Perceptions, by Gerry Warner

So who was sitting on top of the Olympic Winter Games medal standings as of Friday morning? Canada with its ‘Own the Podium’ program? Host Russia, which has thrown more money at the Olympics than any country in history? The mighty USA where winning is everything? Or was it China, the fastest rising Olympic power in the world?

Nahh, it was none of these. In fact it was Norway, that land near the top of the globe with only five million people, whose fierce Viking warriors in horned helmets scared their enemies into submission half a millennium ago.

But I haven’t seen any horned Norwegians in this Olympics, which after a week of competition sees Norway with a total of 13 medals, one more than any other country and a week of competition still to come featuring events sure to see the mighty Norsemen and Norsewomen on the podium again. This intrigued me so I did a little research on these modern day Vikings that still are able to make their opponents quake in fear.

Remember Erik the Red? He was the famed explorer who discovered Greenland after growing up in Iceland where his father had been banished for killing a few of his enemies in Norway. And according to Norse legend, like father like son, Erik Thorvaldsson also killed a few of his enemies and was banished for three years at which time he discovered Greenland and founded a prosperous colony that left him a respected and honoured patriarch in his old age. Lesson to be learned?

Don’t cross a Viking.

By the Ninth Century, the Vikings grew so powerful Norway ruled Iceland, Greenland and parts of northern England and their wooden long boats were feared all over northern Europe. But eventually their power waned and Norway fell under the rule of Denmark and Sweden until it separated from Sweden and obtained its independence in 1905. Today Norway is a petro-power after discovery of North Sea oil left it the second-wealthiest country in the world in monetary value with the largest per capita reserves of any nation. Foreign Policy Magazine ranks Norway as the best functioning and most stable country in the world based on its oil and gas exports, healthy economy and accumulated wealth. In short, Norway is expected to continue as one of the richest countries on the globe for the foreseeable future.

Wealth then must be part of the formula that makes Norway such a formidable Winter Olympics power. The same applies to Canada because it wasn’t until the Own the Podium program and its buckets of money that Canadians began collecting scads of medals in the Vancouver Olympics and continuing at Sochi. The Netherlands is another example of a small, but wealthy country, that mounts the podium regularly.

But despite its wealth, Norway doesn’t appear to be corrupted by the almighty dollar. Unlike the mighty US, Norway has one of the lowest homicide rates in the world and Transparency International ranks Norway the fifth least corrupt country in the world right behind Sweden and ahead of Canada in ninth place. And Norwegians have a unique attitude towards the wealth that’s been showered on the country in recent years.

Underpinning Norwegian society is a belief Norwegians love to call fellesskap (fellowship). It’s a country where the prime minister bicycles to work, where politicians walk freely around town and where the chief executive of the country’s biggest bank does his grocery shopping in short-sleeves alongside everyone else. Most incredibly, Norwegians are renowned for “paying their taxes with joy,” because they believe in spreading their newfound wealth in return for free university tuition, total coverage of medical costs and a myriad of social benefits.

In fact, the Norwegian government has set up a Sovereign Wealth Fund by which every Norwegian is technically a millionaire, but the bulk of the money is held in trust by the government.

Flaunting of wealth is considered bad form in Norway. Instead, these canny Vikings prefer to flaunt their athletic prowess on the podium.

– Gerry Warner is a retired journalist and Cranbrook City Councillor. Hos opinions are his own.

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