Vancouver welcomed the world for the Olympics, and that's earned it the title of top sports city in North America.

The West Coast metropolis placed sixth when ranked globally in the annual listing by SportBusiness Group, behind Melbourne, Singapore, London, Berlin and Sydney.

Twenty-five cities made the initial cut based on their history of hosting sports events, and then were interviewed and ranked.

Criteria included the number of annual sports events held, major events held or won between 2006 and 2014, number of federations hosted, sports venues, transportation, legacy and public sports interest.

VANOC head John Furlong says the whole country can take pride in the award, because during the 2010 winter Games "every Canadian was a Vancouver native in their hearts" and every Vancouverite was "a proud Canadian."

Vancouver and neighbouring cities have also recently hosted the World Police and Fire Games, the Triathlon ITU World Championships and the FIS Snowboard World Cup, along with several major runs and the Stanley Park Open tennis tournament.