Which is the most important sport on the planet?
Which are the most important sports on the planet?
The richest ones? Those with more registered athletes?
We define as the most important sports in GSN the sports that offer the highest number of points/tournaments/events every year.
They are also, inevitably, the most popular sports on the planet. GSN’s algorhythms assign a proportionately higher weighting to the sports where the largest number of nations compete, and performing well in them is a prerequisite to be successful in the Global Cup.
The “Majors” in 2012 accounted for 40,2% of all 64944 GSN weighted points in the year and were the following, in ranking order:
- Football, 7410 pts, 11.3% of the yearly total
- Athletics, 6903 pts, 10.5%
- Volleyball, 5148 pts, 7.9%
- Swimming (pool only), 3315 pts, 5.1%
- Basketball, 2340 pts, 3.6%
- Road Cycling, 1014 pts, 1.6%
Interestingly, only 12 of the 129 countries that scored GSN points in 2012 were ranked in the top three in these 6 sports, as you can see from the table below. The USA won 4 out of those 6 and were 2nd in one (Volleyball) and 3rd equal in another (Football) . Simply astonishing!
So these are the most important GSN sports: watch out for them in 2013, the chase for the USA is on!
| GLOBAL CUP 2012 | |||
| SPORT | 1ST | 2ND | 3RD |
| FOOTBALL | JAPAN | BRAZIL | USA/MEXICO |
| ATHLETICS | USA | RUSSIA | JAMAICA |
| VOLLEYBALL | BRAZIL | USA | POLAND |
| SWIMMING | USA | AUSTRALIA | CHINA |
| BASKETBALL | USA | RUSSIA | FRANCE |
| ROAD CYCLING | USA | GREAT BRITAIN | GERMANY |
