Armenia Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Sport=== {{main|Sport in Armenia|Chess in Armenia}} [[File:Armenia vs Portugal, 13 June 2015, V. Sargsyan Rep. Stad. Yerevan (7).jpg|thumb|The [[Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium]] in Yerevan]] [[File:Ireland Armenia teams.jpg|thumb|The [[Armenia national football team]] in Dublin, Ireland]] [[File:Levon Aronian 2011.jpg|thumb|upright|Chess Grandmaster [[Levon Aronian]] is a former [[FIDE]] No. 2 rated player and the [[Comparison of top chess players throughout history#Elo system|fourth-highest rated player in history]].]] [[File:Tigran Petrosian 1962.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Tigran Petrosyan]] 9th [[World Chess Champion]]]] A wide array of sports are played in Armenia, the most popular among them being wrestling, weightlifting, judo, association football, chess, and boxing. Armenia's mountainous terrain provides great opportunities for the practice of sports like skiing and climbing. Being a landlocked country, water sports can only be practised on lakes, notably [[Lake Sevan]]. Competitively, Armenia has been successful in chess, weightlifting and wrestling at the international level. Armenia is also an active member of the international sports community, with full membership in the Union of European Football Associations ([[UEFA]]) and International Ice Hockey Federation ([[IIHF]]). It also hosts the [[Pan-Armenian Games]]. Prior to 1992, Armenians would participate in the Olympics representing the USSR. As part of the Soviet Union, Armenia was very successful, winning plenty of medals and helping the USSR win the medal standings at the Olympics on numerous occasions. The first medal won by an Armenian in modern Olympic history was by [[Hrant Shahinyan]] (sometimes spelled as Grant Shaginyan), who won two golds and two silvers in gymnastics at the [[1952 Summer Olympics]] in Helsinki. To highlight the level of success of Armenians in the Olympics, Shahinyan was quoted as saying: "Armenian sportsmen had to outdo their opponents by several notches for the shot at being accepted into any Soviet team. But those difficulties notwithstanding, 90 percent of Armenian athletes on Soviet Olympic teams came back with medals."<ref name="ArmeniaNow.com">{{cite web |url=https://www.armenianow.com/features/6903/ambassadors_in_sport_independent |title=Ambassadors in Sport?: Independent Armenia far below the glory of Soviet times on the pitch, mat |publisher=[[ArmeniaNow]] |date=15 December 2006 |access-date=27 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180128074613/https://www.armenianow.com/features/6903/ambassadors_in_sport_independent |archive-date=28 January 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> Armenia first participated at the [[1992 Summer Olympics]] in Barcelona under a unified CIS team, where it was very successful, winning three golds and one silver in weightlifting, wrestling and sharp shooting, despite only having five athletes. Since the [[1994 Winter Olympics]] in [[Lillehammer]], Armenia has participated as an independent nation. Armenia participates in the Summer Olympic Games in boxing, wrestling, weightlifting, judo, gymnastics, track and field, diving, swimming and sharp shooting. It also participates in the Winter Olympic Games in alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and figure skating. [[Football in Armenia|Football]] is also popular in Armenia. The most successful team was the [[FC Ararat Yerevan]] team of the 1970s who won the [[Soviet Cup]] in 1973 and 1975 and the [[Soviet Top League 1973|Soviet Top League]] in 1973. The latter achievement saw FC Ararat gain entry to the [[1974β75 European Cup|European Cup]] where β despite a home victory in the second leg β they lost on aggregate at the quarter-final stage to eventual winner [[FC Bayern Munich]]. Armenia competed internationally as part of the [[USSR national football team]] until the [[Armenian national football team]] was formed in 1992 after the split of the Soviet Union. Armenia have never qualified for a major tournament although recent improvements saw the team to achieve 44th position in the [[FIFA World Rankings]] in September 2011. The national team is controlled by the [[Football Federation of Armenia]]. The [[Armenian Premier League]] is the highest level football competition in Armenia, and has been dominated by [[FC Pyunik]] in recent seasons. The league currently consists of eight teams and relegates to the [[Armenian First League]]. Armenia and the Armenian diaspora have produced many successful footballers, including [[Henrikh Mkhitaryan]], [[Youri Djorkaeff]], [[Alain Boghossian]], [[Andranik Eskandarian]], [[Andranik Teymourian]], [[Edgar Manucharyan]] and [[Nikita Simonyan]]. Djokaeff and Boghossian won the [[1998 FIFA World Cup]] with [[France national football team|France]], Teymourian competed in the [[2006 FIFA World Cup|2006 World Cup]] for [[Iran national football team|Iran]] and Manucharyan played in the Dutch [[Eredivisie]] for [[AFC Ajax|Ajax]]. Mkhitaryan has been one of the most successful Armenian footballers in recent years, playing for international clubs such as [[Borussia Dortmund]], [[Manchester United F.C.|Manchester United]], [[Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal]], [[A.S. Roma]] and currently for [[Inter Milan]].<ref>{{Cite news |title=Inter Milan sign Mkhitaryan on free transfer |language=en-GB |work=BBC Sport |url=https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/62021631 |access-date=2023-09-21}}</ref> [[Wrestling]] has been a successful sport in the Olympics for Armenia. At the [[Armenia at the 1996 Summer Olympics|1996 Summer Olympics]] in [[Atlanta]], [[Armen Nazaryan]] won the gold in the Men's [[Greco-Roman wrestling|Greco-Roman]] Flyweight (52 kg) category and [[Armen Mkrtchyan]] won the silver in Men's [[Freestyle wrestling|Freestyle]] Paperweight (48 kg) category, securing Armenia's first two medals in its Olympic history. Traditional Armenian wrestling is called Kokh and practised in traditional garb; it was one of the influences included in the Soviet combat sport of [[Sambo (martial art)|Sambo]], which is also very popular.<ref>{{cite book|editor= Thomas A. Green|title=Martial arts of the world: en encyclopedia|year=2001|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara, Calif.|isbn=978-1-57607-150-2|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=v32oHSE5t6cC&pg=PA718 718]}}</ref> The [[Politics of Armenia|government of Armenia]] budgets about $2.8 million annually for sports and gives it to the National Committee of Physical Education and Sports, the body that determines which programs should benefit from the funds.<ref name="ArmeniaNow.com"/> Due to the lack of success lately on the international level, in recent years, Armenia has rebuilt 16 Soviet-era sports schools and furnished them with new equipment for a total cost of $1.9 million. The rebuilding of the regional schools was financed by the Armenian government. $9.3 million has been invested in the resort town of [[Tsaghkadzor]] to improve the [[winter sport]]s infrastructure because of dismal performances at recent [[winter sport]]s events. In 2005, a cycling centre was opened in [[Yerevan]] with the aim of helping produce world class Armenian cyclists. The government has also promised a cash reward of $700,000 to Armenians who win a gold medal at the Olympics.<ref name="ArmeniaNow.com"/> Armenia has also been very successful in chess, winning the [[World Team Chess Championship|World Champion]] in 2011 and the [[Chess Olympiad|World Chess Olympiad]] on three occasions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004j7zg |title=Armenia: the cleverest nation on earth |publisher=[[BBC World Service]] |date=18 October 2009 |access-date=28 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024030523/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004j7zg |archive-date=24 October 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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