Sports and Education
Baseball was one of the first sports to gain widespread popularity
in Puerto Rico. The Puerto
Rico Baseball League serves as the only active
professional league, operating as a winter league. No Major League Baseball franchise or affiliate plays in Puerto Rico, however, San
Juan hosted the Montreal Expos for several series in 2003 and 2004 before they moved to
Washington, D.C. and became the Washington Nationals. The Puerto Rico national baseball team has participated in the World Cup of Baseball winning one gold (1951), four silver and four bronze
medals, the Caribbean Series (winning fourteen times) and the World Baseball Classic. On March 2006, San Juan's Hiram Bithorn Stadium hosted the opening round as well as the second round of the
newly formed World Baseball Classic. Famous Puerto Rican baseball players include Hall of Famers
Roberto Clemente and Orlando Cepeda
and Roberto Alomar, enshrined in 1973, 1999, and 2011 respectively.[185][186][187]
Boxing,
basketball,
and volleyball
are considered popular sports as well. Wilfredo Gómez
and McWilliams Arroyo have won their respective divisions at the World Amateur Boxing Championships. Other medalists include José Pedraza, who holds a silver medal, as well as three boxers that
finished in third place, José Luis Vellón, Nelson Dieppa
and McJoe Arroyo. In the professional circuit, Puerto Rico has the
third-most boxing world champions
and it’s the global leader in champions per capita. These include Miguel Cotto,
Félix Trinidad, Wilfred Benítez
and Gómez among others. The Puerto Rico national basketball team joined the International Basketball Federation in 1957. Since then, it has won more than 30 medals in
international competitions, including gold in three FIBA
Americas Championships and the
1994 Goodwill Games. August 8, 2004, became a landmark date for the team when
it became the first team to defeat the United States in an Olympic
tournament since the integration of National Basketball Association
players. Winning the inaugural game with scores of 92–73 as part of the 2004 Summer Olympics organized in Athens, Greece.[188]
Baloncesto
Superior Nacional acts as the top-level professional
basketball league in Puerto Rico, and has experienced success since its
beginning in 1930.
Puerto Rico Islanders fans at game
The Puerto Rico Islanders Football Club, founded in 2003, plays in the United Soccer Leagues
First Division, which constitutes the second tier
of football in North America. Puerto Rico is also a
member of FIFA
and CONCACAF.
In 2008, the archipelago's first unified league, the Puerto
Rico Soccer League, was established.
Other sports include professional wrestling and road running
and miscellaneous basketball. The World Wrestling Council and International Wrestling Association are the largest wrestling promotions in the main island.
The World's Best 10K, held annually in San Juan, has been ranked among the 20
most competitive races globally. The "Puerto Rico All Stars" team,
which has won twelve world championships in unicycle basketball.[189] Organized Streetball
has gathered some exposition, with teams like "Puerto Rico Street
Ball" competing against established organizations including the Capitanes de Arecibo and AND1's Mixtape Tour Team. Six years after the first visit, AND1 returned as part of
their renamed Live Tour, losing to the Puerto Rico Streetballers.[190]
Consequently, practitioners of this style have earned participation in
international teams, including Orlando "El Gato" Meléndez, who became the first Puerto Rican born athlete to play for
the Harlem Globetrotters.[191]
Orlando Antigua, whose mother is Puerto Rican, made history in 1995, when
he became the first Hispanic and the first non-black in 52 years to play for
the Harlem Globetrotters.[192]
Puerto Rico has representation in
all international competitions including the Summer
and Winter Olympics, the Pan American Games, the Caribbean World Series, and the Central American and Caribbean Games. Puerto Rican athletes have won seven medals (two silver,
five bronze) in Olympic competition, the first one in 1948 by boxer Juan
Evangelista Venegas. The Central American and Caribbean Games were held in 1993 in Ponce and in 2010 in Mayagüez.
The first school in Puerto Rico was
the Escuela de Gramatica (Grammar School). It was established by Bishop Alonso Manso
in 1513, in the area where the Cathedral of San Juan was to be constructed. The
school was free of charge and the courses taught were Latin language,
literature, history, science, art, philosophy and theology.[193]
Education in Puerto Rico is divided
in three levels—Primary (elementary school grades 1–6), Secondary (intermediate
and high school grades 7–12), and Higher Level (undergraduate and graduate
studies). As of 2002, the literacy rate of the Puerto Rican population was
94.1%; by gender, it was 93.9% for males and 94.4% for females.[194]
According to the 2000 Census, 60.0% of the population attained a high school
degree or higher level of education, and 18.3% has a bachelor's degree or
higher.
Instruction at the primary school
level is compulsory and enforced by the state between the ages of 5 and 18. The
Constitution of Puerto Rico grants the right to an education to every citizen
on the island. To this end, public schools in Puerto Rico provide free and
non-sectarian education at the elementary and secondary levels. At any of the
three levels, students may attend either public or private
schools. As of 1999, there were 1532 public schools[195] and 569 private schools in the
island.[citation needed]
The largest and oldest university
system is the public University
of Puerto Rico (UPR) with 11 campuses. The largest
private university systems on the island are the Sistema Universitario Ana G. Mendez which operates the Universidad del Turabo, Metropolitan University
and Universidad del Este, the multi-campus Inter American University,
the Pontifical Catholic University,
and the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón.
Puerto Rico has four schools of Medicine and four Law Schools.
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