“I’m so bored with the USA...”
…but they’re so good at sports! The simple reason for which America has run away with the Global Cup for the second consecutive year is their breadth of excellence across the sporting spectrum.
In 2010 the USA have scored points in 45 sports, earning at least 100 points in 18 of them. The other “Big Four” nations all trailed behind them in this statistic: Russia scored points in 39 sports (14 over 100 points), Germany in 42 but only 11 over 100 points, and China scored points in “only” 30 sports (9 over 100 points).
Top sports? For the USA, the top three in terms of points earned were Basketball, Volleyball and Golf, followed by Alpine Skiing and Ten Pin Bowling.
The top three for Russia were Volleyball, Shooting and Canoe/Kayak Sprint; for Germany they were Football, Canoe/Kayak Sprint and Alpine Skiing; for China, Shooting, Badminton and Weightlifting, a rather combative mix!
Not surprisingly, the USA won both the Men and the Ladies Global Cup rankings, the latter with a handsome margin over China. The main surprise in the Men table were Spain, which came fourth (thanks to the Football World Cup victory), and China, only thirteenth! Among the Ladies we can count Japan, in seventh place, as a relative surprise compared to their very poor showing (24th) in the Men.
2010 was a Winter Olympics year, and the USA duly won the overall title, only 0,9% of the points ahead of Canada, while Germany was third.
The USA also bagged the Men Basketball World Championships, the Ladies Volleyball World Championships, the overall title in Golf and came second (to China) in the Artistic Gymnastics Worlds and third (to China and Russia) in the Shooting Worlds. Enough?
