USA edges Norway to take Global Cup lead

Norway had topped the ranking since March, but its lead was gradually eroded as the Snow & Ice sports season drew to a close, and as the sporting calendar slowly began to look more like its former self, with fewer tournaments postponed or cancelled – though some still were, to keep our super scrupulous result tracking team on their toes.

 

In June 2021, more GSN points were awarded than in June 2019 (4,399 as opposed to 3,471), the very first time since the start of the global pandemic that this has happened. The monthly ranking was led by the USA (please see below), which finished just ahead of Japan and Brazil, chiefly thanks to its ladies, winners of the Water Polo World League and the Volleyball Nations League (the latter worth 150 GSN points), and to a solid all-round performance in two Golf majors, in which the USA bagged 135 points altogether.

 

 

Japan was the other top performer in June, mostly though not exclusively thanks to the 336 GSN points it scored in its triumph in the Judo World Championships, in which it scored more than double the points of runner-up France and third-placed Netherlands.

 

This result enabled Japan to climb as many as six places in the year-to-date ranking, slotting into 5^th place overall. It was the single biggest improvement among top-10 countries in the month, and the second in the top 20 – only Serbia (or rather Novak Djokovic), up 8 places into 19^th, did better.

 

The Tokyo Olympic Games are now about to start, at long last, and this will give Japan and the sporting world at large a chance to compete for a sizeable lode of points, making the Global Cup ranking finally look truly global.

 

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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.