The Winter Olympics 1924-2024: (Little) Norway Has Dominated the rest of the World
What??
5.5 million and 405.
That is the total population of Norway (as of 2021) and the total number of medals its’ athletes have won at the Winter Olympics since their inception..
In second place with 332 million people and 330 medals: The United States
And in the Beijing Games in 2022 Norway (with 99 athletes) was tops in medals, yet again beating the USA (with 223 athletes) in medal count: 37 to 25.
This tiny country has more or less dominated the Winter Olympics since the first winter games in Chamonix, France in 1924.
How do they do It?
"It's a good question," said Birk Ruud, a member of Norway's freestyle ski team, who won a gold medal in the Olympic big air competition. "We're a country with a lot of good genes and we work hard."
A National Winter Sports Culture
Birk Rund and his teammate Ferdinand Dahl told reporters that winter sport is a big part of life in their northern country. It's something just about everyone does from the time they're little kids. "We have this term, that we're born with skis on our feet," Dahl said.
That national sports culture has created a pipeline of skiing superstars that other countries, so far, can only aspire to match. Very young people below the age of 12 cannot legally compete in sports - paradoxically, this creates a true, authentic love of winter sports that fuels competition later on but doesn’t stifle aspirations with expectations.
Sometimes Norwegian athletes are so dominant, so much better than the competition, other nations build strategies around the race for silver and bronze.
Show Me The Money!
There are some practical things, beyond a love of winter and snow, that raise Norway's Olympics game. In Nordic countries, cross country skiing and biathlon are mainstays on television. With that popularity comes fame for Norwegian athletes, along with more sponsorships, and more money.
Norway also funds its Olympic athlete development programs with a national lottery.
Billy Demong, who won Gold and Silver medals for the USA at Vancouver in 2010, now heads a team called USA Nordic that develops Olympic-caliber ski jumpers and Nordic combined athletes. He says the problem isn't a lack of talent, though he does think the U.S. needs a broader base of grassroots winter sports programs.
He says there's just not enough money to keep Americans in these sports at the elite level until they can mature and get really good the way the Norwegians do.
"Nobody's making money from sponsors in these niche winter Olympic disciplines in the U.S.”, Demong said. "We certainly don't have the income to be able to pay our athletes."
Demong said if the U.S. wants to compete for medals in a broader variety of winter sports, Congress needs to work with the U.S. Olympic Committee and other sports programs to revamp funding programs.
But that kind of transition, even if it happens, won't produce Norway-style success for years. It takes a long time to nurture, train and polish athletes of this caliber.
In the meantime this little country with a population of 5.5 million people (There are over 80 cities around the world with more people than Norway) will likely continue to dominate the winter games.
Norway’s Winter Olympic Medal Count and Rank Below:
