Argentina's Greatest Sports Personalities Quiz

Answer: Judo

Paula Pareto, nicknamed "La Peque" ("The Little One"), began practicing judo at a very young age. She competed in the Extra-Lightweight class (less than 48 kg) for most of her career. She won her first title in 2003, at the South American Junior Championship, and started a very fruitful career that came to a peak between 2014 and 2017, winning several major titles which include the 2015 World Championship in Astana, and the Olympic Gold Medal in Rio 2016. This last victory meant that Pareto became the first female Argentinian athlete to win a gold medal.

She retired in 2021 after being defeated in the Olympics that year, failing to win a third medal (she had previously won bronze at the 2008 edition). Aside from her sportsmanship, she also has a degree in Medicine. While judo is not one of the favorite sports in Argentina, Pareto is held in very high esteem among sports fans all over the country.

Answer: Sailing

Carlos Mauricio "Camau" Espinola might not be a well-known name for the casual sports watcher, as he excelled in yachting, a discipline without too many adepts. Nevertheless, he definitely wrote his name in the history books, when he became the first Argentinian to earn 4 Olympic medals: 2 silvers in 1996 and 2000, and 2 bronzes in 2004 and 2008. He won the first two by competing in Mistral class, and the latter 2 competing in the Tornado class alongside Santiago Lange in both occasions (who, in 2016, would win gold together with Cecilia Carranza).

His string of successes led to Camau being honored by being the flag bearer on two separate Summer Olympics (2000 and 2008), the first Argentinian to do so.

Answer: Boxing

Argentina produced a lot of quality boxers throughout history - in fact, it's the sport that earned the most Olympic medals for the country.

Of all them, the most celebrated is Carlos Monzon. He became undisputed world middleweight championship in 1970 after beating Nino Benvenuti with a 12th round KO. He held the title for 7 years, with 14 successful defenses against 11 different boxers, until his retirement in 1977. He is considered one of the best middleweights of all time, and also one of the best boxers ever, pound-by-pound, by many specialized media.

Despite his impressive skills in the ring, Monzon had a disgraceful personal life, as he was known for beating every woman he dated. In 1988 he was charged with killing his second wife, Alicia Muniz, by throwing her off a balcony, and received a 11-years sentence. In 1995, during a weekend furlough, he was killed in a car accident.

As previously stated, Argentina keeps on producing notable pugilist, both male and female. Some distinguished names include Pascual Perez, Horacio Accavallo, Nicolino Locche, Santos Laciar, Juan Martin Coggi, Marcela Acuna, and Alejandra Oliveras.

Answer: Formula 1 Racing

As it happens with Maradona on football, Fangio is synonymous with racing and driving in Argentina. Interested in cars since his childhood, he joined Formula 1 racing for the 1950 season and competed up until 1958 with great success.

He set up a number of records, winning 24 out of 52 races he entered (46,15%), achieving pole position in 29 of them (55,77%), getting the fastest lap in 23 of them (44,23%) and finishing in the podium on 35 of them (67,30%) - all these are still unbeaten at the time of this quiz (November 2024). He also won the World Drivers' Championship five times, a record that would take 46 years to be broken when Michael Schumacher won the 2003 edition of F1. Furthermore, Fangio was the only driver to win titles with 4 different teams: Alfa Romeo (1951), Maserati (1954, 1957), Mercedes-Benz (1954,1955) and Ferrari (1956).

While not achieving nearly as much success as Fangio, other distinguished Argentinian F1 racers include Carlos Reutemann, brothers Juan and Oscar Galvez, and Jose Froilan Gonzalez.

Answer: Basketball

Emanuel "Manu" Ginobili is one of the most successful basketball players to emerge from Argentina. Coming from a family of professional basket players, he went on that same path and played in Argentina and Italy before making in to the NBA in 2002.

Playing for the San Antonio Spurs during 16 years, he won 4 titles, was chosen as an All-Star twice, and was selected for the All-NBA Third Team also twice. He was part of a fierce offensive trio together with Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, collectively known as "The Big Three".

With the national squad, Ginobili reached the final match of the 2002 World Cup, narrowly losing to Yugoslavia. He took revenge two years later, in the 2004 Summer Olympics, winning the first stage match against that same rival with a memorable buzzer beater. Alongside the "Golden Generation" of Argentinian basketball, he went on to win the gold medal in that tournament, the first one for Argentinian basketball.

Other players from the Golden Generation include Luis Scola, Carlos Delfino, Andres Nocioni, Walter Hermann and José Sanchez. In past years, Argentinian basketball had other notables like Marcelo Milanesio and Hector Campana.

Answer: Volleyball

Of all team sports, volleyball ranks behind football, basketball and rugby in popularity in Argentina. Despite the relative lack of international success, with the best results being bronze medals in the 1982 World Championship, and in the 1988 and 2020 Summer Olympics, it is widely played throughout the country.

A vital player in both major successes in the '80s decade was Hugo Conte, particularly in the 1988 Olympics, where he scored 56 points in total. He is considered the best volleyball player from Argentina, and was also ranked as the 8th best player of all time. His son, Facundo, also played volleyball for the national team, being part of the squad that won the bronze in 2020.

Other major players include Marcos Milinkovic, Waldo Kantor, Javier Weber and Alejandro Spajic.

Answer: Field Hockey

One of the main reasons why field hockey became one of the top picked sports by Argentinian women is because of Luciana Aymar. She was part of the first generation of very talented players, that took Argentina's field hockey to the top spots in several tournaments since the beginning of the 2000's decade. Her extraordinary skills and pace allowed her to maneuver through rivals with great ease and pull off stunning plays and goals.

Her biggest achievements were winning the World Cups in 2002 and 2010, and earning four Olympic medals from 2000 to 2012, as well as winning the Champions Trophy on six occasions. Though she could never win the Olympic gold, she has won the FIH Player of The Year award a record of eight times, and is regarded as the greatest female field hockey player of all time.

Some other notable field hockey players include Vanina Oneto, Magdalena Aicega, Soledad Garcia, Maria Jose Granatto, Agustina Gorzelany, among others.

Answer: Rugby

Rugby has become increasingly more popular in Argentina ever since the Pumas first break into the knockout stages in the 1999 World Cup and started producing a number of notable players. But before those recent successes, and before the sport became fully professional, there was a player that was (and still is) a true idol for rugby fans all over the world - that is Hugo Porta.

Considered among the best fly-halves in the history of the sport, Porta had an exceptional kicking accuracy, scoring a massive number of penalty and drop goals, some of the latter with such little anticipation that opposing players were caught by surprise. Plus, his vision of the field and his speed, made for piercing attacking moves that pushed the whole team forward. One of his most famous matches was against New Zealand in 1985, when he scored all of the Pumas' 21 points to tie the match against the All Blacks for the first time in their history (Argentina wouldn't defeat the All Blacks until 2020).

Regarding World Cups, Porta could only play in the first edition, in 1987, in which Argentina was eliminated at the group stages. He retired after that. He was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 1997, and into the IRB Hall of Fame in 2008 - the only Argentinian to be inducted to both, as both Halls of Fame merged in 2014.

Other remarkable players are fellow IRB inductees Agustin Pichot, Felipe Contepomi and Juan Martin Hernandez, as well as Agustin Creevy, Nicolas Sanchez, Pablo Matera, Matias Moroni and Juan Imhoff among others.

Answer: Tennis

From the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, women's tennis circuit saw the emergence of many great players - among them, Gabriela Sabatini.

After becoming professional at the age of 12, her career peaked between 1989 and 1992. In 1990 she won her only Grand Slam title (the first female player from the country to win one such tournament), after beating Steffi Graf at the US Open. In total, she won 27 titles in singles, and 14 in doubles, and reached No. 3 in both circuits. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2006.

Sabatini's successes are only second to those by Guillermo Vilas during the '70s decade, with him having reached No. 2 in the rankings and winning all Grand Slam titles except for Wimbledon. However, on this quiz, I chose to focus on Sabatini due to her being one of the few sportswomen from Argentina to reach as high on any individual sports.

Most other distinguished tennis players in Argentina's history are male: aside from Vilas, Juan Martin Del Potro, David Nalbandian, Gaston Gaudio, Guillermo Coria and Jose Luis Clerc also managed to rank in the top 5 at some point in their careers. Regarding female players, Paola Suarez and Gisela Dulko reached No. 1 in the doubles circuit in 2002 and 2010, respectively.

Answer: Association Football

Even if you're not a big football fan, chances are you heard about Diego Maradona at least once. Considered one of the best footballers in history, Maradona's superb dribbling and playmaking skills were key for the obtention of Argentina's second World Cup title in 1986. He also had very successful tenures, locally in Boca Juniors, and internationally in Napoli, where he is considered one of the biggest idols of the club - Napoli won many titles during his time at the club and became a powerhouse in very little time.

However, Maradona was also known for a very controversial lifestyle and personal issues, mostly due to substance abuse. After his retirement in 1997, he took on managerial duties with very little success. He died of a cardiac arrest on November 25th, 2020, sparking a massive mourning in his home country as well as in Naples.

Other notable footballers from Argentina include superstar Lionel Messi, Gabriel Batistuta, Ariel Ortega, Alfredo Di Stefano, Mario Kempes, Angel Di Maria, among many others.