Sports in the Tel-Aviv

Sporting facilities, activities and events in Tel-Aviv

If you are a marine sports fan, Tel-Aviv is a good place for you. Sailing, wind and kite surfing, wave riding and kayaking at times are all big in Tel-Aviv, weather permitting. If you are a river sports enthusiast the Yarkon River has a marine youth club ("tzofei yam") that offers sailing, paddling and kayaks. You don't have to be a youth to participate. A strong pair of arms will do. Beware not to fall to the polluted river though.

Bicycle, Bicycle, Bicycle……I like to ride my bicycle I like to ride my bike

As many residents all over the urban world have discovered, Bicycle can be a great way to move around the city. Unbound by the awkward laws of traffic, stalled car lines and red lights, bicycles are floating around, free as a bird. Tel-Aviv is quite flat and thus not too hard for cycling.

Jacky Says... A nice bike route goes along the beach road: start from north at metzizim beach and follow the road all the way south to Gordon, than link with the beach promenade all the way to Yaffo. Then you can stop and have a good humus.

In recent years the city gave notice to the bicycle phenomena and greatly improved the conditions for cycling with most major boulevards now having a dedicated bicycle lane in the middle. Go out with a pair of bicycles and experience the city on the roll. Bicycling is quite trendy these days in Tel-Aviv, mostly among girls and not bad looking either…..

Sportec facilities

The sportec is a spread out, open large complex of sporting facilities located in Park Hayarkon. It offers plentiful basketball, skating, rollerblading and soccer courts, as well as jogging and bicycle lanes. It can get very crowded in weekends, and finding an open basketball court then is virtually mission impossible. Luckily, the park is vast and an open grass spot can always be found for other ball games.

There is also a climbing wall in the premise, so if you want to challenge yourself with wall climbing, there's your shot.

Matkot

Not really an official sport, and still not on the Olympics but it is a cult beach sport in Israel, and I think nowhere else in the world. The game is quite simple, in essence it is a beach tennis with no rules really except to keep the ball "alive" (not dropping to the sand) …… the 2 players are using a wooden racket to hit a small rubber ball (a little bigger than ping pong ball) with the distance between them and the stamina of the strikes varying according to the players' level. You will see all playing matkot in Tel-Aviv sandy beaches: young and old, men women and children. If you hang around the beach in Tel-Aviv you will definitely notice the professionals: usually men well over 50, sun tanned to their bones, standing miles away from each other and striking the ball faster than the speed of light. You won't only see them; you will also hear them, as they tend to be very loudly expressive of their feelings and their distaste for their opponent……

Professional Sport Clubs

The two major sports in Israel and Tel-Aviv are definitely soccer (football) and basketball.

The bitter rivalry between the fan clubs is far reaching, even beyond the court and had gone a little out of control lately. It is definitely an intense experience going to one of the city matches, AKA "derbi", in either soccer (football) or basketball. The level of emotions disclosed when competing with the city rival is fascinating. In soccer, the Tel-Aviv and Israeli teams in general are lagging far behind the European leaders but still made some impressive landmarks in recent years. Soccer matches are usually held on Saturday in blumfild stadium, Yaffo, or the Ramat Gan national stadium. Basketball matches are held in Yad Eliahu (the home of Maccabi Tel-Aviv) and Usishkin (home to Hapoel Tel-Aviv).

Summertime Volleyball

During the summer, Tel-Aviv beaches host various beach volleyball tournaments. Usually 2x2 match, male, female, mixed sex or other combinations, those are always colorful events where the fun starts well before the match and ends well after it…the main events are usually held in Jerusalem beach, see "beaches" section.

Surfing in Tel-Aviv >>

Add To favorites

Email a friend

Printer-friendly