there are many talented players that come from Russia, like 2016 NBA champion Timofey Mozgov. The best club in the country is PBC CSKA Moscow, which is also the second most successful team in the history of European clubs!
Famous Russian Basketball players: Andreï Kirilenko, Alexey Shved, Timofey Mozgov, Sasha Kaun, Sergueï Monya, Sergueï Bazarevitch, Viktor Khryapa, Pavel Podkolzine, Kelly McCarty
Futsal
The fifth most popular sport in Russia is futsal. Football is so appreciated in Russia that even its indoor variant, futsal, is in the top 5 most popular sports in the country. There is a national league, the Russian Futsal Super League, which features 9 teams, and has historically largely been dominated by Dynamo Moscow, even though new teams have risen in the past couple of years.
The national futsal team is very successful, being ranked 4th worldwide and having won the World Cup in 1999.
Famous Russian Futsal players: Konstantin Eremenko, Alexander Verizhnikov, Arkadiy Belyi, Temur Alekberov, Sergey Zuev, Pavel Stepanov, Vladislav Shayakhmetov, Pula
Boxing
Russia’s most popular sport after futsal is boxing. Fighting sports are becoming more and more popular all over the world, but Russia has always been one of the best countries when it comes to boxing. The country is home to many world titleholders, legends of the sport, and other Olympic champions, like Alexander Povetkin and Nikolai Valuev.
Traditionally, boxing used to be bare-knuckle in Russia. The sport dates back to the 13th century, and the most famous region for traditional boxing is Tula, in the north of the country.
Famous Russian Boxing players: Nikolai Valuev, Aleksandr Povetkin, Kostya Tszyu, Artur Beterbiyev, Matvey Korobov, Sergey Kovalev, Sultan Ibragimov, Rakhim Chakhkiev
Auto racing
The seventh most popular sport in Russia is auto racing. Motorsport is quite popular in Russia, and the first Formula One driver in the country is Vitaly Petrov. He entered the sport in 2010 and drove for 3 seasons. His best result was a third-place finish at the 2011 Australian Grand Prix. After him, Daniil Kvyat made his debut in 2014 and finished second at the 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Other auto racing sports also exist in the country, like rallycross.
Famous Russian Auto racing players: Daniil Kvyat, Vitaly Petrov, Sergey Sirotkin, Evgeny Novikov, Mikhail Aleshin
Volleyball
The eighth most popular sport in Russia is volleyball. When it comes to the international stage, the Russian women’s national volleyball team is definitely one of the strongest teams on the planet: it is ranked 5th in the FIVB World Rankings, and it won many gold, silver, and bronze medals over the decades.
The junior men’s team is also exceptional, being ranked #1 in the world. Recently, Russia also featured a women’s national team in beach volleyball. It competed at the 2018-2020 Beach Volleyball Continental Cup.
Famous Russian Volleyball players: Iekaterina Gamova, Maksim Mikhailov, Vyacheslav Zaytsev, Yuriy Berezhko, Natalia Gontcharova, Sergey Grankin, Nikolay Apalikov, Aleksandr Volkov
Athletics
The ninth most played sport in Russia is athletics. Historically, Russia has always been a powerhouse in many athletics disciplines, particularly high jump, pole vault, long jump, track athletics, and hurdling.
One famous Russian athlete is Yelena Isinbayeva, who is largely considered the best female pole-vaulter of all time. She won 2 gold medals at the Olympic Games as well as 3 gold medals at the World Championships. She was, like many other Russians, banned from the Olympics because of state-sponsored doping.
Famous Russian Athletics players: Yelena Isinbayeva, Sergey Shubenkov, Ivan Ukhov, Anna Chicherova, Tatyana Lysenko, Yuliya Gushchina, Aleksandr Menkov, Mariya Lasitskene
Tennis
The tenth most popular sport in Russia is tennis. Generally speaking, ever since the end of the Soviet era, tennis has grown in popularity, and more and more successful athletes originate from the country.
If you know a tiny bit about tennis, you know about Maria Sharapova. She used to be Russia’s most successful tennis athlete by far, and also the highest-earning female athlete. While she retired on February 26th, 2020, her legacy will forever be remembered, and she will always be considered one of the all-time greatest.
Famous Russian Tennis players: Vera Zvonareva, Marat Safin, Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anna Kournikova, Ievgueni Kafelnikov, Elena Dementieva, Anastasia Myskina
Chess
The eleventh and last most popular sport in Russia is chess. Russia has always been known to be a land of chess. In fact, it is home to 11 World champions and, throughout all its incarnations (Russian Empire, Soviet Union, Russia), its players have always been part of the top of the table of the sport, and they enriched the game a ton.
You must have heard of legends Garry Kasparov or Anatoli Karpov, who used to absolutely dominate the world scene during their time.
Famous Russian Chess players: Garry Kasparov, Anatoli Karpov, Mikhaïl Botvinnik, Vladimir Kramnik, Vassily Smyslov, Boris Spassky, Efim Bogoljubov, Sergueï Kariakine, Aleksandr Grichtchouk
So there you have them, these were all the most popular sports in Russia. I hope you enjoyed them and that you learned something new today. Keep reading to get a few more Russia sports facts.
Is chess a national sport in Russia?
No, chess is not a national sport in Russia, officially. However, the country has brought more Grandmasters than any other, and it has always been known for the game. It is by far the best country in the world when it comes to chess, as it is home to 11 world chess champions.
Overall, the sport is so much appreciated that it could be considered a national sport in the near future.
Does Russia have high school sports?
There are many high school sports in Russia, but the system is very different from the United States for instance. While, in the latter, high school sports are an extremely important part of the student experience, in Russia, high schools provide regular sports like volleyball, basketball, and futsal.
For higher-level sports education, there are dedicated vocational sports schools as well as affiliated sports academies (for those who want to enter prestigious clubs and teams).
What sport originated in Russia?
The national sport, bandy, though its rules were written in England, was invented in Russia. The Federation of International Bandy was established in 1955, but many games had already taken place before that in the country, even before the English rules. After that, with a common set of rules, Russia dominated the sport for decades and still does to this day.
Is there baseball in Russia?
While very minor, there is a bit of baseball in Russia. The Russia national baseball team competes in the bi-annual European Baseball Championship, as well as the Baseball World Cup (3 times) and the Intercontinental Cup (once). However, it has never won a single championship, as its best finish in second place in the 2001 European Baseball Championship. It was originally formed in 1987 to represent the country in the Olympic Committee.
More Sport Facts!
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