The country where football rules without question, boxing never left, and the oldest game in the Americas is still played with the hip.
The most-followed sport in Mexico is football: 56% of the population follow it. It is followed by boxing (40%), baseball (24%) and Formula 1 (22%). Below you will find the numbers, the sports that hold events in Mexico, the games from Mexico you can play free on FirstPlace.games, and every source.
They add up to more than 100 on purpose. Share of the population that follows each sport. The same person follows several sports, so there is no whole to split: that is why these are bars and not a pie chart. Nielsen survey published in October 2024.
| Sport | Of the population |
|---|---|
| Football | 56% |
| Boxing | 40% |
| Baseball | 24% |
| Formula 1 | 22% |
Only events of global scale are listed here. Mexico hosts many more local and national competitions that are not on this list.
What the country that runs, boxes and plays with the hip eats. Each food shows its composition per 100 g, from the USDA database.
In the Chihuahua mountains the Rarámuri people run enormous distances, and maize sits at the centre of their food. Pinole (parched, ground corn mixed with water) is their race fuel, sometimes sweetened with piloncillo, unrefined cane sugar. A 2021 review describes a traditional diet high in carbohydrate (corn) and plant protein (beans), and cites a young man who carried 50 kg over 180 km in 70 hours drinking only pinole. Researchers caution that their endurance comes from hard work, lifestyle and determination more than from any magic food.
German Journal of Sports Medicine (2021): why the Rarámuri are such powerful mountain runnersPinole is made from parched, ground corn. USDA does not list pinole, so whole-grain cornmeal is used, the closest match.
It is on almost every table in the country. Corn and beans are the base of the traditional Rarámuri diet.
The other pillar of the plate: carbohydrate, plant protein and fibre with almost no fat.
The base of drinks such as iskiate. According to Native Seeds/SEARCH, the Rarámuri consider it an important source of running energy.
Native to Mexico. Most of its energy comes from fat, and it is high in fibre.