New Zealand "Third Best" Sporting Nation in the World

Ah the icing to a glorious sporting year for New Zealand...


Courtesy of TVNZ

Kiwis have always considered themselves to be overachievers in the sporting arena and now the figures prove it, with New Zealand placed third on a list of top sporting nations per head.

The list, compiled by greatestsportingnation.com, analysed the sporting achievements of every country for 2011 and found New Zealand to be just behind Jamaica and Norway in their 'Per Capita Cup'.

Jamaica's strong showing at this year's Athletic World Championships in South Korea gave them the top spot with 2541 people per point (ppp) awarded.

Norway was narrowly in second place (2623 ppp) with points coming from 26 different sports, with an overall victory in cross-country skiing pushing them higher up the list.

New Zealand also scored across a high number of sports with 18 different codes represented in their score of 3618 ppp. The All Blacks' Rugby World Cup win was listed as New Zealand's one significant win.

Australia finished outside the top 10 per capita with 7050 ppp, while the website labels Jamaica and New Zealand 'outsiders' in the top 10 as the only two non-European countries.

In the overall standings the United States have won the top spot for the fourth consecutive year, beating out Russia, China and France by scoring points in 50 different sports for a total of 8276 points.

New Zealand came in at 24 on the overall standings with a points total of 1182 points up three places from last year.

Points are awarded across 80 sports during any event considered to be the premier international event for that sport.

For sports such as football and basketball where there was no global tournament in 2011, continental tournaments are used, but less weighting is given to those sports.