Winter Olympics: Norway’s cross-country skiing dominance should lift it to supremacy once again at Beijing Games
- The Nordic nation is a Winter Games powerhouse, and has routinely dominated cross-country skiing and biathlon
- China’s athletes have been training in Norway since Beijing was awarded this year’s Games
With a population of 5.3 million people, the Nordic nation continually punches above its weight when it comes to the Olympics, and that is largely down to cross-country skiing. Norway has won a staggering 368 medals in the modern Games over 23 editions, the US, with its population of 332 million is second, has 305.
When you take a closer look at the disciplines that feature at the Games, and what sports Norway dominates in, it becomes much clearer. There are 11 biathlon competitions, which involve cross-country skiing and shooting, and 12 cross-country skiing events.
Combine that with the country’s history of an Army that has required its soldiers to do both since the 1800s, and a pattern emerges.
At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Norway won eight cross-country skiing-related gold medals in South Korea, and they are predicted to take home 22 gold medals and 45 overall this time around, which would be an improvement on its tally four years ago, when they won 14 gold medals and 39 overall.
According to the People’s Daily, Norway will be sending one of the largest contingencies of athletes and support staff with more than 300 people expected to make the trip inside Beijing’s “closed-loop management system”. A number of Norwegian athletes reportedly travelled early to China to get more training in on the courses they will be racing on.
