Sport in Saint Petersburg

A sport with long history in Russia is bandy, and this was played on the frozen Neva River in the 19th Century. The Saint Petersburg team Yusupov Sad («Юсупов Сад») toured Germany, Sweden and Finland in 1907 under the name Sankt Petersburger Amateur Eislaufverein and won most of its games. Bandy was also played during the Soviet years, with Dynamo Leningrad becoming the runner-up for the Soviet Cup in 1947 and Lenin IVF Leningrad being the runner-up for the Soviet Union Championship in 1952. However, Saint Petersburg has not had an elite team in this sport since BSK Saint Petersburg had to cease its operations in 2005.

• Piterbasket, a team sport closely resembling basketball, created in 2002 at Saint Petersburg.[2]

Chess tradition was highlighted by the 1914 international tournament, in which the title "Grandmaster" was first formally conferred by Russian Tsar Nicholas II to five players: Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch and Marshall, and which the Tsar had partially funded.

Equestrianism has been a long tradition, popular among the Tsars and aristocracy, as well as part of the military training. Several historic sports arenas were built for Equestrianism since the 18th century, to maintain training all year round, such as the Zimny Stadion and Konnogvardeisky Manezh among others.

One of the first international major sport event held in Saint Petersbourg is Formula 1 powerboating also called F1H2O. The first edition of the World Championship F1H2O Grand Prix of Russia was held in 1995. Since then the event took place again in 1996 1997 1998 1999 2008 2009 2010.[3] The event used to take place in front of Hermitage Museum[4]