Sports and leisure In Iceland

The most popular sport in Iceland, as in most European countries, is Soccer. The Icelandic word for soccer is FÓTBOLTI, which actually means football. Soccer is though, as you probably know, very different from the sport you know as football. As a matter of fact, Icelanders only know American football from TV and we don´t have a clue at all about Baseball. We don´t know that game at all. Hockey is not a big thing in Iceland either. We only have three hockey teams so the Icelandic Hockey Championship is usually not really exciting.
Basketball is a very popular sport in Iceland, and so is golf and handball. The game we call handball is very different from the game known in the USA as handball. Our team handball is a very fast and physical sport and it´s very popular in many European countries.

Iceland hasn’t had many famous athletes. We have only won three Olympic medals, one silver and two bronze medals. We have never won an Olympic gold. We have never the less got a few very good athletes today. We have one of the five best decathlon competitors in the world, as well as some very good swimmers, snooker players and our handball team is on the World’s top ten list. We´ve also had some European champions, for example in Shot Put, Tracks and various Swimming events.

One of our most famous athletes was Jón Páll Sigmarsson. He was in his time known worldwide for his unbelievable strenght, but for years no one could beat him in the “Worlds Strongest Man” competition.

Formula Off-Road is a genuine Icelandic sport, sprung from the all-Icelandic obsession about four wheel drive trucks on big wheels. Formula Off-Road contestants drive their powerful, custom built vehicles through extremely difficult tracks, and almost every competition includes at least one car turning upside-down.

Family-sport in Iceland is not different from other countries, at all! We go skiing, skating, walking and camping. Swimming is probably our distinctive family sport as we have at least one public swimming pool in every community all over the country. Horse-back riding is also a very popular family-sport.