Why Was Spain So Dominant in Sports From the Mid-2000s to Early 2010s?

[Entername]

Spain's always had a decorated athletic sector but during those few years from the mid-2000s till the early 2010s, they briefly became the most successful country in the sports world.

In football, they won 3 straight big tournaments (2008 Euros, 2010 World Cup, and 2012 Euros) which I doubt we'll ever see again from another national team and it felt like about 90% of the world's best players at the time sans Ronaldo/Messi were from Spain.

In tennis, those were peak years of Rafael Nadal who won the most during that stretch en route to being one of tennis' GOATs. Spain as a whole won 4 Davis Cups from 2004-2011 behind the likes of Nadal, Ferrer, Verdasco, Ferrero, Moya, Lopez, and Almagro.

In basketball, they came about as close as one could possibly come to beating two US dream teams at the Olympics winning back-to-back silver medals. In 2006, they won the FIBA World Cup. Individually, Pau Gasol won 2 championships with the Lakers in 2009/2010 while his brother Marc won DPOY in 2013.

In F1, they had Fernando Alonso who established himself as one of the best drivers of his generation winning the championship in 2005 & 2006.

I know Spain's still a force in many international sports but what happened in those few years that caused them to be so godly across so many sports that are played around the world? Was it just timing of athletes being born around the same time? Was there a sudden massive increases in investment?

 

[Sentinel]

@vive le beau jeu ! ???

 

[joshuayuan]

Don't forget Alberto Contador, who won Tour de France twice (2007, 2009), the Giro d'Italia twice (2008, 2015) and the Vuelta a España three times (2008, 2012, 2014). He has also won the Vélo d'Or a record 4 times.

 

[Crocodile]

Good question and I don’t have an honest answer except to say that these things may be cyclical. I think one needs to research stuff and one could ask the following questions:
1. What conditions would need to occur for a nation to prosper in sports?
2. What do all nations have in common when they dominate sport ?
It’s interesting to look at the 1980’s and the amount of top male players Sweden produced and why it declined afterwards. Lately the Italian men have a lot of players in the top 100, and the American women have quite a few on the tour as well.
Australia had a golden era in the 60’s where 9 out 10 top 10 male players were Australian. It was quite evident when you did a drive around Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth and even country towns how many backyard courts were around and massive district tennis complexes. There is a town less than 2 hours north of Sydney called Newcastle. It was a steel town and it has a tennis centre called District Park and you could see there were well over 20 courts which was a lot for the time, obviously there were lots of people playing tennis.

 

[Slicehand]

Ill tell you the truth, im spanish.

Its all in the genes, we have a mixture of genes from african, arab, and northern european countries, it gives us the best of each group, plus good weather and good food makes it very pleasant to train here all year around

PS: this is probably bullsht

 

[Crocodile]

I will have another go and say that I think there are quite a few interesting factors involved in national success in sport and sometimes it’s the national significance that a sport has on a cultural level, For example, one of the most amazing sport teams in the world is the New Zealand All Blacks Rugby Union team. For a country under 5 million they have done extremely well in this one sport. They do well for a small country.

 

[Fairhit]

I have the answer, I researched this myself years ago.

It was because of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Spain as was said before, have the means to be good at any sport, the population is diverse and they like to practice sports but that's not nearly enough, when Barcelona was in the running for being the hosting city of the Olympics, they put in place a plan to invest in sports, they didn't want to be hosting and not being protagonists, so they put money into it, in every category and that investment paid off this century, that's why they seemed to win at everything, because suddenly, they decided to really be competitive and it paid off.

 

[travlerajm]

I will have another go and say that I think there are quite a few interesting factors involved in national success in sport and sometimes it’s the national significance that a sport has on a cultural level, For example, one of the most amazing sport teams in the world is the New Zealand All Blacks Rugby Union team. For a country under 5 million they have done extremely well in this one sport. They do well for a small country.

And Norway does really well in cross country skiing considering their sparse population.

 

[stringertom]

And Norway does really well in cross country skiing considering their sparse population.

Norwegians are not just one-trick ponies. Obviously, as every northern country with tons of snow for a long winter season, they have a natural environment to develop stalwart Winter Olympics athletes. That includes Alpine skiing, speed and figure skating, ski jumping and all the modern ski-oriented disciplines like snowboarding, and freestyle skiing.

Norway also thrives in water-oriented summer sports like canoeing, kayaking, rowing and sailing. In those Summer Olympics sports they have won 26 gold medals combined.

 

[atatu]

Norwegians are not just one-trick ponies. Obviously, as every northern country with tons of snow for a long winter season, they have a natural environment to develop stalwart Winter Olympics athletes. That includes Alpine skiing, speed and figure skating, ski jumping and all the modern ski-oriented disciplines like snowboarding, and freestyle skiing.

Norway also thrives in water-oriented summer sports like canoeing, kayaking, rowing and sailing. In those Summer Olympics sports they have won 26 gold medals combined.

Norway won a medal in sand volleyball ! I heard a podcast recently discussing how specialization at a young age is discouraged in Norway, so they have well rounded athletes.

 

[Fairhit]

Egypt is a curious case, it has like 7 top 10 squash players.

 

[Jonesy]

Don't forget Alberto Contador, who won Tour de France twice (2007, 2009), the Giro d'Italia twice (2008, 2015) and the Vuelta a España three times (2008, 2012, 2014). He has also won the Vélo d'Or a record 4 times.

 

[Sudacafan]

Ill tell you the truth, im spanish.

Its all in the genes, we have a mixture of genes from african, arab, and northern european countries, it gives us the best of each group, plus good weather and good food makes it very pleasant to train here all year around

PS: this is probably bullsht

In Argentina, we got even more genes mix, but it seems we got the worst of each group.