Norway has a population smaller than metropolitan Atlanta. At the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics this past February, it still finished on top of the medal table, ahead of the United States and every other nation on earth. Norwegian athletes won 18 gold, 12 silver and 11 bronze medals, 41 in total, breaking their own previous record of 39 set at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. Cross-country skier Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo alone won six golds, becoming the first athlete in Winter Olympics history to do so at a single Games.
The usual explanations, cold winters and a skiing culture, are true but incomplete, since Sweden and Finland share both and have not kept pace. What actually separates Norway is a documented policy choice made almost four decades ago, one that deliberately keeps score away from children until their teenage years.
