ZHANGJIAKOU, China — At yet another Norway-mad Winter Olympics with Norway dominance and Norway medals and Norway flags and the Norway anthem and really cool official Norway ski caps all over the place, there came a gripping event Tuesday in which Norway trailed considerably.
Norway does trail sometimes, even as it has wrung a dynasty from a mere 5.5 million citizens, and even as it leads the medals and the gold medals here with 28 and 13. It romped through PyeongChang 2018 with a record 39 medals and finished a narrow second to host Russia at Sochi 2014 but really won considering Russia’s spectacular cheating scandal. Even with its national anthem containing the word “rugged,” plus the lyric, “Sure, we were not many, but we were enough,” and with that pulmonary superiority over others forged from a lifelong inhalation of frigid air while cross-country skiing from ages such as 2, Norway still can trail.
