USA extends Global Cup lead with Athletics Worlds win
July and August have been two extremely busy sporting months (with 14,416 GSN points awarded between them, 41.1% of the year’s total so far), and the USA took full advantage by carving out a huge lead at the top of the year-to-date table for the Global Cup, the ranking of the world’s best sporting nations.
Team USA is already in a near-unassailable position, having more than twice the GSN points scored by second-placed Canada, one of this year’s surprises, which is spearheading a heated race for the Global Cup’s runner-up spot. After a very strong showing in Snow & Ice sports (third overall), Canada stormed to more success in the summer by finishing second behind the USA in both the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup (Football) and the Lacrosse Women’s World Championships, as well as finishing fifth in the Canoe-Kayak Sprint World Championships.
Behind Canada, 10 countries are hot in pursuit, from Germany in third place to the Netherlands in 12th – all of them above the 1,000 points mark and all within 739 points of one another.
In addition to the women’s teams successes in Football and Lacrosse, in July-August the USA dominated the Athletics World Championships held on home soil in Eugene, scoring 18.9% of the points, ahead of Ethiopia with 6.8% and Jamaica with 6.3%, and winning both the women’s and the men’s rankings. The USA also topped the ranking for Field Athletics (ahead of China and Australia) and for Track Athletics, the latter ahead of Jamaica and Kenya, while Ethiopia swept the board in Marathon running.
At the end of August, Germany climbed four positions in the year-to-date ranking by coming second behind England in the women’s European Football championships, and triumphing in the Canoe-Kayak World Championships, winning both the Slalom and Sprint competitions.
Great Britain is the most improved country in the top-10, climbing from 12th at the end of June to seventh, thanks in no small measure to victory in the women’s European Football championships.
Another major international tournament held this summer, the Fencing World Championships, saw France edge Italy (currently fourth in the year-to-date ranking) by a mere eight points, with Japan third.
There are plenty more tournaments to come this year (the men’s Volleyball and the Road Cycling and Rowing World Championships in September alone), and the tussle among the world’s best sporting nations is still heated, especially for the Global Cup top 10.
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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.