Close Menu
    Norway (population: 5.7m) beats US (342m) to top Winter Olympics medal table
    Europe

    Norway (population: 5.7m) beats US (342m) to top Winter Olympics medal table

    Share.
    View 35 Comments

    35 Comments

    3. ProtonPi314 on

      Well I understand that many here are not experts on Norwegian culture and history like I am, so I’ll share my knowledge.

      When you are born in Norway. They strap a small pair of skies on you and give you a frozen pea shooter. They then drop you off in the middle of the forest and you need to find your way back home. Many don’t make it ( hence the 5.7M population) but the ones that do are heavily trained for the winter Olympics, hence all their success.

    5. Stealthfighter21 on

      The guardian should focus on its own country of 70 million with a shamefully modest performance.

    7. MerlinCa81 on

      You Norwegians absolutely crushed it out there, well done. Impressive and most of all, entertaining to watch.

    8. gold_and_diamond on

      Years ago I did a winter cross country ski trip in Norway. One day it got super windy and conditions became pretty gnarly so my group of four guys threw up an emergency tarp to ride it out for a while. After about 30 minutes we took down the tarp. At the same time, a young mother of probably late 20s came skiing by dragging a baby on a sled behind her all bundled up and looking pretty comfy. Norwegians are hearty stock.

    10. BSpino on

      At first I was like, “good job bro”, then I realized they used the relay picture where the Swede (Ebba Andersson) face planted which made me feel a little bit sore.

      But still, despite the sting of The Guardians choice of picture, good job.

    13. GalahadDrei on

      This is hardly news. Norway has led the medal table in Winter Olympics since 2014. The Netherlands’ impressive performance as well as Canada’s continued decline are a lot more newsworthy.

      Then again, the Guardian is not exactly known for publishing actual news.

    14. Sky-Reporter on

      With the sheer amount of money our government pours into winter sports, if we didn’t absolutely clear then there’d be riots in the streets

    19. NicholeTheOtter on

      Understandable when you remember that Norway is the most dominant nation in Winter Olympics history for overall medal count. They rack up tons of gold medals in alpine and cross-country skiing, and biathlon too.

      The country’s most successful Olympian of all time, alpine skier Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won a whopping six gold medals in Milano Cortina, the most won by an individual at a single edition of the Winter Olympics, and now sits at 11 gold medals in his career, the most ever Winter Olympics gold medals by one person. He’s also second only to Michael Phelps as the most decorated Olympian in history. Except Klæbo to add even more to his resume in the French Alps.

    21. heatrealist on

      A good part of that US population doesn’t get winter like Norway does. Where I am from we don’t even get autumn. It’s just summer and brutally hot summer. It’s not right to count the whole population lol. 

      If we had an Olympic event to see who can stand in the sun without turning into a lobster I’m pretty I can beat everyone in Norway.  

      Still Norway always does well. Congrats to them and all the individuals from other countries that won. 

    23. AirportCreep on

      But like 90% of the medals are from a version of cross-country skiing. They should just mash em all up into one team event or something. Norway’s medal tally would be decimated. It’s insane that a person can win multiple medals in one Olympic tournament doing the same thing for different amounts distances.

      Same with swimming in summer Olympics.

    24. Econ_Orc on

      Denmark got its SECOND Winter Olympic medal. The silver for Speedscater Victor Hald Thorup is the first individual medal. 28 years ago since the Womens Curling team took silver in 1998.

      That is a total of two medals. Brother nation Norway has won 447 at the winter olympics.

    25. Stealthfighter21 on

      Also, why don’t they talk about China? Why focusing on the US? Of course, other then looking at themselves.

    26. ther_dog on

      Norwegians, with their skiing disciplines and the Dutch with skating – they’re basically the long distance running Kenyans of Europe.

    27. zobq on

      Oh, come on, I’m tired of these discipline on both summer and winter olympics where one athlete can win dozens of medals alone. Swimming and running on summer olympics, nordic skiing and speed skating on winter olympic.
      They ‘re great athlets but I always founds it extremely lame that media are focusing so much on numbers. Tennis, soccer or hokey players needs to work through whole tournament for single medal.

    29. ande3577 on

      Well, it’s less surprising if the Norwegian population is listed as 5,699,999 + Johannes Hosflot Klaebo.

    31. Utstein on

      Not sure why this is such a story every Winter Olympics. It feels a bit patronising. 

      History doesn’t lie.  We’ve historically been a nation that takes a lot of medals.  So,  I’m not sure why this is a story. 

      It’s normal that the country that has won the most gold medals do well.

    32. Morlu06 on

      Norway wins every 4 years. Pretty normal.

      And why not mention china with their 1.4b population?

      wtf is this sub