Angelinos are sun worshipers and probably more health-conscious than people in almost any other major metropolitan area and are very active in sports. On almost any day you will find every public soccer field, tennis court, handball court, baseball diamond and basketball court filled to overflowing.

Angelinos aren’t just into personal sports and personal fitness. They also support the many local sports franchises in the city. The Los Angeles Dodgers are actively supported by the city, and homes games often sell-out at Dodger Stadium.

The world famous LA Lakers NBA basketball team is also extremely popular with Angelinos, attracting huge crowds of Hollywood celebrities for each home game. LA is also home to the Los Angeles Clippers men’s basketball team, as well as, the Los Angeles Sparks women’s basketball team.

Surprising, perhaps, considering that LA gets no snow or ice during the year, LA fans come out in droves to cheer on the Los Angeles Kings Hockey Team. Yet, their fanaticism may in fact be more linked with their interest in physical sporting events than their actual passion for hockey.

Hispanic Angelinos are also extremely vocal and active in their support of both the Club Deportivo Chivas U.S.A. and the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer teams.

And on a world-wide scale, Los Angeles has also hosted two summer Olympic Games, the first in 1932 and then again in 1984, and is a big support of the Special Olympics, founded by Eunice Shriver, Maria’s mother and Governor Arnold’s mother-in-law.

But it is in individual sports and athletic competitions that LA is possibly best known. Beach Volleyball, now an Olympic sport, was invented and made popular on the warm, sandy beaches of Los Angeles. Windsurfing was also invented in Los Angeles and has since spread in global proportions.

A mecca for sun worshippers and health enthusiasts, the trend-setting Venice Beach is generally credited as the home of skateboarding and the place where rollerblading caught on and, subsequently, launched what is now a world-wide phenomenon. And there are few beaches in the world more popular with surfers than LA’s Venice Beach.

LA is the home of four different mountain ranges, which provide hundreds of miles of scenic walking, hiking, biking and horse riding trails. Each year the Sierra Club leads more than 4,000 excursions into the mountains of Los Angeles.

Sun and sandy beaches and cool mountain trails culminate in making Los Angeles ground zero for virtually any kind of sport, from A- to-X-treme, you can imagine.