Did you know that…

…the Norwegian athlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen is trying to beat the all time record for medals won at the Winter Olympics?  He currently has 9 medals and if he earns another 4, he will pass Bjoern Daehlie (also of Norway) as the all time winter medal winner. 

…Norway has the most winter olympics medals of all time?  Norway has claimed 280 total medals (98 gold, 98 silver, and 84 bronze) between 1924 and 2006.  They are followed by the Soviet Union/Russia at 217 and the US at 216.

…Norway is one of only four countries that has had the same athlete medal at both the summer and winter games?  Jacob Tullin Thams won the very first gold medal in ski jumping in 1924 and then went on to win silver in 1936 as a member of the Norwegian sailing team in Berlin.

…the first biathlon competition in recorded history was in Norway in 1767? The first modern biathlon race was sponsored by the Norwegian military in 1921, but it was a team sport. The sport was actually called Military Patrol originally at the Olympics in 1924. The biathlon became a individual sport at the Olympic Games in 1960.

…the ski jump was also invented in Norway? Olaf Rye is credited with inventing the activity in 1809 with the first competition taking place in 1862 in Trysil.