In this Podcast: Mike Williams, former, and perhaps, future Fargo City Commission member.
He recently returned from a Smart Innovations Learning Tour of Norway. He and representatives of business, government and civic groups looked around the country to see what they do that makes them the “happiest” country in the world.
In his recent Facebook Posting, Mike says, “How does Norway become the happiest country in the world, and 8th wealthiest? It appears to me their elected government has earned the trust of the people by focusing on people’s well being with health care, education, and stewardship of their vast natural resources.”
Mike, an organizer, is at the far right of this photo.
By the way, here’s a piece from
USA Today
about how the “happiest” nation in the world is winning all those medals in the Olympics.
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — They’re not here to gloat. The Norwegians, in fact, will go out of their way to tell you that there’s still a long way to go at these Olympics before they reach their goals and win the overall medal count. They’re also not here to tell anyone (like the struggling U.S. team; cough, cough) how to go about their business or impose their Norwegian societal values, which they believe are directly tied into the success of their winter sports development.
We’re not a gorilla beating its chest,” said Tore Ovrebo, the Norwegian Olympic Committee’s director of elite sports. “We know it can change very quickly. We have to work hard. ”
But from an American perspective, let’s be real about this: Norway is kicking our red, white and blue rear ends here in Pyeongchang. And we’re not the only ones.
Norway, which is always among the best nations at the Winter Games despite having roughly the same population as the Detroit metropolitan area, is on track to win at an unprecedented level this year with 26 medals and nine golds, practically matching their all-time best performance as the host country in 1994. Barring a major drought the rest of the way, Norway is likely going to meet its pre-Olympic goal of 30 and run away with the medal count.
Apparently being No. 1 in the United Nations’ Human Development Index last year wasn’t good enough for Norway. Now they want to beat your brains on the ski slopes, too.
“Now we have 26 and that’s our historically best medal count,” Ovrebo said. “We had 26 in Lillehammer in ’94 which was a home game and we got 26 in Sochi, but this time we thought we had to raise the bar because sports are in a very good condition and we thought as a nation we were better than 26 and we want to deliver more.”
They’re delivering, all right. The question is how.
And ironically, for a country that’s been winning everything here, Ovrebo believes much of the success traces back to its disregard for the scoreboard with younger athletes.
Unlike the U.S., where we keep score of everything all the time, Norway puts kids in sports but doesn’t let them keep score until age 13. The idea is to make sports part of their social development so that the motivation to stay involved is to have fun with their friends, not winning.
Eventually, of course, the Norwegians introduce competition and the most advanced sports science techniques they can develop to pump out their medal-hoarding biathletes, skiers and ski jumpers. But the idea, Ovrebo said, isn’t to have the highest-ranked 10-year-old athletes in the world but rather the most mature adults.
(Jack Sunday & Amy Iler are talk-show hosts at 790 AM KFGO in Fargo-Moorhead. “It Takes 2 with Jack & Amy” can be heard weekdays 11am-2pm. Follow Amy on Twitter @AmyKFGO. Follow Jack on Twitter @nodakjack.)
