| Andrei Markovits and Christian Neubacher
Once again, the small country of Norway won the medal count at the Winter Olympic Games, beating sporting giants like the United States, Germany, France and China. But this is par for the course since Norway is the historical leader in Winter Olympic medals with its 447 since the tournament began in 1924. The United States sits far back in second place with 363 medals and the gap down to Norway’s larger Nordic neighbor Sweden is even greater. What explains this dominance? And why is Norway’s lead so pronounced when compared to its neighbors?
Let’s imagine that you are growing up in Oslo, Norway’s modern capital city. Although large and sprawling, Oslo remains considerably smaller and more compact than the metropolises of Stockholm or Copenhagen. You are never too far from the Central Station, from which emanates the city’s well-developed network of public transportation. Choose a subway line and within thirty minutes you will find yourself at a park with excellent cross-country skiing conditions.
Contrast that with growing up in Stockholm, which, although sharing a similar climate, not only takes longer to traverse due to its larger size but once you are in the city center will take you closer to an hour to reach comparable skiing facilities. That extra distance is sufficient to make it significantly more difficult to go skiing after school or work. The contrast with Oslo is even greater when compared with major urban areas in the United States or Germany.
Norway’s geographic advantage is not subtle. In Sweden, Finland and parts of North America, you are never far from good winter conditions. It is not surprising that these countries also excel at winter sports. But in large parts of Norway, you are effectively living within a winter sport wonderland, with abundant and well-maintained cross-country ski trails and mountainous terrain all nearby. This makes winter sports accessible to a degree incomparable with other countries.
Yet clearly, geography alone cannot explain Norway’s winter sporting dominance. If so, we would expect countries with a prevalence of soccer fields to be equally dominant at soccer. Norway’s wintry and mountainous terrain is a necessary but insufficient condition for sporting dominance. What differentiates Norway has been its ability to empower, both intentionally and inadvertently, its inhabitants to engage this terrain.
A core component of the Norwegian cultural psyche is the notion of friluftsliv – roughly translated as embracing spending time outdoors. Whether you are a child on a field trip, a family planning your vacation, or a young adult dreaming about your next adventure, Norwegian culture pushes you toward the outdoors. Crucially, this nudge is not toward physical activity as an end in itself, but rather as a means toward experiencing nature.
And yet, a cultural proclivity toward outdoor activities alone does not transform young people into Olympians. Supporting and providing pathways for athletes are the well-developed civic and sporting organizations which characterize the Nordics. Local sporting associations maintain ski paths, provide training to young athletes, and much more. These associations have helped institutionalize sport in the Norwegian socioeconomic fabric, distinguishing Norway from the often highly structured, pay-to-play U.S. youth sports.
The final ingredient in Norway’s unique dominance is the popular attention which winter sports command. In North America, it is unlikely that you would watch cross-country skiing on TV outside of the Olympics or major tournaments. In Norway, even minor races are frequently shown on TV and skiers become major sporting celebrities. In the same way that American kids aspire to emulate LeBron James or Alex Morgan, Norwegians look up to Therese Johaug.
Naturally, this success has some holes. Norway’s medal dominance at the Winter Games stems overwhelmingly from sports connected to skiing: a sport which Norway uniquely excels at. In contrast, Norway has struggled to find success at another great winter sport: ice hockey. Yet for a country of just over 5.5 million, Norway’s success is far too great to be ignored.
What does this tell us about Norway? A unique combination of salutary geography, organizational prowess and a culture favoring grassroots participation as a social good has furnished a situation that leads to Norway’s singular excellence in the Winter Olympics. Given the longevity and solid structural foundations of each of these elements we can fully expect Norway’s prowess to continue unabated in future Games with few, if any, other countries in the position to execute successfully their blueprint and thus contest Norway in a serious manner.