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Sports in South Africa have a passionate following, although they remain largely divided along ethnic lines. Soccer, Cricket and Rugby are the most popular sports. Soccer is the most popular sport in South Africa. The national soccer team is nicknamed ''Bafana Bafana'' (meaning ''the boys, the boys/GO BOYS GO BOYS''). South Africa hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the first one hosted in Africa. Cricket is traditionally the sport popular among the white British diaspora and Indian South African communities, although it is now followed by members of all races. The national cricket team is nicknamed ''The Proteas''. Rugby is particularly popular amongst persons of Afrikaner descent. The national rugby union team, ''The Springboks'', have enjoyed considerable success since the early 20th Century, including two Rugby World Cup victories in 1995 & 2007. Other popular sports include: boxing, hockey, tennis, golf, surfing, netball and also running. South Africa was absent from international sport for most of the apartheid era due to sanctions, but started competing globally after the end of apartheid. ==History== South Africa was banned from the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo due to the apartheid policies. 〔(1964: South Africa banned from Olympics, BBC )〕 This ban effectively lasted until 1992. During this time, some sports people (like Zola Budd and Kepler Wessels) left for other countries in order to compete internationally. Some athletes continued their sports careers in South Africa in isolation, with some stars like women's 400 metres runner Myrtle Bothma running a world record time at the South African championships. Some sports teams toured South Africa as "Rebel Tours" and played the Springbok rugby and Proteas cricket teams in South Africa during the isolation period. In 1977, Commonwealth Presidents and Prime Ministers agreed, as part of their support for the international campaign against apartheid, to discourage contact and competition between their sportsmen and sporting organisations, teams or individuals from South Africa. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sport in South Africa」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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