The best Winter Olympics country ever: Norway

Norway RULES the Winter Olympics. In 2018, they had the most medals.

  1. Norway 39 medals (14 gold, 14 silver, 11 bronze)
  2. Germany 31 medals (14 gold, 10 silver, 7 bronze)
  3. Canada 29 medals (11 gold, 8 silver, 10 bronze)

Norway holds the most Winter Olympic medals of ALL-TIME.

Source: statista

Norway has the most 1st place finishes of all the Winter Olympics.

Country1st place2nd place3rd place
 Norway842
 Soviet Union720
 Germany341
 Russia201
 United States145
 East Germany141
 Sweden103
 Canada102
 Austria022
 Finland012
 Unified Team010
  Switzerland003
 France001

When we think of Winter Olympics, the first country that should come to mind—NORWAY.

Who is the best Olympic athlete to come from Norway? A biathlete named Ole Einar Bjørndalen. Brittanica says, his 13 Olympic Games medals are the most for any male Winter Olympian and who is widely considered the greatest biathlete of all time.

To get hyped up for the Winter Olympics opening ceremony, I put on the Olympic Theme song on Spotify.

After playing the Olympic Theme, Spotify started to play Yankee Doodle Dandy. Gahhhh! so AMERICAN. Olympics are about the WORLD, not USA.

On the night of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony, if I listen to the Olympic theme song, Spotify should NOT be playing Yankee Doodle Dandy as the next song. Spotify should play something more appropriate for the Winter Olympics. Like the Norway national anthem.

Here’s the best version of the Norway national anthem on Spotify:

How is it the best? BECAUSE IT HAS THE WORDS. I listened to the top 40 Spotify results for: Norway national anthem. Only one song has the words. Yes. Only one of the 40 songs has the words. The rest are just the music. Crazy.

I’m most likely a stupid American, because this song sounds like a mashup between the American national anthem and a Christmas song.

Titled, “Ja, vi elsker dette landet”, it translates into English as “Yes, we love this country”. What are the lyrics for the Norway national anthem? I’m glad you asked. Wikipedia provides them:

OriginalLiteral translation
Ja, vi elsker dette landet,
som det stiger frem,
furet, værbitt over vannet
med de tusen hjem, —
elsker, elsker det og tenker
på vår far og mor
og den saganatt som senker
drømmer på vår jord.
Yes, we love this country
as it rises forth,
rugged, weathered, over the water,
with the thousands of homes, —
love, love it and think
of our father and mother
and the saga-night that lays
dreams upon our earth.

The song has eight verses. I’ll spare pasting all eight verses here. Although it does have lines like

Farmers their axes sharpened whenever an army advanced

and

Even women stood up and fought as if they were men;
others could only cry but that soon would end!

Um. Yeah. Don’t mess with Norway.

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Tom
Tom
1 year ago

This is thoughtful, insightful and hilarious!

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