Why do Norway produce so many good athletes?

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.

What do all those letter combinations mean? Some silly American sports?

Norway is one of the few countries in which the majority of its population believes its culture to be superior to others. One can only hope that such a survey fails to reflect Ole Nordmann's more nuanced understanding of "culture", not as an objective reality, but as a subjective experience.

Anyway, the major difference in Norway is the general emphasis on outdoor and sports activities. In no other country is it so essential to the national identity, nor dictate the free-time activities of citizens, as much as in Norway. I am not sure if that translates to superior runners at a higher level (Moen, for example, was good back in Trøndelag, but not dominant on a world stage prior to his move to Africa). Nevertheless, it makes for a healthier pool of people. But watch out, that is rapidly changing...

nationl list

3:50.72 Henrik Ingebrigtsen Oslo 2014-06-11

3:52.28 Jakob Ingebrigtsen Eugene 2018-05-26

3:53.23 Filip Ingebrigtsen Eugene 2017-05-27

3:56.2 Knut Kvalheim Oslo 1974-07-31

3:56.4 Arne Kvalheim Eugene 1971-06-06

3:58.74 Jim Svenøy Oslo 1994-07-22

3:59.10 Lars Ove Strømø Koblenz 1985-08-28

3:59.9 Lars Martin Kaupang Oslo 1974-07-31

3:59.98 Tommy Gjølga Byrkjelo 1993-08-08

Two families hold the top 5 mile times

What is the longterm effect of being xc skier in your youth?

XC skiers have the highest VO2max recorded ever, and like cyclist they have very long trainingsessions of up to five and six hours. Out of the top of my head I can name Ingrid Kristiansen, Thor Hushovd, Henrik Ingebrigtsen, Vebjørn Rodal and Sondre Nordstad Moen as more than promising XC skiers in their youth.

SprintTriathlon wrote:

What is the longterm effect of being xc skier in your youth?

XC skiers have the highest VO2max recorded ever, and like cyclist they have very long trainingsessions of up to five and six hours. Out of the top of my head I can name Ingrid Kristiansen, Thor Hushovd, Henrik Ingebrigtsen, Vebjørn Rodal and Sondre Nordstad Moen as more than promising XC skiers in their youth.

Most people tackle XCskiing as an active, yet pretty relaxed form of winter hiking. Only for some is it the VO2max-boosting kind of activity that engenders elite athletes. If they did indeed devote considerable training to intense ski training, then it surely makes for great platform [Was Henrik really so intensely involved in XC skiing - and if so, when did he regularly train? He's from Sandnes]. As an example, skiers often hop into local road races and hit good times - 32 min 10k - despite weighing 85kg and doing very little running specific training.

But we can't jump to causation. One could also argue that soccer or baseball makes outstanding runners in the US, as I confident that most elites there dabbled in these activities in their youths.

Better Norwegian guy? wrote:

[Was Henrik really so intensely involved in XC skiing - and if so, when did he regularly train? He's from Sandnes].

Google translate:

Henrik shocked the cross-country elite (...)

(Dagbladet): Turn the time eight years back. Take the trip to Stokke in Vestfold, on the Storås cross-country skiing arena, a cold winter day. February 23, 2008 is the special date. There are ten kilometers of free technique during junior NM in cross country skiing.

The posterity shows that this junior championship was something for itself. An unusually large amount of coming stars competed against each other. Little did they know what they were waiting for. Even less knew the rest of Norway.

(...)

But the one who marked himself the most this winter day was the athlete star Henrik Ingebrigtsen - with skis under his legs. Rogaldingen put the cross-country elite in place and triumphed for 55 seconds in front of Lars Anders Hoel in 2nd place in the 17th grade.

I see. Yet I do not understand how youngsters in coastal Western Norway get any real quality ski training time. You have to drive a long way from Sandnes or Stavanger just to see even a powdering of snow for more than a day or two each year. Its not Trøndelag or Telemark or Troms, where you can just hop out the door. Could it be he is a superior natural talent, rather than the product of intense XC ski training? Chick or the egg.

The Scandinavians a.k.a. Asians from the northern latitude countries are great athletes.

Better Norwegian guy? wrote:

I see. Yet I do not understand how youngsters in coastal Western Norway get any real quality ski training time. You have to drive a long way from Sandnes or Stavanger just to see even a powdering of snow for more than a day or two each year. Its not Trøndelag or Telemark or Troms, where you can just hop out the door. Could it be he is a superior natural talent, rather than the product of intense XC ski training? Chick or the egg.

Yes, and no. The family obviously has talent, but maybe Henrik would have developed later with no xc skiing experience, but his brothers clearly have showed that specific training for running does pay off huge time, and maybe some of the answer is that norwegian "friluftsliv" and skiing makes it easier to discover the really fertile eggs early and develop them into wellbred fightingcocks?

Better Norwegian guy? wrote:

I see. Yet I do not understand how youngsters in coastal Western Norway get any real quality ski training time. You have to drive a long way from Sandnes or Stavanger just to see even a powdering of snow for more than a day or two each year. Its not Trøndelag or Telemark or Troms, where you can just hop out the door. Could it be he is a superior natural talent, rather than the product of intense XC ski training? Chick or the egg.

Roller skis. Much of the work that the Ingebrigtsens do is based on Nordic ski training.

25-30x400@ 10k pace with 45 sec rest or

6x5-6minutes with 2-3minutes rest or

MANY threshold runs.

By the way, a list of top VO2max measuring of all time, 11 of 18 are norwegians, most of them skiers, I really believe it is more about transparancy (why the norwegians report all medicine brought to Seoul, for instance, in contrast to nearly everybody else) than supereffects of xc skiing training, allthough a huge part must be that to.

97.5 Oskar Svendsen Cycling 18 year old from Lillehammer, Norway. The test was conducted in Sept 2012 at the University College of Lillehammer by physiologist Joar Hansen.

96.0 Espen Harald Bjerke Norwegian cross country skier

96.0 Bjørn Dæhlie Norwegian cross country skier though another source has him recording a best of 90 ml/kg/min.

93.0 Kurt Asle Arvesen Cycling .

92.5 Greg LeMond cycling

92.0 Matt Carpenter runner Pikes Peak marathon course record holder

92.0 Tore Ruud Hofstad Norwegian cross country skier

91.0 Gunde Svan Swedish XC-skier

91.0 Harri Kirvesniem Finnish cross country skier

88.0 Miguel Indurain cycling

88.0 Anders Aukland cross country skier .

87.4 Marius Bakken Norwegian 5k record holder

87.0 Jon Anders Gaustad cross country skier

86.4 Edvad Boasson Hagen road cyclist

86.0 Thor Hushovd cycling

86.0 Ole Einar Bjœrndalen biathlon

84.4 Steve Prefontaine runner from the US

84.0 Lance Armstrong cycling

If you watched the TV series, you would know that most of their training was on roller skis, often in a parking garage.

My last post on this (except if some d..head says something totally weird) :

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/24/sport/norway-winter-olympic-success-intl/index.html