General Sports Appreciation Topic

Naim Süleymanoğlu, widely considered the greatest weighlifter of all-time, passed away at 50 due to liver failure. His main rival in the 1996 Summer Olympics, Greek Valerios Leonidis, with whom he had traded three world-record lifts on his way to the gold; travelled to his funeral as a show of respect. Cool story.
 
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Unfortunately, it seems he hasn't been able to find form in time this season ... I'd love to see him do well at the Olympics one last time, but it looks unlikely now. At best, he'll be the last man in the biathlon squad (I think we're sending five or six men, the three first are given, Bjørndalen must compete for one of the last spots, but if one Norwegian athlete should be picked based on merit ... it's him).

There is actually bigger fuss about cross-country skier Petter Northug, because there's been some controversy around him not being picked for some World Cup races, and most notably, the Tour de Ski. He has not shown great form so far and basically has got two weeks to prove that he's worthy of a ticket to Korea. Still ... he is the only Norwegian male cross-country skier to win individual gold medals (Olympics and FIS World Championships) since 2009, so having him not competing is a pretty big deal.
 
Oh, no, Northug not participating would be such a bummer. :( I was already miffed by Bjørndalen's absence...
Nevertheless, apart from our meager glimmer of hope for decent results in the men's biathlon, I'll be rooting for Norwegian athletes in all sports. As always.
newsm05_26.gif
 
Which sport is Norway indisputably the best at? Alpine skiing? Hockey? Ski jumping? Biathlon, realistically?
 
Perhaps none indisputably*, but the Norsemen invade Winter Games in big numbers of excellent snow sporters. And always win lots of medals.

Norway is the most successful nation in Winter Olympics. Red: past nations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-time_Olympic_Games_medal_table#Winter_Olympics

No/nation/games/gold/silver/bronze/total
1
22px-Flag_of_Norway.svg.png
Norway (NOR) 22 118 111 100 329
2
22px-Flag_of_the_United_States.svg.png
United States (USA) 22 96 102 84 282
3
22px-Flag_of_Germany.svg.png
Germany (GER) 11 78 78 53 209
4
22px-Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union.svg.png
Soviet Union (URS) 9 78 56 59 193
5
22px-Flag_of_Canada.svg.png
Canada (CAN) 22 62 56 52 170
6
22px-Flag_of_Austria.svg.png
Austria (AUT) 22 59 78 81 218
7
22px-Flag_of_Sweden.svg.png
Sweden (SWE) 22 50 40 54 144
8
20px-Flag_of_Switzerland.svg.png
Switzerland (SUI) 22 50 40 48 138
9
22px-Flag_of_Russia.svg.png
Russia (RUS) 6 45 32 34 111
10
22px-Flag_of_Finland.svg.png
Finland (FIN) 22 42 62 57 161
11
22px-Flag_of_East_Germany.svg.png
East Germany (GDR) 6 39 36 35 110
12
22px-Flag_of_the_Netherlands.svg.png
Netherlands (NED) 20 37 38 35 110
13
22px-Flag_of_Italy.svg.png
Italy (ITA) 22 37 34 43 114
14
22px-Flag_of_France.svg.png
France (FRA) 22 31 31 47 109
15
22px-Flag_of_South_Korea.svg.png
South Korea (KOR) 17 26 17 10 53
16
22px-Flag_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China.svg.png
China (CHN) 10 12 22 19 53
17
22px-Flag_of_Germany.svg.png
West Germany (FRG) 6 11 15 13 39
18
22px-Flag_of_Japan.svg.png
Japan (JPN) 20 10 17 18 45
19
22px-Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg.png
Great Britain (GBR) 22 10 4 12 26
20
22px-Olympic_flag.svg.png
Unified Team (EUN) 1 9 6 8 23

21 United Team of Germany (EUA) 3 8 6 5 19
22 Czech Republic (CZE) 6 7 9 8 24
23 Poland (POL) 22 6 7 7 20
24 Belarus (BLR) 6 6 4 5 15
25 Australia (AUS) 18 5 3 4 12
26 Croatia (CRO) 7 4 6 1 11
27 Estonia (EST) 9 4 2 1 7
28 Czechoslovakia (TCH) 16 2 8 15 25
29 Slovenia (SLO) 7 2 4 9 15
30 Liechtenstein (LIE) 18 2 2 5 9
31 Slovakia (SVK) 6 2 2 1 5
32 Ukraine (UKR) 6 2 1 4 7
33 Kazakhstan (KAZ) 6 1 3 3 7
34 Bulgaria (BUL) 19 1 2 3 6
35 Belgium (BEL) 20 1 1 3 5
36 Spain (ESP) 19 1 0 1 2
37 Uzbekistan (UZ ) 6 1 0 0 1
38 Latvia (LAT) 10 0 4 3 7
39 Yugoslavia (YUG) 14 0 3 1 4
40 Hungary (HUN) 22 0 2 4 6
41 Luxembourg (LUX) 8 0 2 0 2
42 North Korea (PRK) 8 0 1 1 2
43 Denmark (DEN) 13 0 1 0 1
43 New Zealand (NZL) 15 0 1 0 1
45 Romania (ROU) 20 0 0 1 1

* Let's find out. Which discipline was always won by Norway, (or in the last couple of Games at least).
 
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Historically and statistically, Norway is the most successful country in the Winter Olympics, but this does in no way mean that supporting Norwegian athletes is the easy way out. Winter sports are hugely competitive these days and Norway has just as many chances to win medals as France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the US, Italy, Canada, Poland, Sweden, some Russians, etc. have. In most disciplines, the favourites are not from Norway at all.
And no, I don't follow the logic that one should always support the underdogs. I root for whoever I find worthy of my support, and if that happens to be a team/athlete with a real chance for a medal, all the more exciting.
 
I didn't mean easy way out. More like: big chance you'll be happy then, because they seem to be the country doing well so often.

How do you decide who is worthy your support? Or how do you decide to root on this particular nation when the game is full of individual disciplines?
I thought you'd select Norway because you've seen their athletes win in the past, in sport disciplines you find the most interesting.

edit: shall we make a new topic for the games, or use this one temporarily (I can edit the subject).
 
Forostar said:
Norway is the most successful nation in Winter Olympics. Red: past nations.
Click to expand...

That table has a very strange way of counting, though. If you add "Germany", "United Team of Germany", "West Germany" and "East Germany" together, the Krauts are quite a bit more successful.
 
Forostar said:
How do you decide who is worthy your support? Or how do you decide to root on this particular nation when the game is full of individual disciplines?
I thought you'd select Norway because you've seen their athletes win in the past, in sport disciplines you find the most interesting.
Click to expand...
"Worthy of my support" was meant humorously. I don't know, I just happen to like certain athletes. Typically, I root for teams and athletes that have caught my attention around the time I became interested in the sport in question. Most of my sports allegiances go back to the early 90's - in football mostly, but also in winter sports - and haven't changed since.

For example, the first winter Olympic games I remember watching were Albertville 1992. I didn't understand much but I loved the excitement, so for Lillehammer I was prepared to pay serious attention. Bang, there comes Bjørndalen and grabs my attention. An instant favourite, even though he was an underdog then. Ever since, I've loved Nowegian biathlon, both men and women. Later, I seem to have extrapolated that affection to other disciplines.

I would be okay with a new thread.
 
Perun said:
That table has a very strange way of counting, though. If you add "Germany", "United Team of Germany", "West Germany" and "East Germany" together, the Krauts are quite a bit more successful.
Click to expand...
I am having some deja-vu now. ;) But yeah, I guess that table is purely focused on nations and the time of these particular Olympic editions.
When one asks "how many medals did the Germans win" there's a bit more work/fuss to answer it.

Ariana said:
"Worthy of my support" was meant humorously. I don't know, I just happen to like certain athletes. Typically, I root for teams and athletes that have caught my attention around the time I became interested in the sport in question. Most of my sports allegiances go back to the early 90's - in football mostly, but also in winter sports - and haven't changed since.

For example, the first winter Olympic games I remember watching were Albertville 1992. I didn't understand much but I loved the excitement, so for Lillehammer I was prepared to pay serious attention. Bang, there comes Bjørndalen and grabs my attention. An instant favourite, even though he was an underdog then. Ever since, I've loved Nowegian biathlon, both men and women. Later, I seem to have extrapolated that affection to other disciplines.

I would be okay with a new thread.
Click to expand...
I certainly can see how a first impression works! My first Olympic Games that made an impression were the Summer Olympics in LA (huge impression) and Winter Games in Sarajevo (not so huge impression, I do not recall much apart from Karin Kania). Sarajevo was the first (and until now last) Winter Games for my country with zero medals, since 1956.

Watching these Games I do not have a favourite nation, when it concerns "the other countries", I guess I am getting into the sporters and disciplines as soon they start. I do have some "favourite" category of sporters though. Often these are people who are older, and/or have performed at several previous Olympic Games, apart from their result. I am always very impressed when people maintain their level of performances for such a long time. I do like to see underdogs have success as well though. This also depends on people their attitude/appearance.

Yes, let's do a new thread.
 
Perun said:
That table has a very strange way of counting, though. If you add "Germany", "United Team of Germany", "West Germany" and "East Germany" together, the Krauts are quite a bit more successful.
Click to expand...
Hardly fair in some ways, because the Germans got two kicks at the can for awhile there.
 
^ you had two friends, one was nowhere to be seen, and another was Luigi.

Winning wasn't an option.
 
Cycling ... cycle ... I see what you did there.

I happened to watch a bit of the Welsh Open in snooker last night. The 3rd frame between Mark Williams and Aditya Mehta saw the Indian leading clearly, with Williams needing at least one snooker to steal it. The problem was, the black was locked in a corner behind four of the five remaining reds (at times all five reds were there), the pink was up against the cushion and the only easily accessible coloured was the yellow. In other words, Williams needed Mehta to miss and pot the black, in order for Williams to play it out. But instead of giving up the frame (he was 2-0 up) he played on until he himself made the miss, after more than one hour ...!
 
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