Sport in Ecuador
The South American country of Ecuador is bordered by Peru and Colombia and as such, it comes as no surprise that soccer rule the sports arena.
Ecuador has a lot of professional football teams with some towns producing more than one team. The most well known by far is the LDU Quito which is the only team to win the Copa Libertadores, the Copa Sudamericana and the Recopa Sudamericana.
Ecuador were also the runner-ups in the FIFA Club World Cup (2008). Whenever their national team plays, it always gets the majority of viewers in the country. That is how much they love football. The Ecuadorian national football team qualified for the 2002, 2006 and 2014 FIFA World Cups final rounds. Their home stadium in Quito is unusually high and the elevation often affects the performance of visiting teams who are not used to the relatively thinner air.
Ecuador first competed in the 1924 Paris Summer Games with three athletes. They skipped the following Games and re-joining in the 1968 Olympic Games held in Mexico City and have been competing ever since. To date, Ecuador has only received two Olympic medals that were earned by the same person, Jefferson Perez, who took the gold on the Men's 20-km walk held in Atlanta (1996). He again competed for the same event and took the silver in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. He also set the 2003 World Championships world record at 1:17:21 for 20-km.
Below are details of sports, sporting events and sports people related to Ecuador.
Popular sports of Ecuador
- Football (Soccer), Basketball, Tennis, Baseball, Volleyball, Track & Field
Traditional or Local Sports
- Ecuavóley — a variant of volleyball though the net is higher and played with three players, invented and played in Ecuador.
- Chaza - (also called pelota naciona or national ball) is a racquet sport like tennis and national sport of Ecuador.
Ecuador's Sporting Success
- Ecuador were also the runner-ups in the FIFA Club World Cup (2008)
- Ecuador finished second to Germany in Group A, in the 2006 FIFA World Cup
Great athletes from Ecuador
- Jefferson Perez (race walking)
- Richard Carapaz (cycling) - the first Ecuadorian to win a Grand Tour, the 2019 Giro d'Italia.
- Álex Quiñónez - sprinter, finished 7th behind Usain Bolt in the 200m at the 2012 Olympics.
Ecuador Sports trivia
- Ecuador first competed in the 1924 Paris Summer Games with three athletes.
- Ecuador takes part in the Bolivarian Games, a multi-sport competition involving athletes from Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.
- They participated in the Winter Olympic Games for the first time in 2018.
Ecuador at major events
- Ecuador at the Summer Olympics
- Ecuador at the Winter Olympics
- Ecuador at the FIFA World Cup
- Ecuador women's football team at the FIFA Women's World Cup
- Ecuador at the Copa América
Past sporting events hosted in Ecuador
- 1982 World Swimming Championships Guyaquil
- 2007 Youth World Championship for rock climbing
Upcoming sporting events in Ecuador
Annual sporting events held in Ecuador
Sporting Facilities in Ecuador
- Monumental Banco Pichincha Stadium, Guayaquil
- Modelo Alberto Spencer Herrera, Guayaquil
- Olímpico Atahualpa, Quito
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