The Year’s Best – Russia triumphs in Combat sports, South Korea tops Target sports

Submitted by nicolamira on 31 January, 2020 - 11:25
Abdulrashid Sadulaev (Russia) won gold at the Free Wrestling World Championship in the 97 kg category

One of the most distinctive features of GSN’s unique sport stats is the ability to aggregate the results

of sibling sports to create rankings that offer a fresh take on the performance of the world’s countries in such sport groups.

In this article on the final 2019 sport group rankings, we look at Combat sports and Target sports. Combat sports comprises Boxing (Amateur), Wrestling (as two separate disciplines, Free and Greco-Roman), Judo, Karate, Taekwondo and Fencing. In 2019, Russia topped the sport group’s table, the ninth time it did so since GSN records began in 2008 (the only other winners were China in 2008 and Japan in 2016 and 2018), finishing comfortably ahead of Japan and South Korea. Russia took the title by winning Fencing and both Wrestling specialities, and finishing second behind Uzbekistan in Boxing, while Japan topped the Judo ranking and South Korea came first in Taekwondo. There was no major tournament tracked by GSN for Karate in 2019.
 
In total, 76 countries scored points in Combat sports in 2019, and the sport group awarded 11.8% of all GSN points in the year. The top 20 ranking is below. Notably, 39.5% of the points went to former Soviet and Eastern Bloc states (plus Cuba) – the share of the same group of countries in the overall Global Cup table in 2019 was instead 19.5%.
 
Combat sports 2019 – top 20
Place
Country
Points
Points %
1
Russia
832
10.3%
2
Japan
583
7.2%
3
South Korea
379
4.7%
4
Kazakhstan
374
4.6%
5
France
362
4.5%
6
China
341
4.2%
7
Great Britain
290
3.6%
8
United States
262
3.2%
9
Azerbaijan
257
3.2%
10
Uzbekistan
252
3.1%
11
Brazil
250
3.1%
12
Iran
249
3.1%
13
Ukraine
222
2.7%
14
Italy
213
2.6%
15
Turkey
208
2.6%
16
Cuba
207
2.5%
17
Georgia
189
2.3%
18
Germany
149
1.8%
19
Hungary
141
1.7%
20
Mexico
130
1.6%
 
The Target sports group aggregates the results of Archery and Shooting. In 2019, it awarded 2,490 GSN points, only a 3.7% share of the total. South Korea, winners also in 2013, 2015 and 2017, topped the ranking last year, ahead of the USA and China. South Korea beat the USA to the Archery title, and finished fifth in Shooting, which was won by China ahead of India.
The top 20 for the sport group, in which 44 different countries scored points in 2019, is below.
 
Target sports 2019 – top 20
Place
Country
Points
Points %
1
South Korea
329
13.2%
2
United States
280
11.2%
3
China
247
9.9%
4
Taiwan
180
7.2%
5
India
169
6.8%
6
Russia
166
6.7%
7
Italy
127
5.1%
8
Netherlands
126
5.0%
9
Turkey
85
3.4%
10
Colombia
80
3.2%
11
France
78
3.1%
12
Great Britain
66
2.7%
13
Germany
65
2.6%
14
Australia
40
1.6%
15
Serbia
36
1.4%
16
Czech Republic
36
1.4%
17
Denmark
34
1.3%
18
Japan
30
1.2%
19
Hungary
30
1.2%
20
Norway
27
1.1%
 
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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.
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