The former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan wants to develop its ski-ing industry as a way to diversify its oil-based economy but some fear this could threaten the country's areas of natural beauty.
This website ranks a country's sports performance in international events. An overall "global cup" ranking is calculated as well as individual countries performance in different types of sports are compared annually. There are also some interesting comparisons on a per capita basis which show how small countries outrank countries with bigger populations.