2018 Winter Olympics (Pyeongchang)

Amazing gold by Håvard! I actually went home from work to eat lunch and watch his run, and i never even follow skating :lol:
I live in the area he's from, so thought i had to watch his race.
Fun fact, his brother is a decent football player that went through the ranks of Brann, currently plays in Sandefjord in Norway (i think that's where he is now) ;)
 
Kasai has already said he is preparing for the 2022 Olympics so I doubt he'll quit.

We will get bronze minimum here, possibly even silver. Norway out of reach.
 
Kasai has already said he is preparing for the 2022 Olympics so I doubt he'll quit.

We will get bronze minimum here, possibly even silver. Norway out of reach.

There aren't really many good teams left. What happened to Finland?
Didn't Slovenia use to be pretty decent aswell?
 
There aren't really many good teams left. What happened to Finland?
Didn't Slovenia use to be pretty decent aswell?

Finland don't even have one good jumper anymore. Slovenia are decent but a tier below Norway, Germany and Poland, so are Austria who were dominant last season.

Norway basically have 4 competitive jumpers who can all win tournaments. Germany have Wellinger and Freitag who are top tier, the rest are not as good but still top 15 basically. Similar to Poland, although we only have Stoch from the very top tier but our three behind him are all good quality and all of them can be properly stunning on their day.
 
Our jumpers became alot more stable the last couple years, i honestly think we'd still get top 2 if we changed 2-3 from our team with the next ones in the line.
 
Split winners in the men's two man bobsleigh, Canada and Germany with the exact same time! :D
 
Hope Johannes and Emil have a good day
 
Johannes Thingnes Bø is crazy!
 
Fecking heartbreak.. why did we have our worst biathlete last?
Schempp was sick. Don't get why we picked Peiffer over Doll though, considering their respective performances in the Mass Start.
 
Schempp was sick. Don't get why we picked Peiffer over Doll though, considering their respective performances in the Mass Start.
Yeah, but even with Schempp out, I don't get why we did have Peiffer last.
 
Wow, but now the complete raid of the nordic combination by three of our starters! :eek:
Rydzek first, Riessle second, Frenzel third, crazy.
 
Why Norway is so far ahead in medal count from other Scandinavian countries like Finland or Sweden? Is there a good explanation of them doing so well in comparison? Genuine question as I haven't followed this much.
 
Why Norway is so far ahead in medal count from other Scandinavian countries like Finland or Sweden? Is there a good explanation of them doing so well in comparison? Genuine question as I haven't followed this much.
We're simply better than most other people.

At doping
 

Thats great:lol:
Tbf she's still better than 99% of all skiers worldwide. I'd consider myself as a decent skier, I've once been in a half pipe and it's fecking scary.
 
since it's one of the wealthiest countries of the world, I guess it has a lot to do with financial support for top athletes in a very cold and snowy country? Just my guess
German sport support is very bad tbh, but we are many and have big sport history, so it's working out in that regard

We weren't really any wealthier than Sweden before the oil (though still wealthy), but still finished 1st in gold medals in 6 of the 10 first Winter Olympics. There's just a big tradition of winter sports in Norway, which has resulted in good recruitment and top class coaching.

We aren't always better either, but it sure feels good when are. The likes of Bjørgen, Bjørndalen, Dæhlie, Koss, etc are pretty much national heroes.
 
since it's one of the wealthiest countries of the world, I guess it has a lot to do with financial support for top athletes in a very cold and snowy country? Just my guess
German sport support is very bad tbh, but we are many and have big sport history, so it's working out in that regard
I get this, however, Finland and Sweden aren't exactly poor countries either, so it does seem a bit random.
 
We weren't really any wealthier than Sweden before the oil (though still wealthy), but still finished 1st in gold medals in 6 of the 10 first Winter Olympics. There's just a big tradition of winter sports in Norway, which has resulted in good recruitment and top class coaching.

We aren't always better either, but it sure feels good when are. The likes of Bjørgen, Bjørndalen, Dæhlie, Koss, etc are pretty much national heroes.


Yeah this. It has to do with tradition. Cross country, biathlon, ski jumping etc. are fairly big sports in Norway and a lot of the kids do those in winter and football etc. in summer when young. We are also shockingly good at alpine skiing (which in my experience isn't that big on a grass root level in Norway), but that hasn't always been the case. I genuinely think we have been blessed with some amazing one-off athletes in that department during the last 20 or so years, which is partly luck and which has also helped recruitment somewhat. The likes of Kjus and Aamodt in the 90s and 00s and Svindal and Jansrud in the later years stand out there.

In addition Norway has very little tradition for a number of other world sports, such as ice hockey, tennis, golf etc, and few of our kids play these sports. Sweden is pretty good at all those, and I would think those sports attract many of the Swedish youngsters who perhaps have chosen skiing etc. had they not.
 
since it's one of the wealthiest countries of the world, I guess it has a lot to do with financial support for top athletes in a very cold and snowy country? Just my guess
German sport support is very bad tbh, but we are many and have big sport history, so it's working out in that regard

I find it amusing that people still think we are a very cold and snowy country.
Lived in Norway all my life, and the last 20 years, i've had to travel to see snow, except for a couple weeks in the winter where we get a tiny bit, then it starts raining.
It's pretty much in the mountains in the southern part of Norway, and far up north, there is enough snow.
Pretty sure you, Sweden and Finland have the same conditions in the mountains as we got.
 
Well, all the scandinavian countries are seen as very snowy. And I'm pretty sure that Norway has a lot more than, say Germany, relative and absolute as well. Beside, it's much colder (on average & extrema) than central Europe, right? Please don't shatter my whole view of Norway. My grandfather was in Norway a long time ago (sucks to be German when talking about the journeys of our grandfathers :() but always talked about how everything was frozen and full of beautiful, snowy landscapes. Perfect environment for traditional winter olympic disciplines!

Edit: looking at satelite pictures from Google maps here, Norway seems to have a lot more mountains than Sweden and Finland. Lots of white areas too, which will be snow. Ha!


In the middle of the southern part (the big fat thing at the bottom of Norway), we have alot of mountains that will have plenty of snow now. The thing is, most Norwegians live by the sea, or the border to Sweden. Not many can just drive 30 mintues to go skiing, they will travel to where the snow is, and stay there for periods to train.
The closest places to where i live, where i know there will always be snow during the winter, are 2-3 hours away with car or train.
The parts of Norway where there is alot of snow, there aren't very many people. Those who live there often get good at skiing though, most of our best athletes come from small villages.

You grandfather might still be right, though, cause when i grew up, we had alot more snow than we do now.
I grew up quite close to where the Bø brothers are from, and they did not have much snow close to where they live.
They have a glacier, and a ski resort that is open in the summer (Jostedalsbreen and Strynefjellet), not too ar away, i guess 1,5-2 hours away with car. But still not enough for them to just go skiing in the garden, or even every day, before they got a bit older. Unless their parents were extremely interested in skiing, and drove them around all week.... which might be the case in small places :lol:
 
In the middle of the southern part (the big fat thing at the bottom of Norway), we have alot of mountains that will have plenty of snow now. The thing is, most Norwegians live by the sea, or the border to Sweden. Not many can just drive 30 mintues to go skiing, they will travel to where the snow is, and stay there for periods to train.
The closest places to where i live, where i know there will always be snow during the winter, are 2-3 hours away with car or train.
The parts of Norway where there is alot of snow, there aren't very many people. Those who live there often get good at skiing though, most of our best athletes come from small villages.

You grandfather might still be right, though, cause when i grew up, we had alot more snow than we do now.
I grew up quite close to where the Bø brothers are from, and they did not have much snow close to where they live.
They have a glacier, and a ski resort that is open in the summer (Jostedalsbreen and Strynefjellet), not too ar away, i guess 1,5-2 hours away with car. But still not enough for them to just go skiing in the garden, or even every day, before they got a bit older. Unless their parents were extremely interested in skiing, and drove them around all week.... which might be the case in small places :lol:

Tja. I think your summary is valid for the western parts of Norway. But for the eastern part (Oslo and the surrounding area) as well as the border areas towards Sweden north of Østfold, there is usually snow nearby during winter. Oslo for example has some of the world's best ski tracks (cross country) literally just a few kms from the city center. Many of our best skiers (alpine and cross country) are from that area as well. So I do think quite a lot of Norwegians can drive 30 minutes to go skiing, atleast from December through February.
 
Tja. I think your summary is valid for the western parts of Norway. But for the eastern part (Oslo and the surrounding area) as well as the border areas towards Sweden north of Østfold, there is usually snow nearby during winter. Oslo for example has some of the world's best ski tracks (cross country) literally just a few kms from the city center. Many of our best skiers (alpine and cross country) are from that area as well. So I do think quite a lot of Norwegians can drive 30 minutes to go skiing, atleast from December through February.

Same with Northern Norway, with the caveat that Northern Norway is huge and has many different circumstances.
 
Tja. I think your summary is valid for the western parts of Norway. But for the eastern part (Oslo and the surrounding area) as well as the border areas towards Sweden north of Østfold, there is usually snow nearby during winter. Oslo for example has some of the world's best ski tracks (cross country) literally just a few kms from the city center. Many of our best skiers (alpine and cross country) are from that area as well. So I do think quite a lot of Norwegians can drive 30 minutes to go skiing, atleast from December through February.

Same with Northern Norway, with the caveat that Northern Norway is huge and has many different circumstances.

You're probably right, but i still think there's alot less than a decade or two ago, and the athletes have to travel alot to train, and the difference isn't as big between us, Sweden, Finland, and even Germany, as some think.
Many countries still believe that we got snow and -15 celsius the entire year.