I am impressed with a number of smaller countries that do well on the international sports scene. These are countries that have an amount of success that is disproportionate to their population. Here are some that come to mind: Distance running: Kenya Swimming: Australia Cricket: West Indies Rugby: New Zealand Basketball: Argentina Ice Hockey: Sweden Baseball: Dominican Republic Yachting: New Zealand Here's few others just for fun and or debate: Professional Wrestling: Mexico Association Football: Ghana (including the Adu brothers) Any sport they want to dominate: Australia Any additions, deletions, or corrections are appreciated.
England population of just 50 million and dominate snooker lol We are tiny compared to most the countries we compete against in world sports i think we do pretty good overall.
Malta dominates (well in top 3) in Shooting and is very good in Snooker. A few yrs ago we had a player (Drago) that was top 10 in the world.
We can make the cut off 30 million. But we can keep that flexible to keep it interesting (it also let's me keep my Argentina basketball in the list).
Serbia 9 Milion people - Basketball - World Champion, Vollleyball - Olympic Champion, Waterpolo - European, World Champion
Romania has been producing gymnasts forever so I kind of expect them to produce at that level. Good point on Beligium in women's tennis, the Russians are getting more notice though. Sorry about mentioning not Serbia, the former Yugoslavia is certainly exporting a lot of basketball players. I considered Austria for skiing but I don't find it surprising, with those mountains they should dominate. I might add Australia for snowboarding too.