By far the country with the most medals in Olympics, Paralympics, Universiade, XGames, World Games, Continental Games, the highest amount of world championship/cup titles (all sports combined) in the world. Leads or dominate more than 40% of the sports. Have the best league/competition in the world in more than 70% of the sports. Highest number of stadiums and arenas. Named as the greatest sporting nation by all official rankings every year since their creation.
Undoubtedly the USA is number one is sports, one obvious marker to support my claim is the fact that the US leads the world in Olympic medals– on top of that we also lead in gold medals. The nearest competitor, which is Russia, is trailing behind us by nearly 1000 medals! This is an unprecedented lead on world sports. Not only does the US lead on Olympic sports, it also dominates championships held around the world.
Even sports that are not well known–or even disliked–in the states, for example soccer or “football” is a sport that the Americans only picked up in the 90’s, but despite this we often play at a European soccer club level. I think the only reason the US is not on top is because all of the recent anti-American sentiment. So world, please be unbiased and place the US at number 1.
Are you kidding me! USA has the most medals of all time at the Olympics, and all the World Championships put together! Swimming, Athletics, Gymnastics, Tennis, Golf, Basketball, Baseball, Ice Hockey, Rowing, American Football, Cycling, Soccer… It doesn’t matter what sport, USA could conquer! USA is even ranked 10th in Rugby League, no other nation is that versatile when it comes to sport! The first gym opened in the USA, they have state of the art stadiums, advance technology/supplements that other nations use, all come from the USA! Without USA, technology in sport would not be as advanced! Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, Pete Sampras, Carl Lewis, Mohammed Ali…, could write down another 20 influential athletes just of the top of my head! How does this proud nation be placed 3rd? No other way, this country is the most proudest nation when it comes to sport by a mile! Australia is a proud nation when it comes to sport, but the bigger brother wins this one!
The USA has the most Olympic success in both the winter and summer games. American athletes are driven by personal motives unlike top rivals like the old Soviet Union and China. Our best athletes play in three sports that are not the most popular in other countries (baseball, basketball and football) and while most of our citizens make fun of the world’s most popular game, we can still put together a decent team. The USA is built to win, and our athletes are superior to the rest of the world not only in success but also in sportsmanship and passion.
Despite its best athletes playing Australian Football or Rugby League, Australia still punches above its weight at the Olympic Games, and various World Cups (cricket, Rugby Union, field hockey, netball etc.).
Looking at its population, surely the greatest sporting nation. Australia competes in truly international sports such as tennis, rugby, cricket and of late, soccer. It has produced champions in swimming, golf, cycling, athletics, field hockey, formula 1 and boxing. Australian women have one of the best soccer teams in the world. Melbourne is considered a sporting mecca hosting Australian Open, Australian Grand Prix and has also been an Olympic city. Australia has also produced champion surfers, has won the America’s cup, is home to the Australian Rules Football and has qualified for the last couple of FIFA world cups ( even without having a league a few years back. ). Although Aus is a dry continent, it has won medals in the winter olympics which is a great achievement.
I would say, Australia is truly a global sporting nation.
Australia is the greatest sporting nation per capita. As far as the NFL is concerned they would not stand up to a top International rugby team. They wouldn’t be able to play for 40 minutes each way with no oxygen breaks on the sidelines and no sitting on the sidelines for half the game. Rugby players have to play offense as well as defense. Plus who else pays throw ball in the world. It is a joke when the team that wins the Super Bowl declares themselves the world champions who the hell else do they play.
America has some great athletes but they also have a population of 360 million people
I don’t know one person who didn’t grow up with competitive sport. With such a vast climate at our disposal we have the uncanny ability to practice sports ranging from skiing, to surfing, to tennis! Our cities all host at least one major international sporting event and we grow up asking “who do you barrack for? “. Sports legends always say we have the best crowds and I think I know why: because we are so darn interested in the wide world of sports! Pick an international sport and we have at least one contender for worlds greatest!
Cricket, football, tennis, golf, rugby union, rugby league, snooker, darts, squash, badminton queens bury boxing rules, even modern Olympics were actually resurrected in Britain. A Frenchmen visited Liverpool, England in the early 1820s, he could not believe the amount of different sports being played at various university’s. Obviously Greece invented the original Olympic games. But most of the Olympic sport events at present were invented or expanded into the rules and events we know today were in fact made in England. These games were called the Olympics too, the Frenchmen went back home to recreate the Olympics he witnessed that we know so well today. Today Britain participates in most of the world elite sports and is in the top 10 rankings of most sporting events.
No doubt about it!
The only country to win the Football, Cricket and Rugby world cups. Currently ranked top 5 in the world in Football, Cricket, Rugby League & Rugby Union (Male & Female).
In the top 3 in the Olympic medal table for the past 3 tournaments. We are the most versatile country for sports by a mile, the only sport we have never been competitive in or won anything in is Basketball! The only two countries which can rival us are USA & Australia, but we just edge the Americans because they’re non-existent in Football, Rugby & Cricket (the 3 biggest sports).
Clearly miles ahead of any other country. Top 5 in football (national and club sides combined). Cricket World champions (current). Rugby World cup finalists or winners (current). Cycling most grand tours last decade. Olympic Sports – usually 3rd / 4th recent medal tables. F1 – Way more champions than any other country. Golf 2nd in top 5 finishes over past decade at majors plus olympic champions. Tennis – recent Davis cup winners and olympic champions and a top 10 nation overall.
England won 2014 commonwealth games, we practically came third in the Olympics ( as Scotland,Wales, and Ireland hardly contribute) we are the best country in the world at athletics and Swimming 4th best team in Europe at Football and won the world cup in football, rugby union and won the rugby league world cup three times as well as ranking third in the world at it. We won the Davis Cup 2015 with Andy Murray ( who has won numerous grand slams). We hold the boxing world heavy weight champion in Tyson Fury and have had other brilliant boxers such as David Haye and Mohammed Ali, and we also got gold in boxing at the Olympics.In every netball competition we have placed top four. We received 29 gold medals in the Olympics, and 57 in the commonwealth games. We have won 3 out of the last 3 Tour de Frances in Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome and Mark Cavendish is the fastest cyclist in the world currently. England are historically the best team ever at Cricket.We have excelled in every sport …more
True, people live mostly for sports here, women, men, kids it doesn’t matter here.
2015 u20 football champions, silver in men basketball in Rio, bronze in women basketball, now we are doing good in Latvia and Serbia, water polo champions beating croatia 2 times in finals now, we win medals, titles, and championships multiple times, even our clubs, like red star beat liverpool the worlds best club this season.
No that,s not true brow we are not the best sports nation are champ and accomplishment in sports they Can,t compared to the U.S.A they are most Medal in Olympic games they are top 1. in most medal they are very good in world cup like basketball they are most recent champion in swimming track in filed, baseball,tennis,golf, boxing,volleyball,football and others they have many sportsmanship they are Huge country in population in sports U.S.A is number one IN SPORTS please accept the truth,We are not the truly best in sports.
Absolutely. This stems from the time of Yugoslavia too. The ratio of total population and how many accomplishments we have is incredible. Almost no country stands up to Serbia in relative terms. Not to mention that resources are nowhere close in quality to those in countries like Germany, USA etc.
A force in basketball and water polo. Good in handball, volleyball and futsal. Djokovic number 1 tennis player in the world by far at the moment. Produces great football players for top clubs though as a team they haven’t achieved much internationally. Rugby league and American football are starting to grow more in Serbia.
Top football nation, pretty good in both summer and Winter Olympics. I’m struggling now. Moustaches? Sausages? Oh I forgot Schumacher and vetal, Becker and stitch, Langer etc. Top 5 nation I agree.
Okay if they are fifth, then tell me what they are good at except football, hockey and Table Tennis. I think they should be 8th
I started ww1 and ww2, killed millions of Jews, praised an evil man called Hitler…enough said!
Yeah I’m from India but seriously Germany deserves to be on this spot
Most successful at football, by far the most popular sport in the World. Australia and the US are successful in sports nobody else plays, such as american and australian football and baseball. Also, it is not fair to include winter sports in this discussion, since most countries are not suitable for them.
Brazil has won first place in almost every sport there is. All types of Soccer, MMA, Boxing, Volleyball, Basketball, Surf, Racing and many more… Pretty much every sport that they try, they sooner or later excel at it, maybe not for long, but they win at least one time. Not a lot if countries can say that. USA has never won any soccer international competition on the mens side.
Brazil isn’t even a top nation at football now, just remember getting utterly destroyed by Germany on home soil in such a massive game. Even Neymar is behind Messi and Suarez. I hope Brazil come back as for me I want to see them as a top team, but now, no. If you take football away then it’s nowhere near the top 10.
Number 1 at soccer (won 5 titles), Number 1 at volleyball (both men and women)…They are awesome!
NZ is not a ‘one sport nation’ as we are #1 in rugby and rugby league and play a big role in minor sports such as rowing. What is wrong with being a one sport nation anyway? Eventually we will develop in sports like football/soccer but it isn’t as popular here compared to rugby which explains why we aren’t a top team. How can you compare us to a country like Australia? We only have a small population compared to the other top sporting nations. I do agree that Australia is a great sporting nation and is quite dominant in sports such as cricket but we don’t have to insult one another based on this.
For a country of only 4.6 million people New Zealand is definitely one of the best sporting countries there is. The All Blacks are the number 1 rugby team in the world with multiple records, with the women’s rugby union team also being ranked number 1 in the world. Lydia Ko became the youngest ever professional golfer from either sex to be ranked number 1 in the World and she became the youngest women to ever win a major championship, shes also broken many other records. N.Z excel in many other sports as well such as netball, rugby league, cricket, rowing, just to name a few. There have been some amazing sportsman and legends that have come from New Zealand and they don’t get the credibility and rescpect they deserve.
If the Olympics are a reflection of sporting greatness NZ has proven themselves again. Good medal tallies in Rowing, Sailing, Kayaking and Athletics at the Rio Olympics and a top medals per capita placing – Beating all the nations listed above here. Rugby world champs in 2015, Softball world champs 6 times, Oceania football champs 2016, Indy Car Champ 2016, Womens Golf World No1, Runners up in Cricket World Cup, World Champs in Surf Life Saving, World Champs in Cheerleading and top results in many other sports.
I’m not from New Zealand but I can tell how much of an impact sports has on the little country. Sometimes it does astonish me looking at all the medals they have racked up at the olympics, not only are they the best sporting country per capita in the world in history I think that alone should be the winning determiner. Not to mention there incredible rugby team and good rowing, hockey, cricket and netball teams.
Spain is a small country (48M population), but it is in the World’s top 5 in many (important) sports: Tennis, Basket, Football, F1, Motorbikes, Handball, , Sailing, Cycling, Hockey, Skate Hockey… even we have World’s Champions in Badminton and Paddle.
Spain has been only one time in the top 10 medalist countries in Olympic Games (Barcelona 92), because Olympic Games include many minoritary sports and give the same value to a curling and a basket medal.
Barca and Real have historically got their best players from South America, Holland, Germany, Portugal etc as well as Spain – it can’t bear on the rankings. However the national football team is very good. Tennis and formula 1 as well. Shame about other world sports like cricket, rugby and track and field. 7th about right.
It has the two of the greatest ever football clubs boasted of best players from the world… It also leads the world of tennis as of now..
We have had the best formula one racers, golfers, football teams, tennis players, swimmers… we are even good at basketball now!
France is almost everywhere in sports. We have a great national teams like in handball, football, basketball, rugby. We are the host of one of the most prestigious tennis tournament the French open, the best cycling competition Le tour de France. In summer and winter olympics we’re always part of the elite nations.
Ok. Having the Tour de France and the French open doesn’t make France good at sport, you need a French national to win it! If anything it emphasises your shortcomings. Saying that I do think France is a top sporting nation – les bleus, rugby, Platini, zidane, Prost. Not great at the olympics though so for me should be lower ranked.
Collective sports (Handball, Rugby, Football, Basket… ) and individual sports (judo, swimming, ski, race driving,… ): France is well-ranked in a lot of varied domains
Just now in 2017 French Handball team won its 6th world title, it makes this Country the best Handball team in the sport History.
India being 8th in the world is ridiculous. They aren’t even the best at cricket and the population is greater than all other test nations by a big margin. Hockey they are good. That’s about it. Honestly. I can’t even imagine they really like sport there, as if they did surely they would be good at it. Improvement needed I’m afraid.
India may not be a good sporting nation by western standards, but no one can argue it is drastically improving and sports are slowy being recognised by parents. Now, I’m an Australian who has a couple of very sporty Indian friends but due their culture they want to take up proffesions like engineering and medicine. If my friends wanted to take up a sporting career, there is literally no doubt that they will be successful.
Talented. But obsession with academics is a curse. Whatever laurels were achieved was despite governments.
Sports culture building up. But politicians run sports federations and they screw up. Don’t you know they get more allowances than players to attend international meets?
Politics, corruption need to be weeded it. Then a sea change will happen
Cricket, field hockey and doesn’t make us best sporting country… Fact is we are light years behind the countries mentioned above… We don’t play global sports.. Yet we think that we are the best
