Russia tops Global Cup 2020 after February
After the first two, unusually lean months of the sporting year, Russia is leading the Global Cup, the ranking of the world’s best sporting nations, ahead of Norway and Germany.
Snow and Ice sports were of course centre stage. Last year’s Global Cup runner-up Russia triumphed in the Luge World Championships, scoring 39.9% of the points on offer, came second behind the Netherlands in the Speedskating Single Distance World Championships, and finished fifth in the Biathlon World Championships, which were dominated by Norway with 25.4% of the points, while France and Germany took the other podium places.
Global Cup 2019 champion USA is currently in sixth place overall, after scoring half of its points in Tennis at the Australian Open, where it took the Ladies title with Sofia Kenin’s first Grand Slam win.
The full year-to-date Global Cup table as of the end of February is below.
|
Place
|
Country
|
Points
|
Points %
|
|
1
|
Russia
|
303
|
13.2%
|
|
2
|
Norway
|
257
|
11.2%
|
|
3
|
Germany
|
231
|
10.1%
|
|
4
|
Netherlands
|
193
|
8.4%
|
|
5
|
France
|
180
|
7.9%
|
|
6
|
United States
|
128
|
5.6%
|
|
7
|
Italy
|
126
|
5.5%
|
|
8
|
Austria
|
115
|
5.0%
|
|
9
|
Canada
|
115
|
5.0%
|
|
10
|
Japan
|
74
|
3.2%
|
|
11
|
Czech Republic
|
67
|
2.9%
|
|
12
|
Switzerland
|
66
|
2.9%
|
|
13
|
Spain
|
53
|
2.3%
|
|
14
|
Sweden
|
50
|
2.2%
|
|
15
|
Serbia
|
50
|
2.2%
|
|
16
|
Poland
|
35
|
1.5%
|
|
17
|
Latvia
|
34
|
1.5%
|
|
18
|
Ukraine
|
30
|
1.3%
|
|
19
|
Romania
|
28
|
1.2%
|
|
20
|
Australia
|
28
|
1.2%
|
|
21
|
Belgium
|
20
|
0.9%
|
|
22
|
China
|
20
|
0.9%
|
|
23
|
Slovenia
|
18
|
0.8%
|
|
24
|
South Korea
|
13
|
0.6%
|
|
25
|
Estonia
|
13
|
0.5%
|
|
26
|
Tunisia
|
13
|
0.5%
|
|
27
|
Belarus
|
11
|
0.5%
|
|
28
|
Great Britain
|
11
|
0.5%
|
|
29
|
Slovakia
|
9
|
0.4%
|
|
30
|
Kazakhstan
|
3
|
0.1%
|
|
31
|
New Zealand
|
1
|
0.0%
|
|
Grand Total
|
2,290
|
100.0%
|
Please note that, at the time of publication, the GSN tables on the website didn’t reflect the February results.
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Greatest Sporting Nation is a ranking of countries based on their performance in top-level international tournaments in sports in which there is genuine global competition. Countries (national teams and/or individual athletes) score Qualifying Points by finishing in the top eight places in Qualifying Events.
These Qualifying Points are then weighted to produce GSN Points, based on a formula that takes into account individual vs team sports, the sport’s participation (number of countries) and the frequency (annual/biennial/quadrennial) of the tournaments.
The Country scoring the most Points in a calendar year wins the Global Cup for that year. The country that scores the most points relative to its population wins the Per Capita Cup. For a more detailed explanation, please refer to the ‘How It Works’ section on the site.
