Global Cup: USA and Canada ahead of Euro pack
The top of the Global Cup ranking of the world’s best sporting nations at the end of May has a distinctly North American flavour: reigning champions USA have quickly risen up the table in the last two months – they were sixth at the end of March – and now enjoy a narrow, 74-points lead over Canada.
In May, the latter have clinched their first-ever Winter Sports title, ahead of the USA and Russia in one of the tightest races ever, after winning the Men’s Ice Hockey World Championships.
Behind the North American duo, a strong pack of European nations is in hot pursuit, within 179 points of the USA: Germany are in third place, confirming this could be a great year for them (they led the Global Cup in March), followed by Great Britain, never so high in the table after five months of the year, and Norway, who finished a creditable fourth in the Winter Sports ranking (see the table below) and are currently second in the Men’s Global Cup ranking after surprise leaders Canada.
With the Euro Football Championships coming up in June, both Germany and Great Britain could earn a bounty, and stave off the challenge of the two major underperforms, until now at least: 2015 runners-up Russia, ‘only’ fourth in the table, and China, third-placed in 2015 and currently lying in eighth spot.
And of course after the Euro Football Championships, and its American continental equivalent, also being contested in June, the Copa America, the year’s major sporting highlight will be the Rio Olympic Games: a chance for some of the current underperformers to improve, or for the leaders’ pack to stretch their lead? Follow GSN in the coming months to find out!
|
WINTER SPORTS 2016
|
Points
|
Points %
|
|
|
1
|
Canada
|
784
|
11.4%
|
|
2
|
United States
|
674
|
9.8%
|
|
3
|
Russia
|
593
|
8.6%
|
|
4
|
Norway
|
580
|
8.4%
|
|
5
|
Germany
|
547
|
7.9%
|
|
6
|
France
|
455
|
6.6%
|
|
7
|
Finland
|
311
|
4.5%
|
|
8
|
China
|
308
|
4.5%
|
|
9
|
Austria
|
304
|
4.4%
|
|
10
|
Netherlands
|
271
|
3.9%
|
|
11
|
Switzerland
|
265
|
3.8%
|
|
12
|
Czech Republic
|
262
|
3.8%
|
|
13
|
Sweden
|
251
|
3.6%
|
|
14
|
South Korea
|
233
|
3.4%
|
|
15
|
Italy
|
221
|
3.2%
|
|
16
|
Japan
|
173
|
2.5%
|
|
17
|
Great Britain
|
102
|
1.5%
|
|
18
|
Hungary
|
98
|
1.4%
|
|
19
|
Latvia
|
57
|
0.8%
|
|
20
|
Ukraine
|
56
|
0.8%
|
|
21
|
Slovenia
|
50
|
0.7%
|
|
22
|
Kazakhstan
|
50
|
0.7%
|
|
23
|
Liechtenstein
|
36
|
0.5%
|
|
24
|
Spain
|
32
|
0.5%
|
|
25
|
Australia
|
31
|
0.4%
|
|
26
|
Belarus
|
30
|
0.4%
|
|
27
|
Denmark
|
27
|
0.4%
|
|
28
|
Poland
|
24
|
0.3%
|
|
29
|
Bulgaria
|
22
|
0.3%
|
|
30
|
Slovakia
|
22
|
0.3%
|
|
31
|
New Zealand
|
15
|
0.2%
|
|
32
|
Belgium
|
13
|
0.2%
|
|
33
|
Estonia
|
3
|
0.0%
|
|
34
|
Andorra
|
2
|
0.0%
|
|
Total
|
6,902
|
100.0%
|
|
