Kenya best sporting nation in April
April was a quiet sporting month, with only a handful of major international tournaments tracked by GSN, in Marathon, Golf and Ice Hockey. Marathons were key to shaping the monthly ranking in the Global Cup (see table below), which was led by Kenya - emphatic winner of the London and Boston marathons - with the USA second and another great African running country, Ethiopia, third.
The year-to-date Global Cup table was therefore mostly unchanged, the USA preserving its lead over Italy and China. A third of the 2024 sporting year has gone, and the Global Cup’s top 20 is showing little variation compared to the same period last year in terms of the countries featured (Belgium, Kazakhstan and Denmark are out, South Korea, Hungary and South Africa in), but some countries have significantly improved their positions.
This was due to the fact that, alongside the usual plethora of Snow & Ice sport tournaments held in the first part of the year (as we commented last month), the Swimming World Championships were brought forward this year, to avoid clashing with the summer Olympics. The winner was the USA, ahead of Australia and China.
Most of the countries that made the highest leap up the top-20 year-to-date Global Cup table compared to last year did so thanks to their Swimming prowess: Hungary, up 17 places, led the way, followed by China, up 14 places, and South Korea and Australia, both up eight places. The only exception among the climbers was South Africa, which gained 10 positions compared to last year chiefly thanks to its third place in the African Cup of Nations in Football.
Swimming will be a major point-earning sport at the Paris Olympics too, so China in particular could benefit come the end of 2024, and potentially improve on its third-place Global Cup finishes of 2023 and 2022.
GLOBAL CUP 2024 -April monthly ranking
|
Place
|
Country
|
Points
|
Points %
|
|
1
|
Kenya
|
225
|
19.8%
|
|
2
|
United States
|
167
|
14.7%
|
|
3
|
Ethiopia
|
162
|
14.3%
|
|
4
|
Canada
|
123
|
10.8%
|
|
5
|
Great Britain
|
67
|
5.9%
|
|
6
|
Finland
|
60
|
5.3%
|
|
7
|
Sweden
|
56
|
4.9%
|
|
8
|
Czech Republic
|
50
|
4.4%
|
|
9
|
Switzerland
|
47
|
4.1%
|
|
10
|
Germany
|
44
|
3.9%
|
|
11
|
France
|
25
|
2.2%
|
|
12
|
Denmark
|
16
|
1.4%
|
|
13
|
Italy
|
13
|
1.2%
|
|
14
|
Japan
|
13
|
1.1%
|
|
15
|
South Korea
|
12
|
1.1%
|
|
16
|
Ireland
|
10
|
0.8%
|
|
17
|
Eritrea
|
9
|
0.8%
|
|
18
|
Zimbabwe
|
9
|
0.8%
|
|
19
|
Estonia
|
8
|
0.7%
|
|
20
|
Norway
|
6
|
0.5%
|
|
21
|
Spain
|
6
|
0.5%
|
|
22
|
Australia
|
5
|
0.4%
|
|
23
|
Morocco
|
3
|
0.3%
|
|
24
|
Netherlands
|
1
|
0.1%
|
|
Grand Total
|
1,137
|
100.0%
|
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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
