USA tops Global Cup halfway through sporting year

Megan Rapinoe, captain of the USA's Women’s Football team - picture: Franck Fife
Halfway through the sporting year 2019, Global Cup champion the USA has finally put its nose in front in the ranking of the world’s best sporting nations.
For five months, mighty minnow Norway led the pack on the strength of another astonishingly successful Snow & Ice Sports campaign, but by topping the June monthly ranking in some style, the USA is now back in the driving seat.
 
The USA’s margin on its closest pursuers is actually slimmer than a year ago, owing to Norway’s Winter Sports achievements and to Russia’s resurgence. While the USA has almost exactly the same number of points it had the end of June 2018, Norway has 159 points more than last year, and Russia a whopping 893 more (or 299 more, if one counts the points earned by OAR at last year’s Winter Olympics) – see the tables below.
 
Of the current 20 top nations in the Global Cup, Russia is the most improved country, up 9 positions in the table compared to 2018. Cross Country Skiing, Taekwondo, Speedskating and Ice Hockey are the sports driving Russia forward so far this year. Ethiopia, currently in 19th position, is the second-best improver among the top 20, with a gain of 7 places. France, Italy, Japan and South Korea (the latter up 6 places) are also on the rise, while China, Switzerland, Canada and Sweden enjoyed a less successful first half of the year than in 2018.
 
January – June 2018                                          January – June 2019
Place
Country
Points
Place
Country
Points
pos chg
1
United States
1,712
1
United States
1,723
=
2
Norway
1,257
2
Norway
1,416
=
3
Germany
1,079
3
Russia
1,332
9
4
Canada
944
4
Germany
1,158
-1
5
Switzerland
801
5
France
1,086
2
6
Sweden
780
6
Italy
913
4
7
France
726
7
Japan
856
4
8
China
700
8
South Korea
821
6
9
Netherlands
678
9
Netherlands
820
=
10
Italy
652
10
China
795
-2
11
Japan
618
11
Switzerland
784
-6
12
Russia
598
12
Canada
749
-8
13
Austria
587
13
Austria
744
=
14
South Korea
511
14
Sweden
685
-8
15
Great Britain
505
15
Great Britain
672
=
16
OAR
435
16
Australia
583
2
17
Finland
376
17
Spain
435
4
18
Australia
318
18
Kenya
382
2
19
Czech Republic
257
19
Ethiopia
368
7
20
Kenya
254
20
Finland
332
-3
 

As we wrote earlier, the result of the Women’s Football World Cup will have a potentially decisive impact on the sporting year 2019. Thanks to today’s victory in the final against the Netherlands, defending champion the USA earned 420 GSN points (which aren’t reflected in the GSN tables at the time of publication) and, though there is still a way to go before the end of the year, has staked a very strong claim to becoming Global Cup champion again.