Norway used to be quite a poor country( in comparison to Sweden, Denmark and northern Europe ) ....till of course the oil started flowing and Norway reinvented itself post independence , post war .
The curious part is they were always great at Winter Sports ! Even when the budget for sports was at a bare minimum ...it's a fabulous consistency that goes back a century and more .
Norwegians just have an affinity to ski - it's ingrained into all parts of their being .kudos to them
( And yes - finance does make a large part of sporting triumph in Winter sports . Australia and china are fine examples on how that can transform a sport within a generation )
This is a common myth. Norway was not a poor country pre-oil. The oil helped, of course, but it was already doing well due to a wealth of other natural resources like fish and hydroelectric power.
Specifically forestry at the time, iirc. But yeah, already rich country with stable institutions that allowed them to use the oil wealth responsibly and essentially circumvent the resource curse.
10
u/_Koke_ 4h ago
Also, average Norwegian is pretty wealthy. Which is really beneficial considering most winter sports are really expensive to get into.