At the last two Winter Olympics, Norway reset the records for total medals a single Winter Games (39) and gold medals at a single Winter Games (16).
Over the last month, Norway bettered those totals with 52 medals and 18 gold medals in Olympic program events across the world championships in Alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing, Nordic combined, ski jumping, snowboarding and speed skating.
Norway came oh-so close to becoming the first nation to win a world championships gold medal in every single traditional Winter Olympic snow sport discipline in one year. It just missed in ski jumping, taking three silver and two bronze medals.
In Alpine skiing, Norway won the most medals outright at a world championships for the first time in history.
In biathlon, Norwegian Johannes Thingnes Boe nearly became the first person to sweep all four individual gold medals at a world championships. He won three golds and a bronze. Add in relays, and he earned five gold medals, a silver and a bronze in the seven events at worlds, plus a road sign in his name.
In cross-country skiing, Norway won all six men’s gold medals at worlds and all four individual men’s silver medals, its most dominant showing ever in men’s races in that sport.
Freestyle skiing and snowboarding hold their world championships together. This was the second time in history that Norway won a gold medal in each discipline in one year -- Marcus Kleveland in snowboard slopestyle and Birk Ruud in ski slopestyle. Norway’s seven total medals at freestyle and snowboard worlds were its most ever.
Norway was at its best in Nordic combined, winning all five gold medals (three men’s events, one women’s event and one mixed-gender event). Nordic combined is the lone Olympic sport with no female representation at the Winter Games.
On ice, Ragne Wiklund earned one gold and two silver at speed skating worlds, marking the best-ever performance for a Norwegian woman at those championships that date to 1996. Wiklund, still just 22, is Norway’s most accomplished female speed skater since World War II.
There are more Winter Olympic medal events than ever, so it’s hardly a surprise that Norway, the most successful Winter Olympic nation in history, is breaking medal records (especially with Russia, a traditional rival in biathlon and cross-country skiing, absent).
Other nations can take solace in knowing that a new snow sport debuts at the 2026 Winter Games: ski mountaineering. Norway didn’t win any medals at that sport’s world championships that finished on Sunday.
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