Profiling the top sporting nations: Netherlands, Australia, Canada

The three countries under our lens are the Netherlands, Australia and Canada. In previous articles we analysed the sporting performance of Serbia, Poland, Kenya, Switzerland, Sweden, South Korea, Brazil, Norway and Spain. We took an in-depth look at each of them, highlighting which sports these countries excel at and how versatile the countries are in terms of sporting success.

 

The table below shows the aggregate top-20 Global Cup ranking for the 2016-19 quadrennial period (or quad for short), the latest for which we have four-year data.

 

The Netherlands gained three positions in this quad over the previous four-year period, slotting into 11^th place overall. It is a country that is going places in the sporting world, joint second-best in the quad - together with France - in terms of ranking improvement.

Football was a major contributor to the Netherlands’ rise. It was its top sport in 2019 with 22.5% of the country’s points, enough for the Dutch – thanks to their ladies, runners-up in the women’s Football World Cup – to finish second in the sport’s annual ranking.

 

Cycling is another sport group in which the Netherlands excels: Track Cycling was its best sport in 2018 (when the Netherlands won the sport’s annual ranking) and its second best in 2019, while Road Cycling was one of its top-five sports in three out of the quad’s four years. In 2018 and 2019, the Netherlands won the Cycling sport group, which aggregates the results of Road Cycling, Track Cycling, Cyclocross, MTB and BMX. In 2019 in particular, the Netherlands won three of these sports (Cyclocross, BMX and Road Cycling) and came second in Track Cycling.

 

The other sport in which the Netherlands is dominant is Speedskating: the Dutch won the sport’s Global Cup every year in the 2016-19 quad, with never less than 29% of the points – and they have in fact done so every year since GSN records began in 2008!

The Netherlands is currently 8^th in the Global Cup, and it finished 10^th in the Global Cup and seventh in the Per Capita Cup in 2019. With Australia, it is the only country to ever hit a top-10 finish in both rankings in the same year in GSN history – a major sporting milestone.

 

Australia was 10^th in the Global Cup table for the 2016-19 quad, a prestigious achievement yet one with a slightly sour taste, as the Aussies lost three positions compared to the 2011-15 quad, with Kenya’s the joint-worse performance among current top-20 countries.

Swimming has consistently been Australia’s best sport in the quad, the only exception being 2018, when neither the biennial Swimming World Championships nor the Summer Olympics were held, and Basketball was the country’s leading sport with 20.4% of the points. In the quad’s other years, Swimming was always Australia’s highest-scoring sport, and the Oz finished second in the sport’s annual ranking, behind the mighty USA, in 2019 and 2016.

 

But Australia is part of the world’s sporting elite also because it scored points on average in 30 sports each year in 2016-19, the quad’s best year being 2019, when Australia scored points in 35 sports. To put this in context, none of the countries ranked behind Australia in the 2016-19 top-20 table scored points in more than 28 sports in any of the quad’s years.

Australia’s range of sports is extensive, with a penchant for Ball Team sports such as Rugby Union, Cricket and Netball. But the other stand-put sport for Australia is Track Cycling: the Oz won the sport’s annual ranking in 2019 and in 3 of the last 5 years, and came third in 2016.

Australia was ninth in the Global Cup and 12^th in the Per Capita Cup in 2019, and it currently sits in 12^th place in the 2020 Global Cup.

 

Canada was ninth in the Global Cup table for the 2016-19 quad, having lost one place compared to the previous quad. For a country that belongs to the northern part of the planet’s northern hemisphere, it is surprisingly versatile in terms of sporting results, even though Canada’s performance remains heavily influenced by its results in Snow & Ice sports.

In 2019 for example, points scored in those sports accounted for 34.7% of Canada’s total Global Cup points. It won Freestyle Skiing and finished second in Curling, Bobsleigh and Ice Hockey. On the other hand, Canada has consistently scored points in 35-plus sports in each of the quad’s years, the best year being 2016 with 46 sports – 11 more than e.g. Australia’s best result in the quad.

 

Arguably, Canada’s relative decline in Snow & Ice sports in the course of the quad was the main cause of its loss of one position in the quad’s aggregate ranking. Canada won the Snow & Ice sports ranking in 2016, was third in 2017 and 2018, and slipped to ninth in 2019, a year when it scored 22.5% fewer points in Snow & Ice sports than it did in 2016. Unsurprisingly, in 2019 Canada recorded its worst Global Cup finish across the quad’s four years, 13^th, and was 25^th in the Per Capita Cup.

 

It seems fair to say that, while Canada is undoubtedly part of the world’s sporting elite, it is a country that is somewhat in transition, its recent blip in winter sports not yet compensated by top-notch results in what is a wide variety of other sports it scores points in.

 

Ice Hockey remains Canada’s top sport – its highest-scoring one in 2018 and 2017, and second-highest in 2016 – but it’s worth underlining that Athletics was the country’s top sport in 2019, with 17.2% of its total points (Canada finished a creditable eighth in the Athletics World Championships), and Football was the top sport in 2016.

Canada is currently 10^th in the Global Cup and ninth in the Per Capita Cup.

 

* position change vs previous quad

 

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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.