Sport
Padua is the home of Calcio Padova, a football team that plays in Italy's Serie B, and who played 16 Serie A championships (last 2 in 1995 and 1996, but the previous 14 between 1929 and 1962); the Petrarca Padova rugby union team, winner of 12 national championships (all between 1970 and 2011) and 2 national cups, and now plays in the Super 10 league; and the Pallavolo Padova volleyball club, once called Petrarca Padova as well, which plays in the Italian second division (A2) and who won a CEV cup in 1994. Basketball, cycling (Padua has been for several years home of the famous Giro del Veneto), rowing (two teams among the best ones in Italy, Canottieri Padova and Padova Canottaggio), horseback-riding and swimming are popular sports too.
The venues of these teams are: Stadio Euganeo for football and athletic, about 32,000 seats; Stadio Plebiscito for rugby union, about 9,000 seats; Palazzetto dello Sport San Lazzaro for volleyball and basketball, about 5,000 seats, and has just been restored; Ippodromo Breda - Le Padovanelle for horse races. The old and glorious Stadio Appiani, which hosted up to 21,000 people, presently reduced to 10,000 for security reasons twenty years ago, and near to Prato della Valle in the city central area, is almost abandoned and is to be restored. A small ice stadium for skating and hockey is about to be completed, with about 1,000 seats.
The F1 racing driver Riccardo Patrese (runner-up 1992, 3rd place in 1989 and 1991; held the world record for having started the most Formula One races, beaten by Rubens Barrichello during the 2008 season) was born and lives in Padova; the racing driver Alex Zanardi also lives in Padova.
The Bergamasco brothers were also born in Padova, as well as Bortolami, Marcato and Leonardo Ghiraldini, of the Italian Rugby national team. All of them started their careers in Petrarca Padova.
Famous footballers from Padua were Francesco Toldo, who was born here, and Alessandro Del Piero, who started his professional career in the Calcio Padova.
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Famous quotes containing the word sport:
“For generations, a wide range of shooting in Northern Ireland has provided all sections of the population with a pastime which ... has occupied a great deal of leisure time. Unlike many other countries, the outstanding characteristic of the sport has been that it was not confined to any one class.”
—Northern Irish Tourist Board. quoted in New Statesman (London, Aug. 29, 1969)
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—Willa Cather (1876–1947)