US leads Global Cup, Japan jumps to third in June
Midway through the 2025 sporting year, the USA is still comfortably leading the Global Cup, the ranking of the world’s best sporting nations, having gained further ground on Norway after coming third in the Global Cup’s June monthly table (please see below).
Japan won the Judo World Championships held in June, by a handsome margin over Georgia and France, and was the most-improved country in the month, climbing into third place in the Global Cup’s year-to-date table, its best position so far this year.
A comparison between this year’s June year-to-date ranking and last year’s throws up a few interesting aspects:
- 2025 has so far been a less busy sporting year compared to the first half of 2024, with 14,200 GSN points awarded, split up among 71 countries, as opposed to 19,602 points split up among 92 countries in 2024; shifts in tournament dates played a part, since several big sports had brought forward their main tournaments last year to stage them before the 2024 Olympics
- As a result, Snow & Ice sports, whose events are concentrated in the January-May period, awarded a higher percentage share of points than last year (55% vs 42.8%), leading to several Snow & Ice sport ‘specialists’ enjoying a better ranking so far in 2025: Norway, Switzerland and Sweden (respectively first, third and fourth in the 2025 Snow & Ice sports ranking) were all new entries in the Global Cup’s top 10 this year, ousting sporting behemoths like China, Australia and Great Britain
- Looking at the top 20 table, this year’s other new entries are Spain (which earned the majority of its points in Tennis and at the Basketball 3x3 World Cup), Finland, Denmark, Ethiopia and Croatia.
There will be plenty of major tournaments in the second half of 2025, starting in July with Tennis at Wimbledon and the European championship in women’s Football, and GSN will cover them all!
Please note that, at the time of publication, the Global and Per Capita Cup’s June results weren’t yet reflected in the tables on the GNS website.
GLOBAL CUP – JUNE 2025 monthly table
|
Place
|
Country
|
Points
|
Points %
|
|
1
|
Japan
|
403
|
14.5%
|
|
2
|
Spain
|
182
|
6.5%
|
|
3
|
United States
|
178
|
6.4%
|
|
4
|
France
|
146
|
5.2%
|
|
5
|
Italy
|
143
|
5.1%
|
|
6
|
Georgia
|
125
|
4.5%
|
|
7
|
Netherlands
|
122
|
4.4%
|
|
8
|
Germany
|
121
|
4.3%
|
|
9
|
Mongolia
|
119
|
4.3%
|
|
10
|
South Korea
|
116
|
4.2%
|
|
11
|
Canada
|
93
|
3.3%
|
|
12
|
Brazil
|
88
|
3.2%
|
|
13
|
serbia
|
86
|
3.1%
|
|
14
|
Switzerland
|
72
|
2.6%
|
|
15
|
Australia
|
67
|
2.4%
|
|
16
|
Azerbaijan
|
65
|
2.3%
|
|
17
|
Tajikistan
|
62
|
2.2%
|
|
18
|
Poland
|
62
|
2.2%
|
|
19
|
Great Britain
|
44
|
1.6%
|
|
20
|
Kosovo
|
41
|
1.5%
|
|
21
|
Kazakhstan
|
41
|
1.5%
|
|
22
|
Hungary
|
41
|
1.5%
|
|
23
|
China
|
35
|
1.3%
|
|
24
|
Croatia
|
29
|
1.0%
|
|
25
|
United Arab Emirates
|
27
|
1.0%
|
|
26
|
Puerto Rico
|
27
|
1.0%
|
|
27
|
Sweden
|
25
|
0.9%
|
|
28
|
Uzbekistan
|
24
|
0.9%
|
|
29
|
Mexico
|
24
|
0.9%
|
|
30
|
Thailand
|
23
|
0.8%
|
|
31
|
Portugal
|
21
|
0.8%
|
|
32
|
Estonia
|
21
|
0.8%
|
|
33
|
Latvia
|
18
|
0.6%
|
|
34
|
Norway
|
12
|
0.4%
|
|
35
|
Ecuador
|
12
|
0.4%
|
|
36
|
Cuba
|
11
|
0.4%
|
|
37
|
Turkmenistan
|
11
|
0.4%
|
|
38
|
Slovenia
|
11
|
0.4%
|
|
39
|
Czech Republic
|
9
|
0.3%
|
|
40
|
Ukraine
|
8
|
0.3%
|
|
41
|
Colombia
|
6
|
0.2%
|
|
42
|
Taiwan
|
5
|
0.2%
|
|
43
|
Dominican Republic
|
5
|
0.2%
|
|
44
|
Belgium
|
5
|
0.2%
|
|
45
|
Greece
|
5
|
0.2%
|
|
46
|
Finland
|
5
|
0.2%
|
|
Grand Total
|
2,783
|
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
