People keep saying we in Norway win Winter Olympics because we have all this winter months. But Norway has only 5.6 million people. The US has 40-60 million people in reliable snow regions where people can do winter sports. Japan has 20-30 million. Russia 100 million. Canada 30 million. China 150-200 million people.

In other words there are plenty of nations who in theory could have crushed Norway in Winter Olympics but which are still far behind.

What about the culture? Yes, Norway has a strong winter sport culture. But you can say that about summer sports as well. I don’t see winners of Winter Olympic Games getting rejected with “Oh but you have a culture for summer sports”. Does Brazilian soccer victories not matter because Brazil has a soccer culture?

For most countries sports ties in with culture and history somehow? Why is Netherlands so dominant in ice skating? Because they have long history of skating on canals in winter.

Why is Australia good in swimming? Well they have a beach culture where people love getting into the water.

Most odd I guess is how much Americans love guns, but yet don’t perform that well in shooting competitions.