Day 11 of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and so far 5 gold medals, 3 silver and 4 bronze. It hasn’t been such a bad year for Norway after all, although some of the big favourites, Petter Northug among them, haven’t scored so well.
Here are, however, a few hugely impressive facts to ponder. It might be small (just about 4.7 million inhabitants), but Norway is the country that has won the most medals in the history of the Winter Olympics. A whopping 290 medals to date (and counting!), well ahead of the US in second position with 237, and the former Soviet Union with 217. So far Norway has won 103 gold medals in the Winter Olympics, again, well ahead of the US and the former Soviet Union (84 and 87 respectively). Well, they do say that Norwegians are ‘born with skis on their feet’… but still!
In terms of gold medals, the best games so far for Norway were Salt Lake City in 2002, when Norway scooped an unbelievable 13 gold medals (out of 25 medals they brought home). But the most successful games overall were the Lillehammer games in 1994, when Norway, which was competing on home turf, beat all other participating countries and topped the table with an impressive 26 medals, of which 10 gold!
#1 by admin on February 23, 2010 - 8:52 am
And just after I wrote this… Norway won another gold in the cross-country skiing, men team sprint free (so Petter Northug did get a gold in the end! Congratulations to him and Øystein Pettersen), and a bronze in the ski jumping team event. Not easy to keep up! I’ll do a round up at the end of the games. But you get the drift – winter sports are a way of life in Norway, and a big part of the country’s heritage, and it shows!
#2 by admin on February 23, 2010 - 8:54 am
Check this link http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-medals/ for all the latest medals, and an up-to-date medals table
#3 by admin on February 24, 2010 - 9:00 am
Another update as of 24 Feb 9am Norwegian time: 17 medals (6 gold, 5 silver, 6 bronze). Norway still in third position after the US and Germany.
#4 by Mark H on February 24, 2010 - 10:44 pm
As an Australian, I admire Norway’s efforts to have won both the most medals and most gold medals in the history of the Winter Olympics – an exceptional achievement for a nation with a small population (though advantaged by its wintry nature).
#5 by admin on March 1, 2010 - 9:58 am
OK, so the Vancouver Olympics are over, and in the end Norway came in at a very respectable 4th position behind the USA, Germany and Canada, with a total of 23 medals – 9 gold, 8 silver and 6 bronze. Congratulations to all the athletes who took part in the games, and a big hurray to cross-country skiing queen Marit Bjørgen who bagged a totally amazing 3 gold, one silver and one bronze medals in the games! If ever there was a superwoman, she is it!!!
#6 by krvist on March 1, 2010 - 5:26 pm
It is absolutely amazing to me Norway’s success in the Winter Olympics. I did some easy figuring according to this years Olympic medal results and 1 out of every 8.3 million Americans medaled while 1 out of every 211,000 Norwegians medaled. Norway, as stated above, only has a population of 4.8 million. It is no wonder, with the population and resources America has, that Americans havn’t done better in the medal counts in this or any Winter Olympics. If America had the population of Norway, with the record being what it is, America may have won 1 medal. My hats off to the Norwegians and their amazing success. It really puts the American record in a different light to me and I am an American. I am very proud of our American athletets. Just amazed at the accomplishment of the Norwegians.