USA wins Global Cup 2023, France, China share podium

For the sixteenth consecutive time, since GSN records began in 2008, the USA has won the annual Global Cup title, scoring nearly double the points chalked up by France, which leapfrogged China into second place with a late December dash.

 

All three countries have proven themselves again as the world’s leading sporting nations, since they had all featured on the podium in 2022, and in the same ranking order.

 

As usual, the USA’s victory came from a combination of excellence and strength in depth, as reflected in the table below, which compares the top five countries in the 2023 Global Cup ranking across various key indicators.

 

Also, the USA’s points were almost equally shared out gender-wise, with their women athletes winning 46.5% of the country’s total points. France’s women earned their country 46.4% of total points, while the women’s share of the country’s points was higher in the case of China, at 58.2%.

 

The USA scored points in more sports than any of its close competitors, setting a new annual record at 62 (out of 75 sports in which GSN points were awarded in 2023). It won more sports outright than any other country, 10, and took a podium place in another 16. In other words, US athletes or teams finished among the top three in 42% of the sports they scored points in throughout the year.

 

The USA emphatically outgunned the opposition in terms of top-eight placements across the year’s tournaments (the counts column in the table above), recording 458 top-eight placements – France was second-best in this respect with 276.

 

It’s worth reminding readers that GSN awards points to the top eight finishers in each of the tournaments/events it tracks, thereby providing broader and more comprehensive insight on national sporting performance.

Swimming was the best sport for the USA, earning 16.1% of the total points scored, with Athletics, Golf and Basketball the next top sports – you can find the full list here.

 

Unsurprisingly, the USA managed to score points also in the two newest sports tracked by GSN, Breaking (finishing second at the Breaking World Championships behind Japan) and Stand-up Paddling, in which it finished third behind France and Spain.

 

The 10 sports the USA won outright were as follows:

Artistic Gymnastics

Athletics

Beach Volleyball

Figure Skating

Golf

Lacrosse

Surfing

Swimming

Tennis

Free Wrestling

 

Interestingly, and with the exception of Beach Volleyball and Lacrosse – which together contributed only 1.4% of the points scored by the USA – the latter did not win any of the main team sports, although team events are of course featured in sports like Artistic Gymnastics or Tennis.

For example, the Team Ball Sports category, which includes high-scoring sports like Football, Volleyball and Basketball, was won this year by Great Britain ahead of Spain, with the USA third.

 

 

Follow GSN also on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) and keep up with the latest in the quest for the world’s best sporting nation!

 

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.