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The "official" national Mexican sport is the Charreada or Charreria, which is the original rodeo developed in Mexico based on the working practices of charros or the working hands.
There are, however, many other sports played in Mexico, Soccer being the most popular. Baseball and Basketball are commonly played, especially among youngsters. There is also a college football league (ONEFA - Organización Nacional Estudiantil de Futbol Americano). Mexican sport is also known for its boxing tradition, including International Boxing Hall of Fame members such as Ruben "El Puas" Olivares (1991), Humberto "Chiquita" Gonzalez (2006) or Jose "Pipino" Cuevas (2002).
Due to historic reasons (Mexico was once a colony of Spain), Bullfighting and Basque Pelotaare widely engaged. Bullfighting has lost many followers due to international criticism on animal cruelty, but is still popular among tourists and many nationals alike. As for Basque Pelota: Mexico hosted the world championships in 1982, 1998 and 2006. Mexico gave its best performance at the 2006 games when they led all nations with 6 gold medals.
A popular sport followed by many Mexicans is professional Wrestling, or "Lucha Libre", with many international stars including El Santo, Blue Demon and Mil Mascaras.
Finally, the Mesoamerican ball game, played by Aztecs and Mayas some 3,000 years before contact with Europeans was made. It was a game similar to Racquetball or volleyball, where the object was to keep a solid rubber ball in play. In formal games, the losing team members were sacrificed to the ancient Mesoamerican gods. Due to the extremely brutal game mechanics - even without the human sacrifice - it is now played just for representation purposes.
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