The major sports in Venezuela are baseball, basketball and football. Baseball in Venezuela originates with the early 20th century cultural influence of the United States oil companies. The Venezuelan Professional Baseball League was established in 1945. Football in Venezuela lags behind baseball, but its popularity in recent years has grown. Basketball and volleyball are also popular sports; there has been a national basketball league since 1974. The Vuelta a Venezuela is one of six cycling events in the UCI America Tour. The polo club Lechuza Caracas has had some success in North American polo competitions.
In international competitions, Venezuela has participated in the Olympics since 1948, and the Winter Olympic Games since 1998. It won its first Olympic medal in 1952 when Asnoldo Devonish won bronze in the Men's Triple Jump, and its first Olympic gold in 1968 (Francisco Rodríguez, light flyweight boxing). Venezuela first competed in the Paralympics in 1984, and won its first Paralympic gold in 2008 (Naomi Soazo, judo).
Venezuela participates in the Pan American Games and the Central American and Caribbean Games, with Caracas hosting these games in 1959 and 1983 respectively. Venezuela has had a Davis Cup team since 1957.
Though golf is a minor sport under pressure in Venezuela, the emergence of Jhonattan (Johnny) Vegas on the PGA Tour in 2011 and his strong showing as a rookie there has raised its profile.
Baseball
History
On October 22, 1941, the Venezuelan baseball team defeated the Cuban baseball team in the World Amateur Baseball tournament. Since the victory was unexpected because Cuba was heavily favored, it sent the country into a craze. A week later when the team returned to Venezuela over one hundred thousand people lined up along a twenty-mile road from La Guaria to the capital to welcome them back. At the time that was more than a third of the country's population. Another fact to show the magnitude of the celebration is that government offices, businesses, and schools closed down to celebrate. The players were even greeted by President Gen at the Isaías Medina Angrita and many other high power people. The defeat of Cuba was recognized as a Hazaña at the time, which means a heroic feat. Later in the year 2000, the country's association sports writers established the defeat as the country's most important sporting event of the twentieth century. Since that “heroic” moment, the major spark of the sport of baseball escalated itself to be Venezuela's dominant sport. The Venezuelan Professional Baseball League was established in 1945, with Leones del Caracas the leading team; another leading club is Valencia's Navegantes del Magallanes, established in 1917. There is a Venezuelan Summer League (established in 1997) and winter league (Liga Paralela). Venezuelan teams have won the Caribbean Series a number of times.
The Venezuela national baseball team won the Baseball World Cup several times in the 1940s, and the Baseball tournament at the Pan American Games in 1959. Venezuela has also participated in every edition of the World Baseball Classic since its inaugural season, in 2006, and reached the bronze medal in 2009.
Venezuelan players in US-Canadian Major League Baseball number over 200 since 1939. The Luis Aparicio Award was established in 2004, in honor of Luis Aparicio, the only Venezuelan ballplayer to have been introduced into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The award is given annually to honor the Venezuelan player who recorded the best individual performance in Major League Baseball, as voted on by sports journalists in Venezuela.
Football
Football in Venezuela has gradually become popular and a mainstream sport with baseball, but baseball is still known as the country's sport. This is believed because of how mainstream baseball is played and the success of Venezuelan players in the MLB (Major League Baseball). Also, it's believed that the failure for football to become as popular as baseball in the country is because the national team has not done so well at international level. Venezuela is the only team to not have qualified for a World Cup in South America, excluding Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana, who, although a part of continental South America, participate in the CONCACAF qualifying region. Even though they have never qualified for the World Cup, they do play in one of the hardest brackets with some of the top football countries in the world, such as Brazil and Argentina.