The secret to Norway’s success in the Olympics  

The recent accomplishments by the Norwegian team at the Olympics in PeyongChang were really impressive and made me curios to dive in a bit more in how the country develops athletes and fosters a culture of high performance sport.

I read several recent articles with interviews with athletes and coaches. There are some common themes that arise out of all the articles and I think really speaks to the development of long term success that the country is seeing in winter sports.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/24/sport/norway-winter-olympic-success-intl/index.html

Focus on Character Development:

Sport is used a tool to develop good people and the primary focus for young athletes is to find a sport they enjoy and can develop relationships and companionships. On a national team level athletes help each other out and the emphasis on team is high even in individual sports. Having shared meals is a big part of the national teams. I read about how athletes would make sure share meals as often as possible and talk about their achievements of the day. Coaches talk about the “no jerk” policy and that everybody has to respect each other and no one is better then the other. Kids will get involved in sports early on but no score is taken until they are 13 years of age. It’s all about skill development and a culture of having fun and enjoying the activity. On a national team level the standards are extremly high and physical expectations and commitment are priority.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/feb/22/norway-winter-olympics-success

Culture of Winter Sports and Wellbeing

After a disappointing performance at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary Norway decided to invest into High Performance Sports leading in to the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer. A National Training Centre was established and government funding was allocated to the Centre.This made it possible to professionalize the sports more and have coaches work directly with athletes with the support of IST. Wellbeing is a high priority and Norway is seen as one of the highest ranked countries in the world when it comes to life quality. Interestingly a high percentage of the athletes also part time work in “normal” day jobs and already during their career set them self’s up for a career after sport. A healthy balance of winning and wellbeing is encouraged. National Sporting heroes inspire the next generation of athletes and rather then becoming soccer or basketball stars kids aspire to become an Olympic medalist.

http://www.olympiatoppen.no/page943.html

I was thinking about how this relates to my personal coaching and some of the lessons that can be learned from the success of the Norwegian Team. I believe that valuing character in sport is one of the most important factors and often get forgotten when focusing on pure performance. We let athletes get away with bad behaviours if the performance is there. Winning should be measured in how athletes conduct on and of the track and how people tread each others. Wellbeing should be above winning medals and I truly believe that in the long term the athletes who are committed hard working and team oriented will win the race. As a program I working hard on establishing mutual respect and a hard working environment that has “no jerks” allowed because no matter how good you are in your sport it does not give the right to be disrespectfully or even abusive to other people.