Who is the greatest sporting nation in the world?

The United States is the best country all time in sports. All time the US is the best at gridiron football (best athletes in the world with basketball and most complicated sport there is with baseball), baseball (huge in Asia and Latin America, most complicated and intricate sport), basketball (world's second most popular sport, has best athletes), racquetball, lacrosse, track and field, swimming, tennis (not right now but all time most majors won and most Davis and fed cups won), golf, boxing, beach volleyball, figure skating, snowboarding, skiing, diving, shooting etc and the US is top 2-5 all time in wrestling, gymnastics, rowing, sailing, weightlifting, cycling, speed skating, alpine skiing, volleyball and ice hockey. Also, the US has won more than double the amount of gold and overall Olympic medals than the number 2 country in the world in terms of medals, and this is with: (1) the US being limited in the amount of athletes it can send to the Olympics. Every Olympics, many Americans who are qualified for the Olympics can't compete because there is a quota limiting the amount of athletes a country can send. If these athletes were from a small country, they would be competing at the Olympics. In 2012, Britain, because they were the host, was able to have more athletes competing at the Olympics than any other nation, yet the US destroyed them in amount of gold and overall medals won. (2) the vast majority of the best American athletes don't play Olympic sports, so this American domination even with the number quota is with not even close to the best athletes the US has to offer. Even in soccer (the best sport), which has been the biggest sport in Europe since the 1800s and unfortunately was almost non existent in the US until the 1990s and is still the 5th most popular sport in the US and the US has hardly any good academies and no soccer culture and our soccer players as a result aren't taught the proper way to play, the US is one of only 8 countries in the whole world that has made it to at least the round of 16 in 3 of the last 4 world cups and in the last World Cup made it farther than Portugal, Italy, Spain and England. Even in rugby, a sport most Americans don't even know the rules of, the US consistently qualifies for the rugby World Cup. This either furthers the point that the US punches above its weight in sports that we aren't as into, or it proves that rugby isn't as popular a sport as some people make it out to be if a country where most people don't know the rules of the sport is consistently among the top 15-20 nations in the sport. If someone were to pick any 10 sports that all countries started playing at the same time and took equally seriously, the US would be the best at all 10 sports. I'm not talking about per capita, that probably goes to Australia, but in terms of pure accomplishments, the US is by far the number 1 sports country, and that's how they are the number one country in sports: per capita, Uruguay and the Netherlands are the best soccer nations, but people refer to Brazil, Germany and Italy when they talk about the best soccer nations in history: it's nice to be the best per capita, but who actually wins is what defines which country is the best. So the US is the best sports country in the world.

Overall based on professional leagues, athletes, wins/accomplishments/medals in international competition, and variety of sports that a country is the best in or top 2-5 in, and also putting population into account, but not doing purely per capita because if New Zealand wins 2 gold medals, it's impossible for the US to win the same per capita, especially when the US is limited in amount of athletes they can have at the Olympics, the best sporting nations are: 1-2 are the USA/Australia in either order, 3 Russia/Soviet Union 4 Germany 5 France 6 Britain 7 Italy 8 Serbia 9 Sweden 10 Spain 11 New Zealand 12 Croatia 13 Hungary 14 Romania

The United States is the best country all time in sports. All time the US is the best at gridiron football (best athletes in the world with basketball and most complicated sport there is with baseball), baseball (huge in Asia and Latin America, most complicated and intricate sport), basketball (world's second most popular sport, has best athletes), racquetball, lacrosse, track and field, swimming, tennis (not right now but all time most majors won and most Davis and fed cups won), golf, boxing, beach volleyball, figure skating, snowboarding, skiing, diving, shooting etc and the US is top 2-5 all time in wrestling, gymnastics, rowing, sailing, weightlifting, cycling, speed skating, alpine skiing, volleyball and ice hockey. Also, the US has won more than double the amount of gold and overall Olympic medals than the number 2 country in the world in terms of medals, and this is with: (1) the US being limited in the amount of athletes it can send to the Olympics. Every Olympics, many Americans who are qualified for the Olympics can't compete because there is a quota limiting the amount of athletes a country can send. If these athletes were from a small country, they would be competing at the Olympics. In 2012, Britain, because they were the host, was able to have more athletes competing at the Olympics than any other nation, yet the US destroyed them in amount of gold and overall medals won. (2) the vast majority of the best American athletes don't play Olympic sports, so this American domination even with the number quota is with not even close to the best athletes the US has to offer. Even in soccer (the best sport), which has been the biggest sport in Europe since the 1800s and unfortunately was almost non existent in the US until the 1990s and is still the 5th most popular sport in the US and the US has hardly any good academies and no soccer culture and our soccer players as a result aren't taught the proper way to play, the US is one of only 8 countries in the whole world that has made it to at least the round of 16 in 3 of the last 4 world cups and in the last World Cup made it farther than Portugal, Italy, Spain and England. Even in rugby, a sport most Americans don't even know the rules of, the US consistently qualifies for the rugby World Cup. This either furthers the point that the US punches above its weight in sports that we aren't as into, or it proves that rugby isn't as popular a sport as some people make it out to be if a country where most people don't know the rules of the sport is consistently among the top 15-20 nations in the sport. If someone were to pick any 10 sports that all countries started playing at the same time and took equally seriously, the US would be the best at all 10 sports. I'm not talking about per capita, that probably goes to Australia, but in terms of pure accomplishments, the US is by far the number 1 sports country, and that's how they are the number one country in sports: per capita, Uruguay and the Netherlands are the best soccer nations, but people refer to Brazil, Germany and Italy when they talk about the best soccer nations in history: it's nice to be the best per capita, but who actually wins is what defines which country is the best. So the US is the best sports country in the world.

How is England not ranked in top 10 in golf but south Africa Australia and Germany are? Lol

This website should end all arguments http://www.greatestsportingnation.com/ The greatest sporting nations usually resemble countries that consistently make the top 5 Olympic medal tally. So this can include the US, China, Germany, Russia...you can include Australia. Others include Australia, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, "Great Britain' NOT England. England usually cant compete in a number of sports without the help of Scotland, Wales and NI. NZ came 3rd overall on the per capita in 2011 just behind Norway and Jamaica. Doing well in 18 sports (netball and League weren't included) which dismiss the myth that we only play rugby and nothing else. I don't even rate netball as a sport tbh. Ive also stumbled across another site which show that NZ beats Australia on 'medals won per population' and medals won on GDP. But in saying this Australia will always win MORE medals than us. http://simon.forsyth.net/olympicsGDP2008.html The sporting culture are similar in both NZ and Australia (born and bred till 13 years old then moved here). Its just that when kids get to an age where they play representative sports, the have the likes of the AIS which pushes them further. NZ gets bread crumb funding compared to Australia in a lot of sports but we do focus on certain sports which has given us good results in the past hence we do punch above our weight in terms of population and funding...but so does Australia. Remember money put into sports is a major factor in how a country will perform. Most of the top sporting nations have big economies like the US, China and Germany.

you have to remember that Serbia was part of Yugoslavia which was one of the major sporting power in Europe throughout the 20th century so its no surprise they still hold these sporting traditions from their old motherland.

for a nation of 6 million people Serbia - Basketball - 2 WC, 3Euros since 1995 Volleyball - Current European Champions in both mens and womens. Water Polo - 3 Olympic medals since Sydney 2000 6 World Championships medals since 1998 (2 Golds 2005,2009) 6 European Championships medals since 1997 (3 titles 01,03,06) 8 World League medals (7 titles) 3 World Cups (2 Gold 06 and 10) not baddd Tennis is preety good too

Not to mention the disproportion of medals awarded to some sports, e.g., swimming, over others, e.g., basketball. A good swimmer can collect 7 or more medals, whilst the basketballer has a shot at only 1.

yeah 'massive presence' as i said was an massive overstatement but 'almost no presence' like you say is way off too. Re american sports: Lauren Jackson - multiple WNBA MVP. Arguably greatest women's bball player ever. Bogut - NBA star. No 1 draft pick Steady stream of basketball players going to div 1 colleges and a few NBA players Steady stream of baseball players have gone to the states for years A few NFL players (punters sure) but this looks like increasing soon. 2 Aussies on the field in biggest college game ever (LSU vs Bama) a couple of weeks ago. How many other non americans?? Re winter sports: A couple of golds at last two olympics. Not bad going on the medal table where we beat many countries who actually have a winter. Re olympics - we kick arse at swimming. That's not news. Neither is the fact that there's other sports in the games. But take swimming away and we'd still be doing good as we medal in such a wide range of sports. Granted we'd probably only do above average per capita rather than totally dominating like we do now.

Jeb, Australia has almost no presence in Winter sports and American sports. Also, there's many more sports in the Summer Olympics aside from swimming. 20 of Australia's 46 Medals in Beijing came from swimming alone(6 of 14 Golds). 34 of Australia's 46 Medals came from water sports and 12 of the 14 Golds were from water sports.

Another way of looking at things is how many sports do countries have a meaningful presence in. If this was the criteria than australia wins handsdown. We're obviously at or near the top in commonwealth sports - cricket, netball, rugby, hockey etc But we've also got a massive presence in: european sports such as cycling, waterpolo etc olympic type sports - swimming, rowing american sports - basket, baseball, football Xtreme sports - skate, surfing etc Winter sports - and not just Torah. Water sports - sailing, lifesaving etc No country other country on earth has such a spread of influence. And that's before you consider that our best pure athletes (arguably) are taken by the domestic codes of nrl and afl.

Cram never won Olympic gold . The scot was about the world #20 who won in the heavily boycotted 1980 Moscow Games Hooker was the first male atlhetics gold medalist since Ralph Doubell ( 800m ) in 1968 ( =40 years ) 1968-2008 Australian women in athletics won 4 Olympic golds . I've no doubt that women are more Olympics minded in their sporting druthers Also dare I sayi n case you haven't noticed Australia is pretty white in comparison to GB- as well as being important in several nonsporting contexts it is pretty big factor in athletics success ( as I think the data supports )

USA ALWAYS tops the medal table in athletics and swimming at every Olympics and world champs but I guess too few countries participate in these sports compared to say netball for your liking ( then there's combative sports ,winter sports , other racquet sports etc etc which I'd say are pretty popular If you are just talking of team sports - which I note you're not- then handball and ice hockey are more wide spread & popular than a no of your choices - oh & softball ,waterpolo a real schoolboy article- ever met a foreigner ?

Brick Lane. Taking this observation one step further, Ozzie men are culurally predisposed to footy codes sadly and this has only become moreso with ensuing decades. I don't know how you make this sport appealing to young men but the over emphasis on sprinting, particularly the 50m dash has more appeal amongst our boys and all things considered, we continue to produce some reasonable male talent but we are unlikely to see a return to the glory days of Australian Swimming with the likes of Perkins, Hackett, Thorpe to name a few dominating their respective disciplines. This is particularly evident in the context of our historical 1500 pedigree with very little talent coming through sadly. I know that Swimming is a sport that struggles to keep its promising young men in the sport as a direct result of our footy obsessed society where as this is not the case in Europe or the burgeoning Swimming cultures across Asia. Our women continue to maintain our status quo in this sport and more power to them, they have always been the stronger and more disciplined gender which Swimming requires in spades.

So - you say historically NZ outperforms Australia on a per capita basis. You then say this comment related to the Olympics. You then concede that it's basically "neck and neck" between the two in the Olympics. And you conclude again that NZ outperforms Australia. Go figure.

Just to let you know, Volleyball is quite a big thing in europe. They have professional leagues, very simular to what they do with Handball. Hockey does indeed have pro leagues in europe as well, however it is less well known. I thought Baseball would be quite questionable. The USA have like thousands of professional players (Do not forget the players in the Minor leagues are all professionals as well) All the young boys have proberly played it on a weekly basis at some time or another. Its just so heavily focused in one country, (yes more so than cricket) it probely shouldn't be counted.

Australia's problem is Aussie men can't run without a ball. One look at GB's olympic track record of the last 30 years and Australia's tells a weird story. British men can win golds. Coe, Ovett, Christie, Cram, Thompson, Edwards...the list goes on and on. Even a scot can win the 100m gold. Crazy to think Steve Hooker was the first Aussie male track and field gold in 60 years! It makes no sense. AFL has truly killed Australia in athletics. It's a sport full of guys that could be gold medalists in 400, 800 or 1500m

As far as the Olympics and Commonwealth games are concerned, Swimming is largly responsible for Australian Kudos, without a shadow of a doubt. We have a proud history in this sport which can be historically attributed to environment and lifestyle which is probably less a criteria for success in sport these days. I would say that this is the sport that keeps us abreast a number of nations and why Swimming NZ are actively capitalizing on our Swimming culture, knowing full well that they have easy access to these fatal shores and have long been afforded great favor across so many sporting disciplines by Australia. NZ currently have no less than three Australian coaches heading up their national swimming programmes however, this sport does not carry the historical weight and is no where near as ingrained in the NZ sporting psyche as it is here. All said and done, NZ may well be a superior sporting nation in my opinion, however this may change as they mature and are less inclined to invest so much national identity in sport, as has happened to Australia over the past couple of decades in my humble opinion.

We have to remember that Australia is handicaped per capita by the fact that half the country is obsessed with Australian Rules which is not even an international sport.

Because the game is called Football, played by the rules of the Football Association. If you can point us towards the International Soccer Association then we could decide whether we would prefer to join theirs.