Sport is an important part of Icelandic culture. The main traditional sport in Iceland is Glíma, a form of wrestling thought to have originated in medieval times.
Popular sports include association football, track and field, handball and basketball. Handball is often referred to as the national sport, and Iceland’s team is one of the top-ranked teams in the world. Icelandic women do well at football relative to the size of the country, the national team ranked 16th by FIFA.Iceland has excellent conditions for skiing, snowboarding, ice climbing and rock climbing (much of the volcanic rock is, however, too brittle), although mountain climbing and hiking are preferred by the general public. Iceland is also a world-class destination for alpine ski touring and Telemark skiing with the Troll Peninsula in Northern Iceland being the centre of activity. Iceland also has the most World’s Strongest Man competition wins, with eight titles shared evenly between Magnús Ver Magnússon and Jón Páll Sigmarsson.
The oldest sport association in Iceland is the Reykjavík Shooting Association, founded in 1867. Rifle shooting became very popular in the 19th century and was heavily encouraged by politicians and others pushing for Icelandic independence. Shooting remains popular and all types of shooting with small arms are practised in the country.
Iceland has also produced many chess masters and hosted the historic World Chess Championship 1972 in Reykjavik during the height of the cold war.