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As I woke up today, I looked out the window to see almost a foot of cumulative snow that had fallen in the last 24 hours in Vancouver, literally creating a traffic deadlock thru the entire lower mainland as a result.

Good thing we bought those snow shovels in November in anticipation of another barrage of snow like we had last year, I know what I will be doing later today 😎

But I digress.

As a sports junkie, every two years I watch with amazement when all the world’s best athletes have an opportunity to compete at the Olympics and this year’s version is no different.

Each night our family, friends have watched various events including some of the new Olympic Medal events to include Snowboard High Air, New Alpine Team events and the mixed doubles in curling where Canada won gold.

We also watched both the men’s and female hockey teams as they chased back to back golds, but in the Gold Game Canada’s women’s team fell to their long-term rival USA in a shootout and the men’s team comprised of former NHL or wanna be NHL players as the NHL opted not to send their players to the games fall to Germany in the semi final game, to play for Bronze against the Chech Republic vs. yet another Canada-Russia game (albeit the OAR, not official Russian team due to doping ban for Russia as a whole).

In both games, Canada’s teams appeared nervous in the first periods and got into penalty trouble. I remember saying to myself in the women’s game when we were up 2-1 we needed to score an insurance goal early in the 3rd only to watch with amazement how one of the USA’s top players, Monique Lamoreux-Morando, was left alone at the blue line while Canada executed a line change and received a stretch pass to go in and score on a breakaway to tie the game leading to overtime and loss in the shootout.

Like the World Juniors when 19 year old captain threw his silver medal into the stands due to the disappointing loss in early January,  just over a month later Team Canada’s Joceylene Larocque let her emotions get the better of her and removed the silver medal from her neck soon after it was awarded to her for WINNING the silver medal (vs. losing the gold) that lead to the onslaught of comments by traditional and social media.

This is what makes Norway’s achievements at the 2018 Winter Olympics so extraordinary, they are concerned they are winning too much. Part of their culture includes no excessive celebrations, humility and the desire to promote many of the sports they excel in globally.

But how are they doing it?

 

These are the top 10 reasons why Norway has set the all-time record not only of this year’s games, but the cumulative total for a nation winning medals at the Winter Olympics.

1. They have developed a culture of love for sport

According to the president of Norway’s Olympic Committee, Tom Tvedlt, their vision is “sport for all..before you are 12 you should have fun with sport and the recipe works as 93% of Norway’s youth participate in their 11,000 local sports clubs.

2. They don’t compete in any sports until they are 13

In the USA they now have T-Ball National Championships (U6), the little league world Series (U13), the PGA has U6 World Championships, “Elite” 6 year olds protested Cross Ice Hockey in Ontario so they could play full ice, 9 year olds are being offered NCAA scholarships and the craziness association with early sport specialization and on and on.

No Tryouts – No Releases – All Kids that want to play GET TO PLAY for the love of the game – what a concept.

This week I received a call from a concerned parent in Ontario that his 11 year old son was going to quit Hockey because he was on a team that the coaches had PP/PK units, matched lines, ran short benches from the puck drop and he was only getting to play a few minutes a game as a result. Even after talking to coaches saying he was going to quit, it was on deaf ears, so he will finish the season potentially will quit the game he once loved due to being deprived the opportunity to contribute and PLAY.  Hence the reason for our tagline, “Don’t be a Kid’s Last Coach”

3. Their climate: They have a long winter providing the opportunity for their athletes to train longer than other nations

Here are some comparisons as of 2/24/18 (still a few days remaining with medal events) how Norway fairs vs. Canada (another nation with long winters) and our long term rival in international competition, USA;

Norway Popn (5.3M) – Total Athletes (109) – Total Medals (37)
Canada Popn (36M) – Total Athletes (226) – Total Medals (29)
USA Popn (323M) – Total Athletes (242) – Total Medals (23)

Total Athletes at the 2018 Winter Olympics from 92 Nations, just under 3000

4. Norway’s HUGE Olympic Budget from their small population (NOT)

A nation with just over 5M people is frugal, 13.7 M Pounds (approx. $24M CDN) in comparison to UK’s sport budget 10 x that (137.5 Pounds, approx. 240 M CDN). Britain’s Mixed Curlers received 5 Million but Norway’s teams had to sell their kits on E-Bay to fund raise for the games.  Canada’s Own the Podium budget is $64 Million, 2.5x more than that of Norway’s but unsure what % is allocated to summer vs. winter.

5. Norway SHARES how they do it at their Olympic Center to promote the development of sport

Yikes – sharing? Who else does that?

6. The believe in promoting the importance of developing friendships

When I have asked kids over the years why they play sports, two things come up every time, because its fun and they get to play with their friends.

According to Norway Chef De Mission (Olympic Director) Tore Overbo “We go abroad as a big team that wants to have fun, and we should be even better friends when we come back home than when we leave Norway.”

7. They don’t tell their athletes how much they weigh

High Performance athletes are infamous for eating disorders, something I was made aware of a few years back at a conference talking to a Sport Psychologist as it was their area of specialty.

8. Athletes that win medals do not receive bonuses or money from their respective federations.

What do they receive in lieu? All Norwegian athletes get treated to desert every time one of them win a medal.

9. No Jerks Allowed

Like the New Zealand All Blacks who believe better people make better all blacks, Norway wants high character athletes and have a strict “no idiots” rule according to Kjetil Jansrud, Norwegian Skier, “We believe there is no good explanation why you have to be a jerk to be a good athlete. We just won’t have that kind of thing on our team”

Gilbert Brule on Team Canada’s men’s team could learn from this after making a totally uncalled for and unnecessary open ice hit to German player David Wolf (although many contest he did ease up when Wolf ducked) leading to a 5 Minute major penalty and game misconduct in Team Canada’s game semi-final and 4-3 loss to Germany.

10. Team.

Because they are a small nation with limited resources, they have to keep it tight and real according to their alpine ski director Clause Ryste. They also believe in the importance of winning with humility and losing with dignity.

 

Perfect example was when Norway’s most decorated female athlete Marit Bjoergen and her team won bronze in the women’s sprint congratulating first ever winners Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall of the USA for their gold “I can say I’m very, very happy of Jessie and Kikkan today …I also think that’s very important for our sport.”

And then there was the protein, LOTS and LOTS of protein.

Due to a transposition error, Norway’s team food order for eggs was entered incorrectly and received 15,000 (should have been 1,500, one would think someone would have questioned it BEFORE they filled the order) eggs for their team chefs which like their knowledge at their Olympic Centre, they happily shared with the rest of the nation’s athletes and teams.

We could all learn from Norway, the fact that we have 70% of our kids quitting youth sports by the age of the 13 (which is a low % of total to begin with due to declining enrolment in all youth sports) vs. they have 93% of all their youth participating it itself is the reason.

They focus on fun, developing the love of sport, friendships and not competing until kids would enter train to train stage of LTAD shows just how their model can translate to success on the world’s top stage for sports vs. the current over competing too early leading to early attrition many other nations are experiencing.

Let’s all work together to bring the game back to the kids …. Where it belongs