ANALYSE THIS: Australia overtakes Great Britain in Virtual Medal Table

GENERAL – Australia has moved into fourth position in the Infostrada Sports’ Virtual Medal Table (VMT) after the inclusion of athletics and swimming personal bests since May 2015 took projected golds away from Germany and Great Britain and added four medals to Australia’s forecast total.

REVIEW: China rule world of water

AQUATICS – At the conclusion of the 2015 Aquatics World Championships, China have emerged as the most successful country winning 15 gold medals, 10 silver medals and 10 bronze medals. For the first time since 2001 (Australia), United States do not top the overall table.

ANALYSE THIS: Parity like never before in swimming

SWIMMING – With only one day of competition left at the 2015 Swimming World Championships in Kazan, the United States have reclaimed their leading position in the Market Share (metric that weights all ranks) table, but only by a very small margin. Like we reported earlier this week, their position is being challenged by traditional rivals Australia, China and France, but also the strong emerging force that is Great Britain. For comparison, the US had a market share of nearly 50% only eight years ago, now that has been reduced to 20%.

ANALYSE THIS: US domination in swimming challenged

SWIMMING – At the 2015 World Swimming Championships in Kazan, Russia, Australia and Great Britain have shown their intent to knock the United States off their perch as the world’s leading nation in swimming. After three days of competition they have a greater market share, a metric that weights all ranks, than the US.

ANALYSE THIS: Dutch pairs favourites at World Beach Volleyball Championships

BEACH VOLLEYBALL – The favourites and second favourites for the men’s title at the World Beach Volleyball Championships in the Netherlands are both performing before a home crowd.

ANALYSE THIS: USA, Germany, Japan & Canada expected in last four

FOOTBALL – The FIFA World rankings for women’s football have provided a good basis for our forecast so far with seven of our eight favourites in the second round progressing through to the quarter-finals. In addition, our pre-tournament forecast correctly predicted six of the eight quarter-finalists, and two of the exact match-ups (France v Germany and England v Canada) in this round. Our updated forecast for the quarter-final matches expects the United States to play Germany and Japan to play Canada in the last four. These exact semi-final pairings were also predicted in our pre-tournament forecast.

ANALYSE THIS: Tough opposition reduces Germany’s title chances

FOOTBALL – Germany are no longer the favourites to lift the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Their chance has decreased to around 20% due to their tough route to the semifinals, where they will probably meet new favourites United States who have a 28% chance of claiming the title.

ANALYSE THIS: Germany slight favourites at FIFA Women’s World Cup

FOOTBALL – Germany are the favourites for the FIFA Women’s World Cup, but only just, according to a new analysis from Infostrada Sports. The United States are second favourites and there is nearly 50% chance of the winners being one or the other of these two teams. They are, however, most likely to meet each other at the semi-final stage of the competition.

INFOGRAPHIC: Vonn vying to equal all-time record

ALPINE SKIING – This weekend, Lindsey Vonn will be vying to equal the all-time record for World Cup race victories in ladies’ alpine skiing. The American comes into the weekend in Val d’Isère as one of the favourites for both the Downhill and the Super G. Her 60 career World Cup race wins are two shy of the record by Austria’s Annemarie Moser-Pröll. Click on the picture to see the FULL SIZE Ingographic.

INFOGRAPHIC: 2014 Basketball World Cup

BASKETBALL – Spain and United States are favourites to claim the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup. Click on the read more button to check our infographic.