Norway at the Olympics

Norway first competed at the Paris Summer Games in 1900, sending a small team to two sports, athletics and shooting. The shooters did most of the damage. Ole Østmo, Tom Seeberg, Olaf Frydenlund, Helmer Hermandsen and Ole Sæther won silver in the 300 m free rifle team event, and Østmo added an individual silver in the standing position and bronzes in the prone and three positions events. Carl Albert Andersen won a bronze in the pole vault, making five medals in all.

Norway sent no team to the 1904 Games in St Louis, but two Norwegian-born wrestlers who had emigrated to the United States, Charles Ericksen and Bernhoff Hansen, won gold medals there on the same day competing for their adopted country. The Norwegian Olympic committee later argued the medals should be credited to Norway, pointing out that Ericksen was not granted US citizenship until 22 March 1905 and that Hansen was still recorded as an alien as late as 1925. Some Olympic databases now list the pair as Norwegian, though the attribution is still disputed.

Norway returned in 1908 and won their first Olympic gold. Albert Helgerud took the men's 300 m free rifle, three positions on 11 July, and he was also part of the six-man team – with Julius Braathe, Einar Liberg, Olaf Sæther, Ole Sæther and Gudbrand Skatteboe – that won the team event. Norway added three silvers and three bronzes in London, among them javelin silver and freestyle javelin bronze for Arne Halse.

Since their debut in 1900, Norway have missed only two Summer Games: 1904, when just a dozen or so countries made the trip to St Louis, and 1980, when they joined the United States and many others in boycotting the Moscow Olympics.

Best Summer Games

Norway's best Summer Olympics remains Antwerp in 1920, where they won 31 medals – 13 gold, 9 silver and 9 bronze – to finish sixth. Sailing produced most of the golds, with shooting's running deer events adding four more and Helge Løvland winning the decathlon.

Recent Summer Games

At the Tokyo Games, held in 2021, Norway sent 93 athletes in 15 sports and won 8 medals, 4 of them gold, for 20th place. Karsten Warholm won the 400 m hurdles in a world record, Jakob Ingebrigtsen took the 1500 m, Kristian Blummenfelt won the triathlon and Anders Mol and Christian Sørum won the beach volleyball. Kjetil Borch (single sculls) and Eivind Henriksen (hammer) took silver, with bronzes for Hermann Tomasgaard in sailing and the women's handball team.

Paris 2024 brought another 8 medals and another 4 golds, this time for 18th place, from a team of 107 in 18 sports. Jakob Ingebrigtsen moved up to win the 5000 m, Markus Rooth won the decathlon, Solfrid Koanda won the 81 kg weightlifting title and the women's handball team took gold. Warholm had to settle for silver in the 400 m hurdles, and there were bronzes for Line Flem Høst in sailing, Grace Bullen in wrestling and the beach volleyball pair of Mol and Sørum.

Winter Dominance

Norway have done well at the Summer Games, but it is at the Winter Olympics that they stand alone. They competed at the inaugural Winter Games at Chamonix in 1924 and have topped the medal table 13 times, more than any other nation, and lead the all-time Winter medal count by a distance.

Norway have hosted the Winter Games twice, at Oslo in 1952, where they finished top of the table among 30 competing countries, and at Lillehammer in 1994, where 67 nations took part and Norway finished second on golds behind Russia (10 to 11) while winning the most medals overall, 26.

Their best Winter Games came at Milano Cortina in 2026, where a team of 80 won 41 medals including 18 golds, beating the record of 16 golds they had themselves set at Beijing in 2022. Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won six cross-country titles there, becoming the first athlete to win six gold medals at a single Winter Olympics.