The best nation in Team Ball Sports in 2013?

How successfully are inter-related sports practiced in the many countries in the GSN world?

A unique features of GSN’s sports statistics is the ability to answer the question by ranking nations in sports groups that share common features.

Below are the results in three of the most significant sport groups.

 

Accounting for 22.1% of all GSN points awarded in 2013, this group adds together the scores in three major sports

-          Football

-          Basketball

-          Volleyball

plus Beach Volleyball, Rugby Union, Rugby League, Cricket, Hockey, Handball, Futsal, Baseball, Netball, Softball and Korfball (some of them did not award points in 2013).

Brazil topped the ranking thanks to successes in the Men’s Football Confederation Cup, Women’s Volleyball World Grand Prix and Women’s Handball World Championships, and several other top placements in Volleyball and Beach Volleyball. The poor performance of last’s year’s winner, the USA (Brazil was a close second) is only partly explained by the focus on major European tournaments in Football and Basketball – as after all Brazil too hails from the Americas…while runner-up New Zealand won Rugby Union and was second in Rugby League.

While the USA dominated the sport Athletics (Track & Field), the sports group Athletics, which includes also Marathon and Cross Country Running, saw Kenya, runners-up last year,  take the title from last year’s winners USA, while Ethiopia confirmed its third place.

 

 

This sports group includes Swimming, Open Water Swimming, Diving, Water Polo and Synchronised Swimming and it’s one of the USA’s strongest. Though not as comprehensive as last year’s, the Stars & Stripes victory is convincing in 2013 too, with nearly double the points scored by second-placed China. The individual sports were won by the USA (Swimming), China (Diving), Germany (Open Water Swimming), Hungary (Water Polo) and Russia (Synchronised Swimming).