Why do Norway produce so many good athletes?

Hawaii isn't a country

richy wrote:

Hawaii isn't a country

I thought it was part of the United States? ?

Norway has Siberian Asiatic roots with Mongol and Viking mixed races.

SprintTriathlon wrote:

http://www.greatestsportingnation.com/

A "per capita" measure of athletic prowess should never be used for something like this. They consider "Top 8" finishes as scoring points for a nation, but the Olympics puts a hard limit on the number of entries that a nation may have. You can't take advantage of being a large nation if you get the same number of entries as a smaller nation in a given event.

For example, Kenya has a large population, but arguably, their best event is the Marathon, and they only get 3 entries. If any one of those individuals has a bad day, that's pretty much a loss of one scorer. In reality, they should have dozens of guys in the Olympic marathon. Enough so that 1 - 3 can sacrifice themselves as pacemakers, and the others can sweep 1 - 8. No use having over half the world's top 100 marathon runners when only 3 can actually count.

Who sed wut wrote:

XY wrote:

False hypothesis, There is no evidence that is saying Norway produces "so many good athletes", relative to other countries.

Also, they do very well in winter sports, kayaking etc, which certainly leaves out many other countries. You have to look at the measure. You don't see too many Norwegians playing in the NBA, NFL, MLB, MLS or dominating track.

For a country with a population 1/10th of Kenya and brutal weather much of the year, they have 3 world class milers, a world class marathoner, and the reigning world champion at 400h. Not too shabby for a tiny country where most serious athletes focus on winter sports.

Name the best Norwegian miler from the 70's? Or the best marathoner from the 80's? Or the best 10k runner from 2000.

This is one point in time. Norway is not know for always producing great runners. We have Grete Waitz and few other decent runners. This is the first time in as long as I've followed the sport you can say Norway has lots of good runners at once.

The answer is: Frank Shorter, or Pre, or Alan Webb, or Jim Ryun. In short, often one great runner inspires someone else. They all raise each others game (so to speak).

Kristiansen and Rodal were more than just "decent runners"/

Norwegian reindeer milk is better than Finnish reindeer milk.

zxcvzxcvxc wrote:

Norway is currently second in the world rankings, but wasn't in the top ten in any of the previous four years.

I would guess that their rankings are probably similarly high this far along in the previous years as well and that they fall off as things warm up.

the track&field stats:

http://www.apulanta.fi/matti/yu/nrs/NOR_Men.html

http://www.apulanta.fi/matti/yu/nrs/NOR_Women.html

runn wrote:

Their heritage is Viking. They're tough. I always wondered if the whole world played American football who would be the best.

Maybe Norway/Sweden/Denmark and possibly Germany?

runn:

*Lives in a world where the NFL is over 60% African-American*

*Somehow concludes that whitest people in the world must be the most talented at American football*

*is a racist moron*

wineturtle wrote:

the track&field stats:

http://www.apulanta.fi/matti/yu/nrs/NOR_Men.htmlhttp://www.apulanta.fi/matti/yu/nrs/NOR_Women.html

Relative to population size, the US lists should have about 60 times as many people running each time for the countries to have similar strength and depth. Have 600 American runners run under 7:50 for 3000m? I honestly don't know, that seems like a lot though. Kenya is almost 10 times the size of Norway, have they produced 3 brothers the slowest of whom ran a 3:52 mile at 17?

XY wrote:

Fo wrote:

I know it is not because of funding. Out olympic fencer worked as a teacher and one of the best kayakers is dumbsterdiving for food. For me it seems like many athletes can get away with both muscles and good endurance here in contrast to other countries

False hypothesis, There is no evidence that is saying Norway produces "so many good athletes", relative to other countries.

Also, they do very well in winter sports, kayaking etc, which certainly leaves out many other countries. You have to look at the measure. You don't see too many Norwegians playing in the NBA, NFL, MLB, MLS or dominating track.

Hahahaha! We don't even play basketball, baseball, or American football in our lives. That is so rare. We are born and are given skis, and begin to have time in the forest from a young age. Our ancestors come from warriors, craftsmen, and hearty people that survived wars, famine, and difficult weather. I am happy to see "friluftsliv" mentioned. It is a way of our life.

Recall that thw so-called "Master Race "of AXIS Nazi Norway lost WWII

Marit Bjørgen just retired last month so Norway's standing will take a big hit right there. She was so dominant at cross country skiing it often looked unfair. I think she won something like half of her lifetime starts, which is ridiculous. Absolutely the perfect frame for that sport. Then she transitioned from a sprint specialist early in her career to distance later.

I really thought she could have kept going into her 40s. In her final race she won handily although Jessie Diggins rallied well for second.

At the Winter Olympics it came together perfectly for them with resurgence in speed skating along with the expected results in biathlon and cross country skiing. Several surprise medals in skiing. I doubt Norway could have produced the same numbers if those Olympics had been contested again weeks later.

Klaebo on the male side is the young version of Bjørgen. He could dominate for a long, long time.

Well any country or organisation that has National Championships for 400m for 5-6 year olds should look at what Norway does.

This country has a great sporting sense and purpose. Just imagine how good the USA could be with a similar approach. Instead of the billion dollar industry that focuses on early specialization.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjCnxCwGMmk

Hardloper wrote:

Define athletes. Do any Norwegians play for Real Madrid? Did Norway win anything in the summer Olympics? How's the Norwegian basketball team?

I'm ot about to hype Norway up as the greatest sporting nation on earth or anything like that. But your comment is utterly clueless.

Warholm won the 400m hurdles last summer during the World Championships.

Thorkildsen have two golds in the javelin trow.

There have been several norwegians playing for great football teams, lets take Manchester United when they were among the best in the world (better than they are now):

Berg, Solskjær, Johnsen, Nevland all played there. Pretty amazing.

Basketball: Nobody plays in Norway.

Two things: late specialization for the kids, and it's a secular culture, so sports is religion.

Norway's success is distorted by winter sports. I always presumed that Finland was more successful.

Um....They are the first country to sweep the podium for Triathlon at a World Series Event! Not Australia, not the US, not even England has done that...... Imagine the state of South Carolina producing as many Olympic Champions as Norway and maybe that puts it in perspective. Really that powerhouse sporting state of South Carolina. LOL