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Norwegian gap: With 5.3 million inhabitants, Norway continues to produce super-athletes - Walla! Tokyo 2020 Olympics

2021-08-03T17:04:25.983Z


The record set by Carsten and Raholm was rated by the International Athletics Federation as fourth in nature, and before "blaming" the carbon on the shoes, it's worth taking a look at the well-oiled Norwegian system nurtured by an athlete. Lorholm himself was what it took to become one, and he took advantage of every element along the way to do so


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Norwegian gap: With 5.3 million inhabitants, Norway continues to produce super-athletes

The record set by Carsten and Raholm was rated by the International Athletics Federation as fourth in nature, and before "blaming" the carbon on the shoes, it's worth taking a look at the well-oiled Norwegian system nurtured by an athlete.

Lorholm himself was what it took to become one, and he took advantage of every element along the way to do so

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  • Carsten and Raholm

  • 2021 Olympics

Danny Borszewski

Tuesday, 03 August 2021, 18:30 Updated: 18:32

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The International Athletics Federation (IAAF) has a scoring system that calculates the quality of results in each of the athletics professions, in order to try and compare the different professions.

According to this method, the highest quality world record is the 9.58 seconds of Usain Bolt in the 100 meters, which is worth 1,355 points.

The second record in quality is Bolt's world record in the 200, which is worth 1,350 points.

And there's another record, Mike Powell's 8.95 meters in the long jump, which is worth 1,346 points.



To this day, even the other most impressive results, including those of Florence Griffith Joiner and even of the world champion in the 400, Marita Koch from East Germany, have not come close to this quality - until Carsten and Raholm arrived.

The phenomenal result we saw today, 45 seconds and 94 hundredths, is worth 1,340 points.

There may be those who say that what happened today at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo was even more impressive than what Bolt did, but what is certain is that we saw one of the 5 biggest events in athletics of all time - in terms of quality of result.

More on Walla!

With an amazing world record: Carsten Verholm won gold in the 400-meter hurdles

To the full article

He does not believe, neither do we - but here is the perfect athlete.

Carsten Warholm (Photo: Reuters)

Of course technology plays an important part in this record, as well as in the insane result of Olympic runner-up Benjamin Rai and bronze medalist Alison dos Santos, but the analysis of the carbon issue in shoes should be left to the conclusion of the athletics competition.

In the end, with or without carbon, Verholm would probably break the world record today and justify what Norway has long thought of - that he is the perfect athlete.



One should understand that sometimes in life one also needs a lot of luck, timing and good decisions. Until 7 years ago, 25-year-old Rahulam was a successful youth wrestler. He was even the World Junior Champion 8 in 2013. But when it came to the graduation stage, he and his coaches realized that Warholm's abilities in the throwing professions would not bring him to the world top. He could go on to be a world-class wrestling athlete, represent Norway at the Olympics and World Championships and make a not bad career at all, or even retire after fine achievements in youth as happens to many other world champions for youth who failed to advance further. Instead, he chose to look for the profession that best suited him when the options were long jump, 110 hurdles or 400 hurdles which is something that many martial artists do not usually dream of at all.



He was in the right place, at the right time and with the right people.

It may be that even among athletes who have won Olympic medals in their professions, you will find those who could have been promoted in other professions and not just excelled in the professions they chose.

That's the beauty of athletics.

There are thin long-distance runners and there are throwers with genetic data that explain quite clearly why they chose their professions.

On the other hand, there is an athlete out there who can be good at a lot of things, like Ronaldo in football.

The next Norwegian star on the runway.

Jacob Ingbrigsten (Photo: GettyImages, Michael Steele)

More on Walla!

  • With an amazing world record: Carsten Verholm won gold in the 400-meter hurdles

  • Verholm does not digest the record: "This is the closest there is to the perfect run"

  • Do not compromise on unsatisfying sex life: this is how you will improve your performance - with an exclusive discount

And there is something else to keep in mind. Karsten Warholm is a product of the Norwegian system, which repeatedly proves itself to be probably the best in the world. Before we get into that let’s be clear, Norway is a country of 5.3 million inhabitants. So far in Tokyo 2020 they have 4 medals with 2 of them in gold, but it should be remembered that the Norwegians mostly love winter sports and at the Winter Olympics they sweep more medals than the major countries in the world.



This marvelous system, which produced both the new Olympic champion in triathlon, Christian Blumenfelt, and the next Norwegian athlete to star on the track in Tokyo, Jacob Ingbrigsten, has become the most impressive incubator for athletes in a wide range of Olympic summer disciplines in the last decade.



As early as 1987, the Norwegian Olympic Committee signed all the sports associations in the country on a document called "Children's Rights in Sport", and what it says in a sentence or two is that every sport should be accessible to every child in Norway (state-funded) and that children should not experience Stress in their teens. This decision means that today more than 90 percent of Norway's children play sports, with the country encouraging them to try as many sports as possible to get something from each sport, and until the age of 12 they do not participate in competitions at all but only train to enjoy sports as much as possible.



Werholm, Blumenfelt, Ingbrigsten (all the brothers) and many more good ones experienced in all sports as children, including football. They were not victims of the various systems that plague every athlete, nor were they under pressure to star in high school to get a college scholarship. And yes, Norway is one of the richest countries in the world and they have the privilege of doing so.

A lot of pressure was released on the track - also because of the corona (Photo: Reuters)

Corona.

We have already seen this in the few athletic events that managed to take place last summer and we are seeing it now.

Sport is entertainment, we know it, and the audience's need for entertainment creates a huge burden on every athlete in the world.

NBA players can afford mediocre play here and there, with high-level athletes it looks less good.

And that means a lot of stress, a lot of grueling and hurtful training, and all this so that the whole world can enjoy you, about once every two to three weeks in the middle of the athletics season.



What we are seeing now is, among other things, a result of closures, releasing stress, focusing on training and strengthening the weak points, rehabilitating the body that is so injured and maybe even fewer illnesses during training periods due to the use of masks.

So yes, technology also played an important part in Warholm's achievement but no less so, so did the Corona.



Danny Borszewski is an athletics commentator on the sports channel and Schwang.

Formerly a Walla!

And Walla messenger!

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Source: walla

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