In her 70 years of reign, Elizabeth II’s bond with sport was strong: it was she who awarded the English national team world champion in London in 1966, but the real great sporting passion has always been her beloved horses. She was the one who bred thoroughbred horses of which she has always been very jealous and attentive. Queen Elizabeth was also very skilled and perfectly trained to ride a horse. The Queen’s passion for horses was so well known that one of the main sporting events in the United Kingdom is Royal Ascot: a day of racing in her honor that has never been missed and for which she imposed a strict dress code which involves the use of a hat.
Among the sports that Queen Elizabeth liked could not miss the one that was invented in England: football, or rather … football. She herself, in 2007, made it clear that she is a fan of a particular team, namely Arsenal. The gunners were in fact the only team ever to be received at Buckingham Palace. And it was Queen Elizabeth who awarded England world champion at Wembley in 1966. A moment that marked the history not only of British football but of all sport across the Channel. It is in fact the first, and so far only, world cup won by England. Her first match she witnessed as sovereign was the 1953 FA Cup final between Blackpool and Bolton. Earlier, in 1945, she had already seen a Chelsea match live but then she was still a princess. Her presence is also inevitable at the 1996 European Championship, organized in England. The sovereign was at the stadium to watch the final between Germany, then winner of the event, and the Czech Republic. Before the match began, the sovereign shook hands with all the players present.
Not at Wembley for England-Italy at the last European, but before the final the Queen sent a letter to the Southgate coach: «55 years ago I was lucky enough to deliver the Rimet Cup to Bobby Moore … I want to send my compliments , and those of my family, to the team for reaching the final and to send my sincere wishes for tomorrow, in the hope that history will remember not only the successes, but also the spirit, the attachment and the pride you have so far established”.
Not only football, in England there is also rugby among the most practiced sports and which, inevitably, have had a link with Queen Elizabeth. The sovereign was in fact the patroness of the Rugby Football Union the Welsh Rugby Union, the two main entities of rugby in England and Wales. And it was Queen Elizabeth who awarded John Eales, the captain of Australia, at the end of the 1999 Rugby World Cup final won against France. The event was held in Wales, therefore the presence of the sovereign in Cardiff was inevitable.
In addition to rugby, Elizabeth II has always had a bond with tennis as well. Although apparently she was not one of her favorite sports of hers, she was patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, the club that organizes the Wimbledon tournament. In fact, in the first 25 years of her reign, until 1977, the Queen had only visited Wimbledon on three occasions. The next one dates back to 2010. To represent the Royal Family was recently Kate Middleton to whom the Queen left the patronage of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in 2017.
Elizabeth II was born when the first football world cup had not yet been played. The sovereign lived during 23 editions of the World Cup and 24 editions of the Summer Olympics. Among the many firsts that Queen Elizabeth holds is the one that sees her as the first, and so far only, head of state to have opened two editions of the Olympics in two different countries, namely Canada (Montreal 1976) and the United Kingdom (London 2012 ).