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<\/p>\nThis is a story about\u00a0a major global business with a problem: sports.<\/p>\n
The issue sports have is a) they can\u2019t control who wins, but b) who wins makes a huge difference to the product they are selling to fans. A popular champ makes for a popular sport, and many factors go into making a celebrated global champion \u2014 though the biggest and\u00a0simplest is where they are from.<\/p>\n
Consider this graph of search interest from the US in the Tour de France. They loved it back when Lance Armstrong was winning (2004, 2005). They do not love it now.<\/p>\n
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Cycling, in 2025, has a microstate problem. The greatest cyclist of this era \u2014 a guy with a chance to become the greatest of all time \u2014 is Tadej Poga\u010dar. From\u00a0Slovenia, population 2 million. His great rivals include Primoz Roglic of, you guessed it, Slovenia too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t Of the world\u2019s top 10 cyclists, Slovenia, Belgium and Denmark are well-represented.\u00a0This bodes ill for the global reach of professional\u00a0bike riding. Media coverage will not follow cyclists that few care about. TV rights, sponsorship, media coverage, grassroots participation \u2014 all of these will wane.<\/p>\n \tIndependent. Irreverent. In your inbox<\/p>\n \n Get the headlines they don\u2019t want you to read. Sign up to Crikey\u2019s free newsletters for fearless reporting, sharp analysis, and a touch of chaos <\/p>\n By continuing, you agree to our\u00a0Terms & Conditions<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Tour de France just finished with Poga\u010dar rampant. I barely watched, which is quite a contrast to 15 years ago, in the Cadel Evans era, when I was an eager viewer. Do I like sports, or do I just like watching Australians win?<\/p>\n I don\u2019t want to say nationality is deterministic. I know half the people who began reading this story are already down in the comments telling me nationality doesn\u2019t matter a jot to the enlightened viewer; that their favourite player of all time is the Czech Ivan Lendl or the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime; that there is an undeniable underdog excitement in the rise of a player from an unheralded country, like Tunisia\u2019s Ons Jabeur.<\/p>\n To those rebuttals, I make a full concession: sport is a rich tapestry, with many glittering threads to appreciate.<\/p>\n People from all over the world loved Roger Federer and Usain Bolt; a loveable\u00a0champ lifts a whole sport. Also many people love a sport because they themselves play it, or appreciate its rhythms and aesthetics. You can love a sport nobody else cares about at all, hold a pure passion for the activity. But mostly we enjoy sports as a sort of communal practice. Few shout alone.<\/p>\n Consider your interest in the women\u2019s 400-metre track race at the Olympics. Did you care a great deal about the outcome in the year 2000? Have you thought little about the race since?<\/p>\n The problem for cycling can be seen in the following chart. It depicts the populations of the countries of the top 10 athletes in cycling each year. During a year when these athletes are from populous countries, the bar is tall. When Slovenia and Belgium dominate the podiums, the bar is shorter.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a stark contrast in tennis, particular women\u2019s. The number of Americans in the top 10 of women\u2019s tennis is at a crazy high: of the top 10, four are Americans. There\u2019s also a Chinese athlete.<\/p>\n Here you can see a population chart for the women\u2019s tennis top 10 players. Despite Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus, 9 million) sitting atop the rankings, the number of people with a national representative is huge.<\/p>\n The number of American women in the top 10 of tennis right now is incredible and demonstrates how a champ can drive interest in a sport within their home country. The Serena Williams legacy is not only the trophies she won or the record viewership she commanded; it was also inspiring the next generation of top players from her country.\u00a0<\/p>\n In this vein, men\u2019s tennis will also be quietly pleased to have fresh champions that are from Spain (50 million) and Italy (60 million), not Serbia (6 million), with two male athletes from the US also lurking in the top 10.\u00a0With the US Open beginning in August, tennis will be a big deal in America.<\/p>\n I described sport as a communal practice, and that communal aspect is mediated by TV and print coverage. What gets into the press? Players from populous countries.<\/p>\n \n\t\tRelated Article Block Placeholder<\/p>\n \t\t\tArticle ID: 1215661\n\t<\/p>\n
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