Countries that underachieve vs countries that overachieve in sports relative to their size

**Tooting Carmen** · 10-01-2023, 11:30 PM

Underachievers

-The South Asian countries (except in cricket).
-To a lesser extent China, albeit they are particularly good in table tennis and in recent decades have done well in gymnastics too.

Overachievers

-Wales (rugby and to a lesser extent football).
-Scotland (football and to a lesser extent rugby).
-Nordic countries (hockey).
-New Zealand (rugby and to a lesser extent cricket).
-Uruguay (football and increasingly even rugby - they are now the 2nd best team in the Americas in the latter).
-Fiji/Samoa/Tonga (rugby).
-Jamaica/Trinidad & Tobago (athletics).
-Also of arguable note is the success of Puerto Rico and Nicaragua in baseball, as well as Costa Rica in football (at least when compared to the rest of Central America).
-As for Ireland, it is complicated by the fact that (1) their most prominent sports, Gaelic sports, are only played there and (2) in some sports there is one team for the whole island, while in others there are separate teams for the North and the Republic.

N.B. My main criteria for 'overachievers' are countries that have fewer than ten million people which, nevertheless, are at least fairly successful and noteworthy in certain sports. Therefore, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, which like Puerto Rico and Nicaragua are also good at baseball, don't quite qualify.

**Sebastianus Rex** · 10-02-2023, 10:10 AM

Overachievers:
- Croatia : football, basketball, handball, and perhaps some other such as tennis and athletics
- Serbia: basketball, volleyball, tennis and perhaps some others
- Austria and Norway : winter sports
- Finland: winter sports, some athletics and race driving
- Denmark, football and especially handball.
- Bulgaria: weighlifting and some athletics

Underachievers:
Most african countries are underachievers due to the lack of infrastructure and organization, highly populated countries such as Nigeria, Somalia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Congo etc come to my mind

- highly populated southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Phillipines, Myanmar and even Thailand despite the latter being good at some combat sports

**Tooting Carmen** · 10-02-2023, 10:19 AM

Originally Posted by Sebastianus Rex

Overachievers:
- Croatia : football, basketball, handball, and perhaps some other such as tennis and athletics
- Serbia: basketball, volleyball, tennis and perhaps some others
- Austria and Norway : winter sports
- Finland: winter sports, some athletics and race driving
- Denmark, football and especially handball.
- Bulgaria: weighlifting and some athletics

Underachievers:
Most african countries are underachievers due to the lack of infrastructure and organization, highly populated countries such as Nigeria, Somalia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Congo etc come to my mind

- highly populated southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Phillipines, Myanmar and even Thailand despite the latter being good at some combat sports

I mostly agree, although Ethiopia and Kenya in particular are quite successful in some athletics competitions, while Egypt, Ghana and Nigeria have a reasonable presence in football.

**Sebastianus Rex** · 10-02-2023, 10:33 AM

Originally Posted by Tooting Carmen

I mostly agree, although Ethiopia and Kenya in particular are quite successful in some athletics competitions, while Egypt, Ghana and Nigeria have a reasonable presence in football.

Except for long distance running (which is the most basic and boring sport ever) they have nothing else, despite Ethiopia exceeding 120 million.

Nigeria and Egypt are regional powers but on a world stage are definitely underachievers for nations of 213 million and 110 million respectively.

Mexico it is another, for a nation of 126 million where football is big they are mediocre outside of their poor concacaf zone. Some good lighter weight boxers tough, but I can’t remember nothing else worthy of note.

**catgeorge** · 10-02-2023, 11:12 AM

2 x euro basket champions
1 x euro football champions

not enough for you for 9mln population - I think the only other nation that comes close is Denmark.

Lets not mention all the olympic medals

**Creoda** · 10-02-2023, 11:37 AM

Straya cunt

Not that I wish to blow our own trumpet, as Aussies do that enough, but:

-25 million people (20 million not long ago), comparable to Romania, 55th most populous country in the world, yet:
-10th in the all-time Summer Olympics Gold Medal table (6th at the last Olympics)
-2x Rugby Union World Champions
-5x Cricket World Champions (record)
-3x Hockey World Champions
-3rd in the All-Time Swimming World Championship Table and 2nd in the Olympic Table
-12x Rugby League World Champions (record)
-28x Davis Cup Tennis Champions, 2nd only to the US
-Competitive in Association Football, got to the last 16 in the last World Cup, and the women got to the Semi Finals
-Competitive in Basketball, got to the Semi Finals of World Cups and Olympics a few times recently, and the women won the World Cup in the 00s
-Equal 5th most F1 World Championships
-5th most Golf Major wins
-12x Netball World Champions (record)

Despite Australia's most popular sport (Aussie Rules) only being played in Australia.

New Zealand is overall not much of an overachiever. They're great at Rugby Union, and OK at a few sports like Cricket and Rugby League, but not great at much else. Wouldn't say Scotland and Wales are hugely overachieving either, but they also only compete internationally in some sports, so aren't exactly comparable.

**Graham** · 10-02-2023, 12:11 PM

Australia massively does well for it's population. Annoyingly so. Considering that England's population is around double that of Australia, they beat them in England itself.

Maybe England underachieve, only one world cup. All the other nations in Europe of similar size are better.

**Petalpusher** · 10-02-2023, 12:31 PM

Focusing on Europe and just olympics, only Italy does well in southern Europe and Hungary in eastern Europe, also being a 10M country (but kind of at a cross road with eastern europe imo). Sweden got as much medals with 10M people than China with 1.5 Billion and let's not even talk about India which has the same amount than...Ireland with 5M people, and they suck really bad already in olympics.

**Creoda** · 10-02-2023, 01:30 PM

Originally Posted by Graham

Maybe England underachieve, only one world cup. All the other nations in Europe of similar size are better.

1 World Cup in football, but also 1 World Cup in Rugby Union and 1 in One-Day Cricket. Arguably underachievers in all those sports, but being at the top level in all of them is unique, so not underachieving overall. There's also all the English GB Olympic gold medalists to consider.

Canada are underachieving. Great at Ice Hockey, rubbish at most else. They're not too lowly in the Olympic table posted above, but that's because it includes the Winter Olympics tally, which I don't agree with. Winter sports are very niche on a global scale, not comparable to the Summer sports that everyone plays.

**Tooting Carmen** · 10-02-2023, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by Creoda

Canada are underachieving. Great at Ice Hockey, rubbish at most else. They're not too lowly in the Olympic table posted above, but that's because it includes the Winter Olympics tally, which I don't agree with. Winter sports are very niche a global scale, not comparable to the Summer sports that everyone plays.

What about the US itself? For sure they are great at swimming and athletics of various sorts in particular, but as far as team sports are concerned the only one they excel in which is genuinely global is basketball, although women's soccer there is excellent and even the men's team isn't the joke it used to be.