The Year’s Best – USA top nation in Aquatics, Ball Team Sports in 2019

Submitted by nicolamira on 29 January, 2020 - 11:44
Caleb Dressel (USA) won multiple golds at the 2019 Swimming World Championships

One of the most distinctive features of GSN’s unique sport stats is the ability to aggregate the results of sibling sports, like Football, Futsal and Beach Soccer

for example, 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 Aquatics and Ball Team Sports. Aquatics comprises Swimming, Open Water Swimming, Synchronised Swimming, Diving and Water Polo. The USA topped the group by some distance, ahead of Australia and Russia, winning the biggest point-earning sport, Swimming, and finishing third in Diving. It was the USA’s seventh win in the sport group since 2011, having only missed out in 2014 and 2018, both times to China.
 
In 2019, Russia won Synchronised Swimming, France was first in Open Water Swimming, while Diving and Water Polo were won respectively by China and Spain. In total, 43 countries scored points in Aquatics in 2019, and the top-20 ranking is below.
 
Aquatics 2019 – top 20
Place
Country
Points
Points %
1
United States
928
15.7%
2
Australia
610
10.3%
3
Russia
602
10.1%
4
China
502
8.5%
5
Italy
474
8.0%
6
Great Britain
335
5.6%
7
Japan
298
5.0%
8
Hungary
293
4.9%
9
Canada
265
4.5%
10
Germany
222
3.7%
11
Brazil
212
3.6%
12
France
197
3.3%
13
Ukraine
132
2.2%
14
Spain
129
2.2%
15
Sweden
93
1.6%
16
South Africa
90
1.5%
17
Netherlands
67
1.1%
18
Mexico
46
0.8%
19
Serbia
42
0.7%
20
Greece
42
0.7%
 
Ball Team Sports is GSN’s top sport group in terms of number of points awarded (12,648 points in 2019, an 18.4 % share of the total). It aggregates 18 sports, from Football, Basketball and Volleyball, to Hockey, Beach Volleyball, Beach Soccer and many others, including two newly tracked sports, Fistball and Floorball.
 
In 2019, the USA topped the Ball Team sports ranking, thanks chiefly to overall victories in two of the group’s main sports, Football and Volleyball. Great Britain was second, after finishing second in the Rugby Union World Cup and third in the Women’s Football World Cup, and the Netherlands were third, winning Korfball and the Women’s Handball World Championship, and coming second in the Women’s Football World Cup. All the individual sport winners are listed in this article. In 2019, 68 countries scored points in Ball Team sports, and the top 20 ranking is below.
 
Ball Team Sports 2019 – top 20
1
United States
984
7.8%
2
Great Britain
858
6.8%
3
Netherlands
740
5.9%
4
France
733
5.8%
5
Spain
706
5.6%
6
Australia
563
4.4%
7
Argentina
548
4.3%
8
South Africa
537
4.2%
9
New Zealand
472
3.7%
10
Sweden
400
3.2%
11
Norway
351
2.8%
12
Russia
337
2.7%
13
Brazil
328
2.6%
14
Japan
296
2.3%
15
Germany
289
2.3%
16
Italy
259
2.0%
17
Serbia
250
2.0%
18
Poland
233
1.8%
19
Portugal
228
1.8%
20
Algeria
210
1.7%
 
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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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