USA, Russia, Germany in pursuit as Norway still leads Global, Per Capita Cup

In the Global Cup, the ranking of the world’s best sporting nations, the USA has trimmed down the gap with the leader after winning the April monthly ranking, gaining five places in the table in the process, while Germany and especially Russia are now both within 340 points of Norway.

 

Despite the April surge however, 2018 Global Cup champions the USA are still quite a way off last year’s pace, as a quick glance at the Global Cup top-10 table for January-April 2018 (below) shows. Conversely, Norway are constantly improving.

 

 

This year, out of a bigger number of points on offer in January-April (15,228 vs 12,918 in 2018), Norway managed to win 138 more than in 2018, for a slightly smaller share. Crucially though, it currently has a 320-point advantage over the USA, while the latter is down a significant 276 points compared to last year.

 

What’s been different in 2019 so far? First of all, 2019 is Handball World Championships year (a biennial event) and Norway bagged 144 points in January as runner-up to Denmark in the men’s tournament, with the women’s scheduled in December.

 

In the most recent Handball World Championship year, 2017, Norway was again runner-up in the men’s tournament held in January, but by April it had 1,164 points, 225 less than this year, so in 2019 the sky could really be the limit for Norway, as we suggested in an earlier article.

 

The other crucial difference is that, this year, the USA have won ‘only’ 711 points so far in Snow & Ice sports, 176 less than at the end of April last year. In other words, 63.7% of the USA’s points shortfall this year is due to a worse performance in Snow & Ice sports. Instead, with 1,245 Snow & Ice points scored so far, Norway has gone from strength to strength, earning 10 points more than last year (when it won the Winter Olympics …), as well as of course leading the current Snow & Ice sports ranking (see below).

 

The costliest point losses for the USA in 2019 came from Snowboarding and Cross-Country Skiing (minus 60 points apiece) and Figure Skating (minus 29 points).

 

 

The other main story this April is the return of Russia. As of the end of April last year, the Russia + OAR (Olympic Athletes of Russia) hybrid had scored 791 points, while in 2019 Russia has scored 1,049 points, thanks to a much stronger performance in Snow & Ice Sports (936 points compared to 703 last year in the same disciplines) and an extra 100 points earned in the Track Cycling World Championships, in which it finished 7^th.

 

The rest of the year could be a rocky ride for current leaders Norway in the Global Cup, as we look forward to a great spring and summer of sports on Greatest Sporting Nation.