Today the Winter Olympics will begin, do you know who is consistently ranked first on the gold medal leaderboard?
Historical Winter Olympics Medal Table by Statista.
The answer is Norway, a small country with only a population of slightly over 5 million.
Sports performance actually does not have an absolute correlation with total population (India agrees). It is quite normal for a certain country’s men’s soccer team to be unable to beat a tiny country. After all, nowadays, the college entrance examination starts from kindergarten, and the population engaged in sports is decreasing too fast.
So why is Norway so strong?
One, Link to heading
Norway has mines at home.
Norway has oil, salmon, timber and tourism resources…
Therefore, Norway is one of the countries with the highest per capita GDP in the world.
Does having minerals suffice for sports? After all, the population is just a small fraction of two Tieling’s.
There must be other reasons.
Two, Link to heading
The Norwegian weather is cold.
Of course, this is the unique advantage of ice and snow events, but Sweden next door is not convinced. With a population twice as much and a much more developed technology compared to Norway, the key is that it is also very cold.
The Maoxiong family’s home is also very cold, with a population more than twenty times larger.
There must be other reasons.
(Photo Ins:@visitnorway)
Three, Link to heading
Norway has a small wealth gap between the poor and the rich.
This is indeed a fact. White-collar workers in Norway do not earn significantly more than street sweepers.
The question is, there are also many countries with small income gaps, so this cannot explain why Norway is so dominant in the Winter Olympics.
There must be other reasons.
* * *
Four, Link to heading
Okay, I will not sell jars anymore. Now, I will reveal the answer (my own answer):
Norway has done a good job with the “double reduction”.
The Norwegian version of “Double Reduction”(Homeword reduction in Chinese) - on one hand, it reduces children’s homework load, and on the other, it alleviates the pressure on parents who are raising children.
How to lose weight?
Norway ensures that every child can attend school, starting at the age of one.
You’re not mistaken, it’s one year old.
Parents can start sending their child to public kindergarten from the age of one, for 9 hours a day.
In Norway, mothers can take maternity leave that is almost exactly one year.
One benefit of attending kindergarten from a young age is that certified teachers are better equipped to educate children compared to parents. They ensure that every child follows the rules, understands manners, and eats properly.
Another benefit is that from living in a community since childhood, the child’s life is no longer so lonely.
(Photo Ins:@visitnorway)
Five, Link to heading
Some people say, “it’s different when you go to elementary school, right?”
Indeed, in Norway, formal learning of letters and pronunciation rules only begins in primary school. Now you know what is taught in kindergarten, right?
In elementary school, it’s homework reduction 2.0.
This has divided into several factions in Norway: some advocate no homework, some advocate a little bit of homework, and some advocate school homework assistance. In any case, it is all against parents giving their children extra tutoring, as society believes it is unfair to those parents who are deemed mediocre in education [laughing and crying].
“What does the elementary school student do after class since they don’t have much homework?”
Of course, it is meant to be thrown and played with on the schoolyard or outdoors.
It is said that elementary school students spend most of their time playing outdoors, including during physical education classes and recess.
All kinds of small sports are naturally engaged in, not afraid of the cold since childhood, and have been participating in sports teams since childhood. The national sports atmosphere is strong.
(Photo: visitnorway.com)
Sixth, Link to heading
What is Dual Reduction 3.0?
No need for the college entrance exam.
University tuition is free.
The salary difference is not very significant regardless of whether one attends university or not.
Impressive, isn’t it?
There is also a strange policy, that if someone graduates from a vocational school and works for five years, and finds that their salary is not as high as the one earned by Wang Ergou, who went to university in the neighboring village, they can choose to go back to university at any time.
Seven, Link to heading
Do you know the answer now? With Double Eleven discounts ranging from 1.0 to 3.0, adults and children have plenty of time to play.
Norway has snow for more than half a year: with up to 125 skiing resorts, plus countless backcountry skiing opportunities. Unlike here where we have only two or three runs and call it a skiing resort, some of Norway’s large skiing resorts boast up to 68 ski runs.
Furthermore, Norway is one of the countries with the most beautiful natural scenery per capita in the world (perhaps only challenged by Switzerland and New Zealand). The local people love to go out for a walk, and the proportion of sports enthusiasts is frighteningly high.
I feel like they don’t have enough time to work properly.
So, is this country truly not heaven on earth? Can’t a family give birth to twenty?
However, it did not happen.
(Picture Ins:@visitnorway)
Eight, Link to heading
The birth rate in Norway has also been declining for several years and has recently reached only about 1.5.
The reason is also the same old thing.
On the one hand, Norwegian women have a high social status and are willing to work and pursue personal goals, but are not keen on spending time having children and playing with them. Dealing with mischievous children can be a challenge, as they require attention not only at night but also during long holidays.
In addition, housing prices, cost of living, and general expenses are very high in Norway. Although there are subsidies for children, both preschool and extracurricular classes are not entirely free. Taking children to the dentist can also be very costly, and hiring a babysitter is even more expensive.
Norwegian young people have had little pressure from childhood to adulthood. In society, most people work in mining and there is a lack of entrepreneurial opportunities and fighting spirit. As a result, when they reach a reproductive age, they naturally cannot earn much money and having one or two children for fun is enough.
(No translation necessary, as this is the Chinese characters for a link to an Instagram account.)
Nine. Link to heading
When I see the country with the world’s highest per capita wealth and realize that even with a reduction of 1.0/2.0/3.0, a child cannot be born, I feel somewhat pessimistic.
However, if we could be more radical, adding the following measures would be just about enough:
4.0 = Tuition Free
5.0= Giving birth for a house.
Below is a summary: Link to heading
The Homework Reduction 1.0-3.0 is the Kuihua Manual(An art martial book every Chinese knows) that leads the men’s soccer team to qualify for the World Cup in Asia emphasizes that surpassing others directly will come at a cost.
As for 4.0 and 5.0, it seems that only North Korea can achieve them.