In the ranking of the gold medal list of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Norwegian team won the first place in both the number of gold medals and medals with 16 gold, 8 silver and 13 bronze medals, which also created a new record in the history of the Winter Olympics.
In addition to Norway, as a traditional ice and snow power, Canada, Russia, Germany, the United States, Sweden, the Netherlands, etc. have shown great strength, which is not a small difference from the summer Olympic gold medal list. Why is this happening? The answer is simple: these countries have an early start, a strong foundation and obvious advantages in the development of ice and snow sports.
Since the first Winter Olympics were held in 1924, Canada has not missed a single Winter Olympics, and at least one medal has been credited with each Winter Olympics. And Canada has a vast land area, which is close to the Arctic Ocean in the vast area has a wealth of resources for ice and snow sports, so Canadians are naturally full of enthusiasm for ice and snow sports, although the absolute population is not large, but the ice and snow population occupies a leading position in the world, of which the most popular is ice hockey.
The Rideau Canal, which runs through Canada's capital Ottawa, forms a 7.8-kilometre-long natural ice rink when it freezes in winter. Every year from winter to winter, the world's longest natural ice rink is open to the public free of charge and becomes an important part of the daily life of the local people.
There are ice rinks in almost every community centre in Canada, and there are skating lessons of different ages and levels starting with children as young as 3 years old. The school also makes skating a compulsory course for students, and regularly organizes children to conduct skating training. The Canadian Cross-Country Skiing Association has developed the Baby Rabbit Program to develop children's interest in skiing, thereby expanding the participation base of the program.
In fact, Canada also experienced a long low in the Winter Olympics. At the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, the host Canadian team did not win a single gold, which caused a national uproar. Years of downturn made Canada decide to start a new sports development strategy when it regained the right to host the Winter Olympics in 2003, and eventually became a winter sports powerhouse.
The situation in Russia is that both summer and winter sports are excellent, which is reflected in the Olympic Games, that is, the performance and performance of Russian athletes in the Summer Olympic Games and the Winter Olympic Games are excellent. Looking at the entire history of the Winter Olympics, Russia's results only lag behind those of the former East and West Germany. At the Winter Olympics, the Russian delegation is best known in the world and the most dominant is figure skating, which is very evident in the Beijing Winter Olympics, in the pair skating competition, although the Chinese team Han Cong/Sui Wenjing successfully won the championship, the second, third and fourth players are from Russia, and the same situation occurs in other men's and women's singles, ice dance and figure skating team competitions.
An important reason for this situation is that the popularity of ice and snow sports among ordinary Russian people is very high. Russians once quipped, "We have winter for 9 months of the year, and we can't do anything without winter sports." "So up to 80-year-olds, down to toddlers, almost all participate in ice and snow sports in the cold winter."
At the Russian state level, sports are regarded as a "state project" to ensure the good development of Russian sports from the institutional aspects through the formulation of special measures. Second, actively promote the construction and modernization of sports infrastructure; third, increase financial support for competitive sports; and fourth, continuously improve the youth sports training system, these measures have ensured Russia's long-term motivation in summer and winter projects.
At the Beijing Winter Olympics this time, the performance was even more surprising to Norway. This narrow country from Scandinavia has participated in all 23 Winter Olympics so far, including 8 times dominating the medal table, and at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics four years ago, Norway was also the first in the gold medal list, and this time at the Beijing Winter Olympics they went one further, not only won the first place in the gold medal table, but also had a new breakthrough in the number of gold medals and medals.
Norway is also one of only three countries to have won more medals at the Winter Olympics than the Summer Olympics. "Norwegians were born on skis." This saying fully reflects the Norwegians' love of skiing. In the history of the Winter Olympics, there have been 3 "Eight Golden Kings", all of whom are from Norway. The most famous of these are Einard Bjør Dahren and Mariet Bjorgan. The nickname of Einar Bjør Darren is "King" and is known as the "King of Biathlon". Marit Björggen is another winter superstar, known as the "Queen of Cross-Country Skiing", and these two events also happen to be the main events of the Norwegian team's gold medal at the Winter Olympics.
Asked about the secrets of Norwegian sports success, Turre Ovreber, head of the Norwegian delegation to the Beijing Winter Olympics, said: "Everything starts with children, parents and clubs." The country, with a population of just over 5 million, currently has 12,000 local sports clubs, covering almost every city and town in Norway.
According to the World Bank, Norway's per capita GDP in 2020 will reach $67,300 (about 437,000 yuan), ranking fourth in the world. The strong comprehensive national strength ensures that Norway has a sound winter sports infrastructure, and also ensures that the Norwegian people have more funds at their disposal, which creates material conditions for the development of snow sports in Norway. The combination of these factors has allowed this country with a small nordic population to firmly occupy the first place on the stage of the Winter Olympics.