Americans pay much attention to physical fitness. Many sports and sporting activities are popular in the USA. People participate in swimming, skating, squash and badminton, tennis, marathons, track-and-field, bowing, archery, skiing, skating etc. But the five major American sports are hockey, volleyball, baseball, football and basketball. Basketball and volleyball have been invented in America.
There is a large choice of sports in America. This can be explained by the size and variety of the country. Another reason of the popularity of sports is the people's love of competition of any kind. One more reason is that Americans use sports activities for teaching socials values, such as teamwork and sportsmanship. All this explains why Americans have traditionally done well in many kinds of sports.
Every high school offers its students many sports, such as wrestling, rowing, tennis and golf. There are no separate "universities" for sports in the USA. Students of any higher educational establishment are trained in different kinds of sports. Many colleges and universities are famous for their sports clubs. There are sports facilities at every school.
Some unusual kinds of sports originated in America. They are windsurfing, skate-boarding and tradition. Triathlon includes swimming, bicycling racing and long-distances-running. Now these are becoming more and more popular in Europe.
Indeed, sports is a part of life of an average American.