Canada crowned Winter Sports kings
In the aggregate Winter Sports GSN groups together fourteen different sports that have to do with snow & ice .
In some you go downhill in the snow, on skis (Alpine, Freestyle) or snowboard; a lot have to do with ice, whether rink (Figure Skating, Short Track, Speed Skating, Curling and Ice Hockey) or track (Bobsleigh, Luge and Skeleton); some feature flat-terrain skiing (Cross Country Skiing, Biathlon) and some flying with skis (Ski Jumping).
Winter Sports combined for 6201 GSN points at the end of May, some 55,7% of all points awarded so far in the year.
A relatively low number of competing countries, 33 (from 4 continents), of which 25 from Europe (including Russia), is offset by a good diversity of winners: 10 different nations won at least one sport, the only double winners being Austria, the USA and Germany.
The overall Winter Sports winner in 2012 is Canada, with a healthy margin (153 points) over the USA. Russia was third, followed by mighty midgets (population –wise) Austria, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands (on skating sports alone!), Switzerland, China and South Korea.
It must be noted that the Alpine countries are out of the top three for the second year in succession, and that Norway, third placed in 2011, slump to 12th place. So down go the Alpine and Scandinavian countries, up the North Americans and the Russians.
Canada did not win any single sport but came second in Freestyle Skiing, Snowboarding, Cross Country Skiing, Short Track, Speed Skating and Figure Skating, as well as finishing third-placed in Bobsleigh and Curling!
Who’s best at going downhill on the snow? The ranking of the Alpine Skiing, Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding combined sees Austria first (338 points), then the USA (313 points) and Canada third (222 points), followed by Switzerland, France and Finland, Germany, Norway, Slovenia, Italy and the Netherlands (joint 10th). Russia is only fourteenth, beaten by China.
On the skating rink, South Korea won Short Track, the Netherlands won Speed Skating and Japan won Figure Skating...but Canada was second in all three, enough to beat all its rivals.
In Ice Hockey, Russia’s victory came as a relative surprise, after Men Ice Hockey defending World Champions Canada slumped to fifth in the 2012 edition. The other surprise was finding the USA only in 5th place, beaten by Slovakia, runners-up in the Men World Championship, and Finland.
