Quote:
Originally Posted by Ducay
Care to explain:
Norway (@ 13 medals, 4.8M pop)
Austria (@9 medals, 8.3M pop)
Switzerland (@7 medals, 7.7M pop)
Sweden (@7 medals, 9.3M pop)
Yes, Canada is not a top competitor due to our population 
And Russia wants a word with you |
Hmm, let's see nations that all excel in particular niche sports and pick up the vast majority of their medals in those disciplines. Pretty easy explanation really.
Norway: 6 X-country and 4 biathalon medals, both sports are highly covered and incredibly popular in Norway.
Austria: 3 Ski jumping, 2 Luge, 2 Alpine. Austria is a leader in all 3 sports and the nation actually cares about them. When they had yet to win any alpine medals heading into the weekend it was front page news as a disgrace to the country. Sounds familiar to us and hockey doesn't it?
Switzerland: 2 Ski Jumping, 2 Alpine. The Swiss welcome their star ski jumper home with massive crowds at the airport, he's a celebrity there. Like Austria there alpine history is well known.
Sweden: 5 X-country. Another Nordic nation that actually cares about X-country skiing.
So there's the explanation, small nations can always get to somewhere around the 10 medal number simply by virtue of their focus on a select few events that they excel in and that their nations generally care about.