Greek Sports (I)

Olympic flame at opening ceremony

Panathenaic Stadium in Athens

Greek sports history:

Greece is the birthplace of the Olympic Games, first recorded in 776 BC. The Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, a replica of an ancient Greek stadium, hosted the Olympic Games in 1896. It had also hosted Olympic Games in 1870 and 1875. The Panathenaic stadium also hosted the Games in 1906 and was used to host events at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

The Greek national football team, ranked 14th in the world in 2012,won the UEFA Euro 2004 in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the sport.The Greek Super League is the highest professional football league in the country comprising sixteen teams. The most successful are Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Aris, PAOK and AEK Athens.
The Greek national basketball team has a decades-long tradition of excellence in the sport. As of 2012, it ranked 4th in the world.They have won the European Championship twice in 1987 and 2005, and have reached the final four in three of the last four FIBA World Championships, taking second place in 2006. In 2009, Greece beat France in the under-20 European Basketball championship.The domestic top basketball league, A1 Ethniki, is composed of fourteen teams. The most successful Greek teams are Panathinaikos, Olympiacos, Aris Thessaloniki and PAOK. Water polo and volleyball are also practiced widely in Greece while cricket and handball are relatively popular in Corfu and Veroia respectively.