Sport in Slovakia is influenced by its climate and geography; popular summer sports include soccer, tennis, volleyball, swimming, cycling and hiking, popular winter sports include skiing and snowboarding. The most watched sports in Slovakia are soccer, ice hockey and tennis. The country features a typical post-Eastern Bloc system, where sport is being financed primarily from the state budget. In 2012, the state will pay 30,402,634 euro to over 7,500 different sporting clubs.
Internationally, the most successful sport in Slovakia is ice hockey where currently, as of 2012, the country is ranked as the sixth best team in the world by the IIHF World Ranking.
Read more about Sport In Slovakia: History, Description, Slovak Sports in World Rankings
Famous quotes containing the word sport:
““Justice” was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Æschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess. And the d’Urberville knights and dames slept on in their tombs unknowing. The two speechless gazers bent themselves down to the earth, as if in prayer, and remained thus a long time, absolutely motionless: the flag continued to wave silently. As soon as they had strength they arose, joined hands again, and went on.
The End”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)