Greatest Sporting Nation and me

I'm Nic Mira and I'm mad about sports. This is the primary reason why I've joined Dan Thompson and Hans Stocker on board the GSN rocket...for a rocket I'm sure it is, ready to propel the world of sports analysis to the next level.

The second and the third reasons are that I love sport statistics and that I think sport is an inherently virtuous activity: anything that promotes its better understanding, or its circulation as a subject of discussion, is a worthy endeavour.

To give you an example of what I think about when I'm not doing sports or working on GSN....

I've recently looked at the current Global Cup ranking: the USA are leading with a large margin, as was predictable after their handsome victory in the 2008 Global Cup.

So I ask myself: why are the USA so consistently the world's top sporting nation? Here's a few possible answers, all gleaned from GSN data:

a) they have a large population that's deeply dedicated to sports: among nations with 100.000.000 plus inhabitants, they ranked second only to Russia - which has roughly half the population of the USA -in GSN points per capita in 2008

b) they are good at sports across genders: they won both the Men and the Ladies Global Cups in 2008; among the top 5 nations in the 2008 Global Cup, the share of % of points won by men and women per country was differed by only 3,4 % pts for the USA, against - 31 % pts for China (women won by far the largest chunk of Chinese points), 5 % points for Germany and 24,6 for Great Britain. Only Russia did marginally better than the USA at 3,2 % points.

c) they are good at a greater number of sports than anybody else: they scored points 420 times in the year (2008), the closest nations being Russia(298) and China (245); they scored points in 51different sports (Russia was second with 45); they won more sport rankings (among them: Athletics, Swimming, Rowing, Golf, Basketball) in the 2008 Global Cup than any other nation; they won the Olympics outright, scoring more points than the host nation, China.

How's this for sports stats madness? Find out more at GreatestSportingNation.com