Norway targets top-three finish

Norway has set a target of a top-three finish in the medal table at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the Scandinavian team's chef de mission, Tore Ovrebo, has revealed.

Norway plans to send a delegation of more than 300 people, including about 125 athletes, to the 2022 Games, with a top-three finish firmly in their sights, Ovrebo said via video link as part of an activity to mark the one-year countdown to Beijing 2022. The event was staged virtually by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Beijing and consulate generals in Shanghai and Guangzhou.

As a traditional winter sports power, Norway topped the medal table at Pyeongchang 2018, with a total haul of 39, including 14 golds.

"This means the Norwegian people will have great expectations for what we are going to achieve in 2022," Ovrebo said.

Norway's Paralympic chef de mission, Zahl Pedersen, said that athletes with disabilities are faced with even greater difficulties than their able-bodied counterparts during the COVID-19 pandemic, and are making "significant efforts" to prepare for the Winter Games with support from the country's Paralympic committee.

Pedersen said the Norwegian Paralympic team will participate in all six sports and hopes to yield better results in Beijing than in Pyeongchang, where Norway bagged eight medals in total.

The 13-time Paralympic gold medalist made special mention of China's wheelchair curling team, which beat Norway in the final in Pyeongchang.

"We are very eager and engaged to beat China in wheelchair curling," said Pedersen.

Norwegian athletes including speed skaters Sverre Lund Pedersen and Havard Lorentzen, freeskier Birk Ruud and curlers John Shuster and Cory Christensen, shared their aspirations for Beijing 2022 in video messages.

"I'm really looking forward to the Winter Olympics Beijing 2022. My goal is to ski in all three disciplines and I'll do my best," Ruud said.

"The dream situation will be three medals around my neck."

Norwegian Ambassador to China, Signe Brudeset, expressed confidence in the successful staging of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

The ambassador acknowledged that, despite the pandemic, all the competition venues for Beijing 2022 have been completed.

"We are confident that China will host an excellent Olympics and China will do very well next year," she said.

As part of China and Norway's official sports cooperation, which began in 2017, Norwegian coaches and athletes have been helping Chinese teams to prepare for Beijing 2022－especially in cross-country skiing and biathlon. In additions, many of China's youth athletes have been attending sports high schools and training camps in Norway.

Einar Bjorndalen, the head coach of China's biathlon team, said the squad is performing well after about eight months of training in China. The pandemic forced the cancellation of the team's European training stint.

"One year to go for the Olympics, we are in good shape and we are training hard every day," said the biathlon legend, who also spoke via video link.

As Norway has a population of just 5 million, the ambassador was wowed by China's ambition to engage 300 million people in winter sports.

"This will help improve the general health of the Chinese population, and it's simply fun," she said, adding that the growing passion for winter sports in the world's most populous nation will boost cooperation between China and Norway.

"We value the close collaboration with China in the field of winter sports. Together we have the potential to make sports thrive across borders," she concluded.

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games will be held Feb 4-20 next year, with the Paralympics following from March 4-13.

Xinhua