From Oz to Oslo

Let the games begin
Norway has competed in the Winter Games since they were first held in France in 1924 under the name "International Winter Sports Week" as part of – funnily enough – the extended schedule for that year’s Summer Olympics. Since then, Norway has won more Winter Games medals than any other nation, with cross-country skiing and speed skating as its top sports. During the recent Games in Vancouver, Norway became the first country to pass the milestone of 300 Winter Games medals (reaching 303), and also the first to hit 100 gold medals (crossing the finish line on 107). The United States has won only 253 medals and 87 gold, Germany has 190 medals and 70 gold, and Canada has less than half Norway's tally on 145 medals and 52 gold.

What makes these sporting victories all the more impressive is that Norway has a population of only 4.8 million people, in comparison to 308 million in the US, 82 million in Germany and 34 million in Canada. For the United States to be on par with Norway, they would have to limit their pool of potential Winter Games athletes only to people living in the fine state of Alabama (population 4.7 million).

Of course, sporting success leads to high expectations, which inevitably leads to Olympus-sized disappointment when things turn south. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Norway finished in fourth place, behind the countries mentioned above (Canada, Germany and the US), and the country was panic stricken when Norway had not won any medals by the fourth day of the games. Some have observed that Norwegian expectations for strong Olympic performance have become unrealistic, which puts a lot of pressure on its athletes.

How to breed Olympic champions: 101
So how does a tiny country like Norway do so well in the Winter Olympics? Well, as I said earlier, the country is buried under snow for 4-5 months each year, so their options are to find creative uses for the snow and ice, or risk succumbing to madness by locking themselves indoors all winter. Norwegians start on winter sports at such a young age that it is often said here that Norwegians are born with skis on their feet. (Which means I'm not looking forward to childbirth here. Yikes! Let's hope babies come out poles first. ) Norwegian whippersnappers' first introduction to skiing is when their parents bundle them up in an enclosed toboggan (with blankets, teddy bears and all) on a rope, and tie the other end of the rope around their own waist before skiing off down an alpine slope – with the infants bouncing merrily along through the snow behind them. And that's just when they're newborn. Norwegians begin on their own skis from age 2 to 3, and many ski schools offer group classes to the under-5 age group. Ski trips and weekend getaways to winter cabins the mountains are part of life here, and skiing is part of some school sport classes and sport days.

The fact that Norway has hosted two Winter Olympics (Oslo in 1952 and Lillehammer more recently in 1994 - the first time the Winter Games were held in alternating olympiads to the Summer Games) also no doubt make the Winter Olympics a source of national pride for Norwegians.

My first Winter Olympics in Norway
And so what did I, as a foreigner, think of Norway in the Winter Olympics? Well, to be honest, I don't have a lot of interest in the Winter Olympics. As I and a few colleagues from warmer countries had the gall to blaspheme at lunchtime one day – to the glares and/or cries of horror from our European counterparts – I don't see the Winter Games as 'real' Olympics. I'll give all the Europeans reading this a moment to swoon, but the Winter Games are, literally, a made-up Olympics. They only came along in 1924, and with sports that have nothing to do with the original sports held at Ancient Olympia. Another reason I don't see them as real Olympics is that their sports exclude large parts of the world. While all countries can easily practise for and compete in the sports offered during the Summer Games (anyone can try to run from here to there as fast as they can), this is not so for the Winter Games. Warmer countries always have tiny teams – if any – and training is difficult; the Australian teams for several sports at the Winter Olympics had to train using computer simulations. Indeed, 'universality' is supposed to be one the seven criteria used to determine whether a sport should be added to the Olympic program.

So as a result of my unpatriotic apathy, during the entire Vancouver Games the only events I watched were one ski-shooting race and the 50km cross-country... and I only saw them out the corner of my eye while reading on the couch, when my boyfriend was watching the races on TV. I was surprised to read via that ever-reliable social barometer - Facebook status updates - that quite a few friends back home in Australia were tuning into the Olympic coverage... though as it was primarily girls gushing over the ice-dancing, I'm not sure that really counts.

Clearly with this Winter Games I did not do very well with trying to integrate into Norwegian culture and get into the Olympic spirit. Hopefully by the next Games in 2014 I'll have garnered a little more first-hand practice (read: falling down) with these winter sports, and some clue about what's actually going on in them. For example, though I know the Norwegian curling team's pants were pretty cool (left), I have no idea what curling is all about.
In four years' time I promise to put in a gold-medal effort in watching the Winter Games.