Sports in Cyprus

Cyprus, an island of sports

   Cyprus is an island in the Eastern Mediterranean sea, off the coasts of Syria and Turkey and between three regions, Europe, Africa and Asia. It is a member state of the European Union since 2004. Although, Cyprus its a small island with a population around 1 million the majority of people are involved with sports, either as fans or as athletes. The most popular sports around the island is football, with some notable successes the previous years, athletics/Olympic games, basketball, futsal, which is a newly introduced sport in the country, tennis, with more people getting involved after the successes from Marcos Baghdatis the recent years, Cyprus Rally which is held yearly since 1970 and it is considered as one of the most important events every year in the country. Some people are getting also involved in skiing, handball and volleyball.

   Football ,the most popular spectator and participator sport on the island, was introduced to Cyprus early in the 20th century by the British and became popular while played at the island's schools. Very soon various football clubs were formed engaging in friendly matches between them. The growth of football was continued, through the years, as a result of which the idea to establish a football organization was promoted and in September 1934 the Cyprus Football Association(CFA) was formed in order to regulate the sport. In 1948, the Cyprus Football Association became a FIFA member and an UEFA member in 1962. Cyprus football the recent years has achieved great achievements, mostly in the european cups, Champions League and Europa League, with F.C. APOEL entering the Champions League group stage 3 times and 2 times entering the Europa League group stage. F.C. APOEL in 2011 achieved the greatest history of Cyprus football by reaching the Champions League quarter-finals stage facing the giants F.C. Real Madrid. The first club that achieved to enter the Champions League group stage was F.C. Anorthosis Famagusta facing and beating Olympiakos Piraeus in qualification round, 2008. In 2011, AEK Larnakas was the first club to enter the Europa League group stage by eliminating the Norwegian team Rosenborg in the qualification round. The year 2011 was one of the best in the Cyprus football as two clubs were in the European Cups Group Stages, FC APOEL and AEK Larnakas. Also, AEL Limassol entered the Europa League group stage once and Apollon Limassol entered the group stage twice. On the other hand, the Cypriot National team has not qualified yet for any major FIFA or UEFA competition, they have to show only some remarkable results against higher reputation national teams like Israel, Germany, Wales, Ireland and Portugal. In general, Cyprus football went to the 'next level' the recent years and this has the result of attracting higher reputation players and football clubs in the island.

   Basketball is also quite popular in the island, but it was hit by a small crisis, economic and organizational. The mistakes from the previous decades put basketball in Cyprus in a crisis and many teams, basketball players and people involved with basketball was affected by this situation. Many basketball players are semi-professional now, but slowly slowly things are getting better in the field of basketball. Despite the crisis, EKA AEL Limassol and AEK Larnaka have to show good European campaigns. The Cyprus National Team in basketball the previous years didn't take part in the European competitions and it has nothing important to show on a national level in basketball until now. Now, the National team is slowly taking part again in the European competitions. After all the crisis, basketball in Cyprus is ''restarting'' with slow and balanced way.

   In the recent years, Cypriot athletes have achieved some notable successes in Athletics and Olympic Games. Cyprus has sent athletes in every summer and winter Olympic Games held since 1980. Pavlos Kontides, competing in the men's Laser class sailing event, became the first cypriot athlete ever to win an Olympic medal for his country by winning the Silver medal at the summer Olympic Games 2012 held in London, behind the Australian Tom Slingsby. Kontides won a gold medal at the 2008 World Junior Championships, in 2009 he won two silver medals in World Cups and a bronze medal in the Paneuropean Men's Championship. Kyriakos Ioannou, high jumper, and Eleni Artymata, sprinter, have won several medals. Kyriakos Ioannou has won medals in the IAAF World Athletics Championships, Commonwealth Games and the Mediterranean Games. Eleni Artymata has also won multiple medals in the Mediterranean Games, including gold medals in the 200 meters in 2009 and 2013.

   Tennis, since 2006 and after became quite popular in the island, with many people getting involved either professional or just to have fun as a hobby.The main reason for this is Marcos Baghdatis, the cypriot professional tennis player. Baghdatis, was the runner up at the 2006 Australian Open and a semi-finalist at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships, achieving a great season and reaching a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No.8 in August 2006. Marcos Baghdatis won 4 tournaments in his career, the China Open in Bejing in September 2006, the ATP Zagreb (Croatia) in February 2007, the Stockholm Open (Sweden) in October 2009 and the Medibank International (Sydney, Australia) in January 2010.  

   Rallying in Cyprus, is another sport that is famous and its attracting a lot of fans. The Cyprus Rally is a competition held yearly in Cyprus since 1970, the event is run by the Cyprus Automobile Association and is based in Limassol, on the roads of the mountains nearby Troodos. Cyprus Rally was part of the FIA's World Rally Championship (WRC) from 2000 to 2006. In 2007 and 2008, the event was part of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC). In 2009, the event rejoined the WRC, taking advantage of the new regulations to become the only mixed surface event. Between 2010 and 2012, the event was the final round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC). Eftihios 'Tio' Ellinas is a Cypriot race car driver, he is one of the best young drivers all over the world. In 2010, he earned the ''Rookie of the Year'' title.

   Sport has become multi-dimensional and new sports have been creating day by day. Due to the changing environment, sport become more important in the people's life in the cypriot society than it used to be many years ago. The young people get more involved and give great importance to sport in life than their parents and grandparent did when they were in a similar age. Cyprus is promoting sports in a more professional way, through technology mostly, and more sports are created so people are attracted.