Who is the best sporting nation
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This is a great question this - so many variables depending on what your angle is.
I would say USA outright, with Australia on a per-capita basis. At the moment, Britain would be giving it a crack on a per-capita basis as well.
Although it's tough to give it to a country without a real competitive football team, given the magnitude of that sport. France, maybe?
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@MajorRage yep, what sports do you use to rank, what events, per capita? success at multiple events or stages?
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@taniwharugby said in Who is the best sporting nation:
@MajorRage yep, what sports do you use to rank, what events, per capita? success at multiple events or stages?
Yeah. Even if you look at best athletes it's subjective. Fastest = Jamaica, distance = Ethiopia / Kenya.
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As far as collective sports are concerned France, undoubtedly. Soccer (1st team sport in the world) : world champions. Basket ball : recently beat the USA in the World Cup and finished third. Handball : several times World and Olympic Champions. Volley ball : World league champions in 2017.
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@MajorRage said in Who is the best sporting nation:
Yeah. Even if you look at best athletes it's subjective. Fastest = Jamaica, distance = Ethiopia / Kenya.
Fastest=Jamaica=(probably) most drugs
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Is it England or GB for the purpose of this exercise? Either way, they probably under-perform given they can't dominate rugby, soccer or netball and have only had limited success over-all recently in cricket. Some really good patches in the Olympics but they've also been dire at the Games at times whilst also enduring really poor periods in some of the aforementioned sports as well. In individuals global sports such as tennis and golf how many majors have British (let alone just English) athletes won?
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no idea, going to say one of the caribbean nations perhaps a trinidad and tobago?
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Iceland would be up there on per head of population. Stupid amount of good crossfitters which apprently is the best athlete in the world. Strongman and powerlifting is massive there to. Think handball is alright to. Soccer team has been good of late. Population of 350k or so.
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Jamaca go bloody well at athletics for a population of 2 and a half mill
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USA could absolutely dominate any sport they wanted to really. I'd hate to think how supremely talented their rugby team would be if that was their number 1 winter sport over there, nobody else would get a look in.
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Probably a number of factors in this with culture, funding, education, politics, population all being important. NZ has done pretty bloody well when you consider the dominance of the AB's, Womans Rugby, Netball, Sailing, Rowing etc etc.
I think any country that has a vested interest in a sport and then has the right funding and coaching can do well. Think of the Aussies in their cricket, AFL, League (Maybe not best example at the moment lol) and even Swimming.
Look at what China have done with their Olympic Program.
The USA obviously has an amazing sporting culture with all of their professional leagues, the college system etc.
Canada with Curling
In the end it is hard to go past the USA as they have done well in so many different sporting events.
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Further to this, the country which can use genetic screening to best select athletes for a specific sport may have a huge advantage moving forward. Imagine if China for example sequences the entire population and can identify which children have the highest probability of having the best physique for whatever sport. Obviously a lot of it is mental but if you can find people who share Phelps or Thorpies shape early then you will have an advantage.
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@No-Quarter said in Who is the best sporting nation:
USA could absolutely dominate any sport they wanted to really. I'd hate to think how supremely talented their rugby team would be if that was their number 1 winter sport over there, nobody else would get a look in.
Team sports, anyway. And the bigger the team (e.g. 23 in rugby) the more population gives you an advantage (everything else being equal) by eliminating any weak links.
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@No-Quarter said in Who is the best sporting nation:
USA could absolutely dominate any sport they wanted to really. I'd hate to think how supremely talented their rugby team would be if that was their number 1 winter sport over there, nobody else would get a look in.
I don't agree. England have shown us what a large player pool and financial resources can (or can't) achieve. What works for the USA is professionalism, to which the rest of the world is catching up. The money on offer ensures that players are exposed to professional standards early and rewards those with the right physical attributes to train. They can still only put XV on the field at any one time.
What they would likely have is the best club game standard, comprised of players from all over the globe - think Premiere League.
