Being a sports nut is serious stuff, and there’s nothing like some numbers to back you up when you’re settling into full bragging mode. So to this article from the New York Times directing punters to an intriguing website Greatest Sporting Nation founded by a Brit, an Italian and Kiwi (all nationalities of my family).
It’s an ambitious attempt by and for sports lovers to work out the best nation in the world across all sports. Under the methodology a country scores qualifying points by finishing in the top eight in qualifying events, with qualifying points being weighted to produce points. The current Global Cup holder benefits a lot from its broad range of success in women’s sports.
It seems clear that the project is a work in progress. How to factor motor sports where there are multiple inputs from driver to manufacturer? Where are sports involving animals – who won the race, the man or the horse!? How to factor in top football clubs with multi-national line ups?
Despite room for improvement this is a passionate and worthy attempt at a Global Cup to sort out which is the top nation across all sport. I like how the project has a Per Capita Cup, currently topped by the fastest country on two legs, Jamaica, followed by Norway (Norway?!*#) and then rugby-mad New Zealand. Here’s to the crazy ones and the countries on the Edge.
