Five new sports to be included in GSN rankings

Twice a year, we review proposals for the inclusion of new sports, both coming from readers and sporting bodies, and as a result of our own analysis.

 

While we’d like to feature as many disciplines as possible, we are also careful about including new ones among our Qualifying Sports. One key reason for this is that we believe consistency is important. If you see your country climbing up the rankings year on year, you want to know it’s because your country is doing well rather than because the rules have changed.

 

The second reason for our caution is that we want the rankings to reflect global sporting activity, and not to be disproportionately focussed on any one region of the world, where specific sports may be popular that aren’t widely practiced elsewhere.

 

The criteria by which we introduce new sports can be found in section 5 of our How It Works page.

 

After our recent review, we have decided to include five new sports in the rankings, so a warm welcome to the following:

·       Padel

·       Breaking

·       Parkour

·       Cheer Leading

·       Stand-up Paddling.

 

Each sport will be featured in the GSN rankings from the date in which its earliest major tournament (usually the world championship) will be held and/or completed.

We’re looking forward to following these sports, and if you would like to propose any new sports, please get in touch via our contact form.

Follow GSN also on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) and keep up with the latest in the quest for the world’s best sporting nation!

 

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.