PyeongChang easily defeated the other two candidates (München, Germany and Annecy, France) and were the first Olympic Winter Games to be held in Korea, and only the third in Asia, after Sapporo in 1972, and Nagano in 1998, both in Japan. “That makes the population that we can recruit athletes from quite high – we have all these people doing sport and the possibility to do it because they’re healthy and are being taken care of.The 2018 Olympic Winter Games were awarded to PyeongChang, Korea at the IOC Session in Durban, South Africa on 6 July 2011. “It means they can follow their interests – it’s a very humanistic approach.”Īs a result, he says, many kids are choosing to play sport. “That makes people quite well off at the beginning,” adds Øvrebø. According to the World Economic Forum, Norway “is a star performer across almost every one of the OECD’s indicators both for material conditions and quality of life.”

While funding helps, Øvrebø also says Norway’s high standard of living also plays a part in creating world-class athletes, notably in offering free healthcare and education.

READ: The venture capitalist making Olympic dreams come true By 2001, the budget had increased to $12.3 million and now it’s over $24.2 million. In 1990, it had a budget of $2.4 million – with 73 per cent of its expenditure going towards support for athletes and teams. Al Bello/Getty Images AsiaPac/Getty Imagesįunding for the Olympatoppen has also increased exponentially. Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway (1-1) and Marcus Hellner of Sweden (16-1) compete during the Cross Country Men's Team Sprint Free Final. Since 1994, the establishment of Olympiatoppen has overseen 20 years of significant improvement – most particularly in cross-country skiing. (Federation) presidents were not that important any more and we wanted to have professional people working directly with high performance.” “It was a new way of thinking for sports. He said there was a huge change after the center was set up. “The sporting systems in the rest of the world were more and more professionalized and we didn’t do the same in Norway.” “When there was a crisis something had to happen,” Øvrebø explained. That’s when Norway’s sporting body restructured and before hosting the Winter Games in Lillehammer in 1994, it established a national elite sports center – the Olympiatoppen – to train and develop Norway’s best athletes. Her achievements mean the country now has the top three most decorated Winter Olympians of all time – just behind Bjoergen’s 15 medals is biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen with 13, and cross-country skier Bjorn Daehlie with 12.Īll of them competed in sports which had multiple events and relays.ĭespite being the current leader in Winter Olympic medals, there have been times when Norway suffered dismal results – notably at the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics. JAVIER SORIANO/AFP/AFP/Getty Imagesījoergen’s success in the women’s cross-country 30-km mass start increased her Olympic medal haul to eight golds and 15 in total – the most of any Winter Olympian in history. Norway's gold medallists Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg, Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen, Ragnhild Haga and Marit Bjeorgen pose on the podium after the cross country women's 4x5km relay at the Pyeongchang. “Even underneath the suit I get goosebumps talking about it, that the Alpine team could get that 38th medal.” “I knew that if we won a medal today we would make history for Norway,” said Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen, part of the Norway skiing team. It is also equaled Canada’s mark of 14 golds, also set at Vancouver. Norway’s latest medal, Marit Bjoergen’s gold in cross-country skiing, moved its tally two clear of USA’s record of 37 medals set at Vancouver in 2010. That’s 10 medals more than Canada overall and eight clear of Germany, which also has 14 golds to sit second in the medal table. Norway won a staggering 39 medals – 14 of those being gold in Pyeongchang – as it topped the overall medal table. Norway has dominated not only PyeongChang 2018, but has also won more medals than any other nation since the first Winter Olympics in 1924 – with 330 in total according to data compiled by Sports Reference.īut that’s not all. It’s a nation made up of only 5.2 million people, but as far as the Winter Olympics goes Norway is on top of the world.

Olympic medal totals 2018