Norway Leads Global Cup, Per Capita Cup after March

Biathlon Olympic gold-medal winner Tiril Eckhoff (Norway) and 2019 World Cup winner Dorothea Wierer (Italy)

The first quarter of the 2019 sporting year is over and, like last year, the spotlights are all on Norway.

The Scandinavian powerhouse is currently leading both the Global Cup and the Per Capita Cup, the ranking of the world’s sportiest nations, and looks set for another highly successful year.
 
As shown by the table below, Norway led the Global Cup after March 2018 too, on the strength, like this year, of its Snow & Ice sports performances.
At the end of March 2018, Norway had scored 83.2% of its total points for the year, so this year’s projection is for it to reach approximately 1,660 points. Notably, 2019 is Handball World Championships year (a biennial event): last January, Norway was runner-up to Denmark in the men’s tournament, and could in theory bag another 144 extra points by repeating its 2017 silver medal performance in the women’s tournament, scheduled in December. In other words, Norway could total around 1,800 points in 2019, which might be enough to earn a first-ever top 10 finish in the Global Cup. A hugely impressive result for such a small country, and one that, as relatively recently as 2012, finished 31st in the Global Cup.
 
A quick glance at March 2018’s year-to-date table below also shows that the most improved countries in the Global Cup top-10 so far this year are France, up two places, and Austria, up 4 places after winning the Alpine Skiing World Championships, while the USA’s seventh place means it has slipped five positions compared to last year.
 
GLOBAL CUP year-to-date ranking March 2018
Place
Country
Points
Points %
2019
1
Norway
1,247
10.3%
=
2
United States
1,019
8.4%
-5
3
Germany
980
8.1%
1
4
Canada
771
6.4%
-8
5
Switzerland
689
5.7%
-6
6
France
634
5.3%
2
7
Italy
594
4.9%
-1
8
Sweden
589
4.9%
-2
9
Netherlands
559
4.6%
=
10
Austria
520
4.3%
4
11
Japan
477
4.0%
12
OAR
435
3.6%
13
South Korea
383
3.2%
14
Russia
348
2.9%
15
Finland
328
2.7%
16
Great Britain
292
2.4%
17
China
254
2.1%
18
Czech Republic
227
1.9%
19
Australia
164
1.4%
20
Belarus
138
1.1%
 
 
Looking back at the first three sporting months of 2019, the other main point-earning events besides the Norway-dominated Snow sports were the Speedskating World Championships, featuring the All-round, Single-distance and Sprint events and won overall by the Netherlands ahead of Russia and Japan; the Track Cycling World Championships, won by Australia ahead of the Netherlands and Germany; the men’s Handball World Championships, won by Denmark ahead of Norway and France; and the Australian Open tennis tournament, surprisingly won by the Czech Republic ahead of Japan and Spain.