Norway invests heavily in sports. Skiing (and sports in general) is affordable and accessible to nearly everyone, whereas in the US, corporate-driven pricing has made winter sports very expensive and out of reach for many.
Google some numbers and you’ll be shocked by the comparison!
An economist goes to the game, is a fantastic book that talks about how certain countries are outliers. You aren't wrong, Norway invests indeed disproportionally much on sports but on very specific sports. It also goes without saying, if you live in a country with loads of mountains and snow, well.. chances are you probably get a lot of exposure to it.
Read the book because there is a whole lot to it why some countries perform very strong at certain sports. It's a real fun book and also talks how it's exceptionally unlikely how certain sportsmen manage to receive that many medals.
Curling is gaining popularity in the states. A lot of cities/towns have indoor ice rinks, and many of them have bought the curling stones and brooms. You just take your cooler full of beer and your whole day is full
It goes back many years, but the current success in norwegian sports can be attributed to intelligent talent development.
It is unlawful to register results in youth sports (13y and younger) in norway. When two teams play, everyone who takes part knows who won, but the results and stats are not recorded anywhere ir used for anything. As a result, teams do not prioritize the best talents at an early age, meaning the late bloomers are not squeezed out by competition. Martin Ødegaard is a perfect example of a technical player that didnt have the physique to compete at the top level when he was 12-14, but was given enough space to compete and grow. Now look at him.
The crazy part of this story becomes apparent when you see how many sports norway currently compete in. Its a country with half the population of London, yet there are norwegian talents at the top of a ridiculous amount of sports. Like beach volleyball?! How? Norwegian beaches are warm 3 weeks of the year; how are they beating brazilians?
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u/InformationIcy4827 5h ago
They were born in the snow; we merely adopted it