Millions of people all over the world are fond of sports and games. Sport is very popular in Tatarstan too.

The Bulgars were nomadic tribes, so horse-riding is a tradition for Tatarstan. Kazan hippodrome celebrated its 137th birthday in 2006.

Early Tatars were brave people. They were strong and well-trained in running, shooting, horse-riding and wrestling.

Today Tatarstan is the land of well-developed sportsmen, famous athletes, the Olympic champions known all over the world.

Rashid Nezhmetdinov (1912-1974) was among them. He became a chess champion of Tatarstan and Russia. His name was world-famous. He was the first who wrote books on chess in the Tatar language. Today youth chess championships named after R. Nezhmetdinov are held in Russia every year.

In 2002 the men's team of hockey on grass "Dynamo" became the owner of the Cup of Russia and a bronze prize winner for the first time.

In 2004 the team "UN ICS" became a silver prize winner of the championship of Russia.

The sportsmen of Tatarstan showed high sports results in the 27th summer Olympic Games (Svetlana Demina - a silver medal in sports gymnastics, Denis Kapustin - a bronze medal in athletics).