History
The first sport played in Chile was palín (similar to hockey), first practiced by the Mapuche before the discovery and conquest of the country. The game was later called Chueca by the Spanish conquerors.
Years later Europeans introduced other sports unknown in this country. Valparaíso is Chile's main port, and due to the emerging nitrate industry in the north, it became a crossroads for ships coming from Europe, bringing equipment and personnel for newspapers, firefighting, railroads, steam engines, and others. Immigrants from England, Italy and Spain came to work in the hills mining nitrate. They had traveled to Chile to stay and live, but the immigrants yearned for the customs of the old continent, especially the British. Chilean sport originated in the town of Valparaiso in the second half of the 19th century by the British and their descendents born in Chile, who began to ride horses, and then played cricket. In 1870, badminton and tennis courts had been built. Then rugby and football clubs were created with British names that continue to be used, as Wanderers and Everton are still present in the port and its neighboring city, Viña del Mar. Sport initially served as a demonstration of spirit and promoted the health of its followers, but later became an expression of entertainment that would gain spectators and fans.
The development of sport was unstable, with no planning by government and without large financial contributions, only the will of those interested. Chile participated among the select countries inaugurating the Modern Olympics in Athens, Greece, where there was no official representation, but a spontaneous presence of a single athlete, Luis Subercaseaux, who arrive dressed in the national colors to run the hundred meter dash, and had been training in outdoor running. After a hundred years of modern sport, the history of Chile has not produced many world level sports heroes, but by the end of the 20th century, it became clear that the competition was to win. The triumphs in the meantime have been less than many would like, but objectively, more than many would believe.
Read more about this topic: Sport In Chile
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We are told that men protect us; that they are generous, even chivalric in their protection. Gentlemen, if your protectors were women, and they took all your property and your children, and paid you half as much for your work, though as well or better done than your own, would you think much of the chivalry which permitted you to sit in street-cars and picked up your pocket- handkerchief?”
—Mary B. Clay, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 3, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“This above all makes history useful and desirable: it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.”
—Titus Livius (Livy)
“Bias, point of view, fury—are they ... so dangerous and must they be ironed out of history, the hills flattened and the contours leveled? The professors talk ... about passion and point of view in history as a Calvinist talks about sin in the bedroom.”
—Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973)