Denmark, with that top honour, as discovered by the Gallup World Poll, surveying 155 countries from 2005-2009, can certainly lay claim to an inproportionate amount of worldwide success (their population peaks at 5.5 million as it stands now) when it comes to three popular sports in particular; tennis, hockey and soccer.
With Serena Williams out of the U.S. Open with a right foot injury, Danish-born Caroline Wozniacki will take the honours of being seeded #1 thanks to her recent win at the 2010 Canadian Open and her 2009 U.S. Open final loss to Kim Clijsters.
But with that seed comes the heavy weight of expectations. Wozniacki (pictured) has performed well when she has been a relative unknown entity on the WTA tour, but now the 20 year-old phenom from the town of Odense is trying to learn from her mistakes last year where she was the first Danish woman to ever appear in a Grand Slam final.
She'll be looking for more than a finalist status this year, but despite Williams' absence, she will still have significant competition from established players like Venus Williams who will be trying to win on home soil, Maria Sharapova, Francesca Schiavone, Kim Clijsters, Elena Dementieva, et al.
While other 20 year-olds in New York worry about what time the Rockefeller Center closes on a weekend, Wozniacki will be battling these top stars for prize money other women her age could only dream of possessing in the world's largest city.
Adding to the northern country's mechanized athlete-producing machine, emerges the Danish national soccer team. Although not the finish the team would have liked at the 2010 World Cup, especially considering their draw in the group stage (they were placed with the Netherlands, Cameroon, and Japan- a manageable group), the Danish showed spurts of brilliance in their matches with precision passing and at times, impenetrable defence.
But just qualifying in the Western-European and South American-dominated tournament shows significant progress for the oft-jubilant country. The 2010 edition of the team featured a largely transitional flavour, with captain, and all-time leading scorer Jon Dahl Tomasson retiring after serving 13 years wearing the arm band. As well, young up-and-comers like Daniel Agger, 25, Simon Kjaer, 21, and Nicklas Bendtner, 22 will look to take the reigns from Tomasson and fellow team leader Martin Jorgensen. Bendtner (pictured) and Agger play for Arsenal and Liverpool in the English Premier League respectively.
Finally, Denmark couldn't be called a true northern, Scandinavian country if it didn't feature its fair share of stars on skates. Sweden and Finland have always had a rich history of superstar hockey players gracing their respective nation's sporting hall of fame, but Denmark is just beginning to tap into the gold mine of puck-crazed youngsters within their borders.
Three prominent Danes have already made names for themselves across the Atlantic, where the NHL rules the professional hockey show domestically and abroad. Most European players will travel to North America to play for the most talented league in the world. These three Danes are no exception, and the oldest only just turned legal drinking age in America.
Lars Eller, 21, jumpstarted a wave of Danish hockey teens with incredible skill to hit the ice on this side of the pond. Eller was chosen 13th overall by the St.Louis Blues in 2007. He was later traded to the Montreal Canadiens as part of the much-publicized deal that saw playoff hero-goaltender Jaroslav Halak shipped to St. Louis. Eller scored his team's only goal in his NHL debut, a 2-1 Blues loss vs. the Calgary Flames on November 5, 2009. Eller will now be looking to adjust to a culture within a culture with his new French-Canadian team.
Mikkel Boedker, 20, arguably the most promising hockey player to come from the land of Hans-Christian Andersen, eclipsed Eller's record for being the highest Dane ever selected in the NHL draft, when he was snatched up by Wayne Gretzky and the Phoenix Coyotes at #8 overall in 2008. Boedker (pictured) made the immediate jump from major junior hockey with the Kitchener Rangers to the NHL's Coyotes the next year as an 18 year-old. Boedker's speed and lethal snapshot makes him a constant threat on the ice.
Finally, the newest Dane to make a name for himself at the tender age of 17, Nicklas Jensen will suit up for the first time in Canada. Drafted by the Oshawa Generals, Jensen will look to elevate his NHL draft stock in the upcoming OHL season. The 6'2 left-winger is fast, has tremendous acceleration and very soft hands for such a big body. Jensen is already projected to go in the first round of the NHL's 2011 draft.It seems the happy can only get happier in Denmark with very bright, very young, and very talented prospects carrying the country to places 5.5 million have never believed they have the business of being in.
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