Norway surges past Germany in Global Cup ranking

Submitted by nicolamira on 9 April, 2021 - 15:58
T. Johaug (Norway), gold in the women’s 10 km race at the Cross-country Skiing World Championships – pict. Bjørn Langsem/Da

The pandemic is still affecting many parts of the world, but the 2021 sporting calendar is finally beginning to return to some sort of normality. Tournaments are still being postponed and/or cancelled, but a total of 7,035 GSN points have been awarded in the first three months of 2021 – up from the 6,619 that were awarded in the first three months of 2020, though still a long way short of the 12,951 points awarded in January-March 2019.

In the year-to-date table for the Global Cup, the ranking of the world’s best sporting nations, Norway surged past Germany at the end of March, and took overall lead after comprehensively winning the monthly ranking (please see the table below).
 
Courtesy of March wins in the Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined and Cross-country Skiing World Championships (the latter with 50.4% of the points on offer!), plus useful points bagged in Alpine Skiing and Snowboarding, Norway topped the monthly table ahead of Switzerland and Italy, and opened up a 443-point gap over Germany in the year-to-date ranking.
 
In the pandemic-depleted 2020 sporting year, Norway scored 788 points to finish second overall behind Global Cup champion USA, and was crowned the world’s sportiest nation for winning the Per Capita Cup. Norway has already totted up more points (990) than in the whole of last year, so the race is on to catch the plucky Scandinavians – and everyone hopes that there will be a race this year, and that the pandemic will be a memory come December 2021.
 
Behind Norway and Germany, France leapfrogged Sweden into third place in the Global Cup year-to-date table and is looking a strong contender, while the USA is lurking in seventh place, having gained one position by finishing fifth in the monthly table.
 
As it did in 2020, Norway has made the most of the Snow & Ice sports season, which is virtually over for this year. Among the handful of tournaments remaining, the crucial ones points-wise are the women’s and men’s Ice Hockey World Championships, respectively scheduled in May and June, and respectively worth 100 and 120 points to the winners. No other nation is likely to best Norway in the 2021 Snow & Ice sports table, but victory in either championship could provide a decisive boost for any country aspiring to a podium position.
 
GLOBAL CUP 2021 – March monthly ranking
 
Place
Country
Points
Points %
1
Norway
603
15.8%
2
Switzerland
418
10.9%
3
Italy
342
8.9%
4
Austria
313
8.2%
5
United States
296
7.7%
6
France
253
6.6%
7
Sweden
228
6.0%
8
Canada
223
5.8%
9
Japan
168
4.4%
10
Germany
158
4.1%
11
Netherlands
138
3.6%
12
Slovenia
81
2.1%
13
Finland
77
2.0%
14
Hungary
76
2.0%
15
Slovakia
52
1.4%
16
China
50
1.3%
17
Australia
48
1.3%
18
Great Britain
45
1.2%
19
Poland
42
1.1%
20
Belgium
37
1.0%
21
Kazakhstan
34
0.9%
22
Spain
31
0.8%
23
New Zealand
31
0.8%
24
Czech Republic
21
0.5%
25
Croatia
20
0.5%
26
Ireland
10
0.3%
27
Belarus
9
0.2%
28
South Korea
9
0.2%
29
Ukraine
7
0.2%
30
Andorra
3
0.1%
31
Latvia
1
0.0%
32
Estonia
1
0.0%
33
Israel
1
0.0%
Grand Total
3,825
100.0%
 
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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. For a more detailed explanation, please refer to the ‘How It Works’ section on the site.
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