Why Norwegians Are SO GOOD at Skiing | American Reacts (Part 1) 

What many fail to realize is the fact Norway not only excel in winter sports, it's just where we dominate the most. We have world champions in everything from Beach Volleyball to Chess, through all types summer sports, motorsports, E-sports and sos on. It's not a matter of snow, but enabling youth to engage in sports and competitive interests from an early age, while not forcing them from an early age. We allow them to evolve skills through having fun and building true interests...

Every year many school in Norway has a day dedicated to “snow activities” also known as “Skidag”, “Ski day “. It is a day where the class spends the day outdoor. Back in days you could choose between cross country or alpine. But now children can choose between cross country, alpine, toboggan or ice skating. Sports equipment is expensive in Norway but that isn’t a problem because children and youths can borrow for free from a organisation called BUA. Here you can borrow equipment like: snowboard, longboard, skateboard, skates, skis, packraft, sup-board, roller skates, bicycles of various kinds, tents, hiking equipment and lots more. This makes the “Friluftsliv”, “outdoor life” more accessible for everyone.

To answer your question at 11:20. No, kids don't have skiis that are thinner to make it more difficult. Thinner skiis are better for longer trips, since they generate less friction but the tradeoff is worse balance since you're standing on a thinner blank. Now, there is a lot of details regarding skiis, going off track? Mostly on flat terrain? Deep snow or compact snow? All this affects how wide and long your skiis should be, so most kids gets decent all round skiis, which is still rather thin, since traveling is the primary goal but still fun to go downhill. Just gotta learn to balance.

The first time I took part in a ski race, I was five years old. And then we were told that the most important thing was not to win, but to participate. And when I turned seven, I took part in my first alpine race. And then it was run in ideal time, this to remove the winning instinct, even if some thought they would win! Even I won once! I can still remember that we used skis to school in the winter, especially on the days when there was a lot of snow. And the vast majority of schools had a fixed ski day, which was mostly a whole day where we went on a ski trip, either in the forest or up on the mountain. But when I was about eight years old, ice hockey also became important to me. Played until I was seventeen, when I went into the military. But even in the military we used skis as a means of getting around. The skis we had there we called Nato planks. But today, children are much less likely to go skiing, they would rather be inside playing TV games. But some parents are good at taking their children on ski trips too, and that's good, because to be honest, it's much more fun to be out skiing than playing TV games.

You should look at “The race to the South Pole”. In 1911, British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen both aimed to be the first to reach the South Pole.

I live close to Stavanger, and here we hardly see snow in the winter unless we get in the car and drive for an hour or 2 into the mountains. So, I hardly know how to ski

When I was growing up, there were some skis that were quite short, with straps that you attached the shoes you wore to the skis, and these skis were made of plastic, and required quite good balance to be good at. Where I lived these became very popular, and almost every day there was either a jump race on these or a downhill race. And then the ground was laid the same day, where everyone helped trample down the snow so it became firmer, so it was easier to jump or drive where we were. It could be in the garden or in the forest. And as mentioned, these were not so easy to stand on, so some people crashed with a tree, or simply missed the jump. But these skis gave us so much fun. We used, for example, the garage roof to jump from, but then we did not land on a hill, but in a large pile of snow. It was a lot of fun with these skies!

USA have one of the best Woman Cross Country skier"s in the world. Jessica Diggins. She Have Won the most you can win in Cross Country Ski :)

You understand more Norwegian than i thought, this was a good episode by the way. I give it a like. The skijump is Holmenkollen in Oslo where king Olav V jumped back in time.

Norway is an awesome country. ❤

When we were kids, grandpa and grandma used to arrange a ski competition for all of the kids in the family whenever we went to their cabin for Easter ❤

Norwegian go to the alps in the summer and autumn to train for ski, so it’s not only in Norway the conditions are good for skiing. But we are few people, so I wonder more about why Americans with kind of similar conditions, part of the year are not better at this?cuz you actually have a couple of really good ones.Kikkan Randell and Jessica Diggans. Oh by the way cross country ski in general are very thin 😊

No, the cross country skies are the same, the point was that these skies are not as wide as f ex slalom skies or jumping skies. Then you have something in between that is called Telemarkski. Wich id dort of a hybrid between cross country skies and alpine skies. Probanly the most "original" form of skies. But little known outside of Norway.

Norway (per capita) is certainly the best alpine and langlauf skiing nation. The US and Canada have the finest freestyle skiiers, however. Three of my grandsons have been avid skiiers since pre-school, and they say that they regularly meet Norwegian kids when at Italian, French, Swiss, and Austrian slopes, but when wild, off-piste skiing at Blackcomb or Jackson Hole, all the best teenage boys are from the US and Western Canada. 🇨🇦

Hey, Tyler. How about engaging with the comment section???

When the war started in 1940 my grandfather was at the west coast of Norway. He walked/ski'ed home alone, some help crossing some fjords, a journey that is by car today 425 kilometer, or 264 miles.....

When I was a child we didn't have roads to everywere, specially in the north of Norway. And quite few cars. Here were more boats than cars. In Norway it's a lots of fjords, and if you scould get around, you hade to sometimes cross a mountain . With skies it was possible to do. We went to school on skies sometimes, and also to my grandmother. And when my child was born he was with us. First in a kind of backsack and after in a sledge.

Tyler; In Norway you will find the world's largest ski jump, where the current record is 253 metres. We call this a "ski flying hill", or also "monster hill". You can take into account that a girl made the world's longest jump ever in Vikersund's hill, with 226 meters in 2023. The Holmenkollen hill that you see in this film is the hill record ONLY 144 meters, so it is a "Normal hill", but it didn't start with such lengths, because there has been a ski jump in the same place since 1892, and the record then was 21.5 metres. But like everything else, it has developed over the years since then, and has become what you see in the film! Even the "King of Norway" has jumped in Holmenkollen, and it was King Olav, Harald's father! He even took part in jumping in 1922 and in 1923. And Holmen kollen has always been seen as the "King of the hill" av athletes from all over the world!

I guess you should read up on your own country too, there are a lot of snowy areas in the US, not only here in Norway. Some of the best downhill skiers, snowboarders, cross country skiers (women) are US Americans. Norwegians for the most part, needs to travel to the mountains to be able to ski properly with the exception of a couple of months a year (recent years not even that). We have some success in the summer olympics as well now 😊

The look of horror/terror on Tylers face when he saw the skijump was just golden. I understand him though, it looks terrifying.

And if 6 months of winter isn't enough, we've got an indoor skiing facility open all year for winter activities, called Snø (snow)

The concept of "spare time" (believe it or not) came first after the industrialization. This is when George Mallory and other famous explorers basically _had the time_ to do such things, and the start of "sports" was born. So in the context of "Norwegians decided to do this" it was more like, we finally got some spare time too, and wanted in on sports, and decided "this is something we're good at" I guess.

Norway has a «the outdoors os good for you» mindset and dont let weather stop us from enjoying the outdoors. If there is snow, we bring out skiis and snowboarding and sleds whatever works to play outdoors in the slow. Snowball fights, making igloos, snow castles were all things I experienced regularly as a child in winter times. When there is sun and its weekends we go hiking in spring time, its stunning to see the greenery coming back and its perfect weather for hiking, not to hot but sunny and bright and lots of hiking areas we can enjoy. Summer holidays means cabin until summer holidays end, and we enjoy bathing in the sea, lakes, running around the mountains and countryside playing outside everyday in the sunny summer weather or traveling to countries for summer holidays to enjoy different cultures and new experiences. I remember traveling around Europe and the US as a kid. The adventure parks in florida was an epic experience for teen me. The point is Norwegians want to be outside, we want kids to be outside. We know it is good for us and we find ways to enjoy it as a family from an early age, regardless of weather.

Terje Haakonsen is one of my biggest winter sports idols even though I never got fully into (Edit: LOL why did one of my words magically disappear?!? These parentheses are in its place. I said a slang word for snowboard. "Snøfjøl". I added "kjøring" at the end which means driving.) at all. He's such a pioneer and clinically underestimated. He's probably more known in USA than in Norway even, but perhaps Shaun White has taken over in fame now... Which is also why I like him. Such an extremely humble and down to Earth character. If I'm not mistaken, he even did the occasional mentoring of the now adult White. He never really competed much because he didn't like the idea of competing for money and fame. The few times he did (probably due to external pressure) he left jaws on the floor everywhere and just kept breaking records with not only a little. In modern terms... what an absolute Chad. I guess he's faded into obscurity now... Next after him, Nicolai Schirmer is perhaps my favourite (side by side with Candid Thovex) and another "obscure" national I really like is Magnus Midtbø (though that's climbing and not related to winter sports)

I’m a Norwegian and I started skiing at 2 years old😅

Tyler is fantastic, this video, a tear in my eye ❤

The filosofi behinde it all. Is widespread trugh out teatshing. I worked in music for ower 30 years. Starting 1/1 one hour a week, for obout ayear. (Named: aspirant). Then we forme smaler bands. (Named: recrutes). 10-30 students. Retshing a serten leve, you'v earned your plase in the orcesthera. My last preformance as an condoctur. Was a 2,5 houer preformance. The orcesthera ranged from age 9 years to 75 years of age. New and former students. Ca 50-55 persons strong. The theme of the consert was music out of movies. (Police academi match, greas, lord of the rings, les miserable, and more). Ages 9 - 75. Audiens and myselfe were brought to tears. I am humbled. Love of music knows no bounderyes. Best regards.

The reason Norwegians are so good at skiing is that they HAVE to be, as most Trolls are active during winter-time, when there is snow in a lot of place in Norway, and he only way to survive an encounter with a Troll is to ski away the fastest that you can.

Hei. For me it went the other way. I live in a montain village in Telemark. I was forced to ski from the moment i got out of the "pulk", now as a 40+ year old i stil dont like to ski. (I dont mind Down hill or slalåm).

I think I had my first skiis around 3 yrs. old.

I think that the tourist mentioning the narrow cross country skis that the kids use meant that a cross country ski is not as wide and sturdy as a typical alpine ski

There is a law stating you are not allowed to time or run records of their performance until they turn 13. This is to ensure the correct mentality in children sport. Also we don't have thin skies to teach them balance. Those are traditional cross-country skies. They are a lot thinner than downhill

Skiing in Norway is more than 1000 year old tradition, we dont really know when or who starting using skis but we know "vikings" used them. Of course the Sport is relatively new.

I grew up in the 1960's, taking part in sports was also dependant on the size of the family. 4 or more children per family with only the father being the bread winner, was the most common family type. So playing sport wasn't most common thing when you were growing up

Yes, many can access skiing right outside their doors, but not all. The coastal parts of South-Western Norway hardly ever have skiing conditions right outside, this winter beeing an exception. Though our kids too get to try skiing since the schools have ski-days with busses taking them to the snow. If we drive an hour or three we'll find snow enough to make ski traks / slopes. Norway has close to 19,000 miles of skitracks regurlarly maintained troughout the winter season. In comparison, a trip across USA, cost to coast is 2800 miles long ...

I previously thought I learnt to ski at age 3. According to my dad (he disagreed sceptically), I started about 2-2.5 years old, pretty much before I started to walk. Regardless, I've loved friluftsliv and mountaineering, off piste and long hard treks my whole life.

I am a norwigian and I started ski when I was 1 hand a half years old😅

Skiing is part of education in Norwegian schools, and it is not unusual for children to come to school on skis. In large parts of the country, they have snow all winter. In other parts of the country, the school takes the opportunity to carry out skiing activities as soon as it snows enough to ski, and if there is no snow, they travel on day trips into the country or up in the mountains so that the pupils get at least one day of skiing activities. I have worked in schools for many years, also in parts of the country with little snow. If there was a winter with little snow, we cleared space on the weekly schedule to take the chance when the snow came. The school built up a stock of skis, so they had some to lend to students who did not have their own skis - usually children of immigrants from warmer countries. In addition, the school had at least one day on the ice skating every winter, and the classes also went on separate trips to skate.

Norwegians walks uphill and downhill from they was born which make strong legs .. Sweden is a flat land but in some hilly areas there they produce good skiing children . And then you have Denmark , yes u know that skiing story

Ski is also a norwegian word, meaning a split wooden log.

You have Jessica Diggins, Julia Kern, Rosie Brennan and Kikkan Randall. Kikkan is no longer racing for USA pro team. But she did just up to a few seasons ago. Why America don’t give Jessica Diggins more credit I don’t understand. She is an amazing skier and have won Tour the Ski, Olympic medals, world champion, won the World Cup overall, won over 20 World Cup races. I mean you have strong women doing very well. The men are also getting there. Gus Schumacher won the World Cup race in Minneapolis in February 2024. So you have many good skiers

I have some Romani blood in me from a great grandmother and I'm convinced that's why I wasn't born with skis on my legs like all the other Norwegians

You can compare skiing to college sports. With my age (49) I know a few that have won Medals from where I grew up. (Kjelsås).

They come into this world on skiis

I never liked cross-country skiing, of course I have done it....a lot when I was younger. I liked alpine skiing more. But I like orienteering, don't know if that's a sport at all in the US of A. :) But most of my training have been in power lifting and martial arts. I was NOT born with skies. But that 95% of younger people have at some point in life been in orginazed sports....that's probably true. Or at least it used to be. :)

When childrens sports are too serious, it also ruins talent. Erling Braut Haaland was far below average in his youth and clumsy, but because Norwegian sports are so inclusive, he was allowed to grow. And now people are researching whether the lack of good and tall footballers could be that the kids who grow fast, are clumsy when they are young and fall out of football because of that. If he had quit when he was twelve, he wouldn't be a global star now. I would love it if that hypothesis turned out to be correct.

Cross-country skies are thinner than slalom skies. We would use cross-country skies to go to and from school in the winter.

You need to dive into skiflying Tyler. You wount regret😅

The children does not have thinner skies, but cross country skies are thinner than slalom skies in general. Children`s cross country skies are a bit broader than adults to help them build balance :)

FUN FACT: The Norwegians didn’t invent cross country skiing as we know it today, the indigenous Sámi did, from the style of diagonal walking, bindings and two sticks, all taken from the Sámi, yet we love to claim it as ours, and our country’s claim to fame! The Norwegians probably invented skii jumping, but who knows… at least a certain style of jumping. Tho skis has been found in ancient China🤷🏾‍♀️ And it’s a stereotype that all Norwegians are good at skiin or love it. Yes we grow up with it, and the average Norwegian is decent at it. I stopped when my mom could no monger force me🤣🤣🤣 In Norway you either love or hate skiing. And it’s always cross country vs downhill/alpine…

Well...something the voice did`t say...Our late King Olav in 1922 also jumpski in Holmekollen.. He jump 33 meters🤴

The misconception that every norwegian place has snow and skiing possibilities annoy me. Its NOT correct. I live in the biggest city on the south coast, and we have no skijumps or alpine slopes here. Not because of lack of terrain, but lack of winters. There used to be in the 1980s and early 90s, but they all went bankrupt due to lack of snow. This winter has been special.. we've had like 3-4 weeks of snow on the ground. Thats rare.. usually we have 2-4 days. Most people in norway live in the south, not the north... A bit like america and Alaska...

Im 13 and from norway and i have. Never gone sking😊

Noo he is learning our secrets !!!

How do you make 2 parts of an 8,30 min video....

There is no specially thin skis for the kids. Crosscountry skis are vere thin compared to Slalom skis.

What about wioming, decota, montanaå etc?

Jessica Digins

Keep something in mind, most of us Norwegians now give zero craps about skiing.

I may tell you that I hate skiing!! Lots of hugs from Eva from Norway❤

Norwegian here, I could ski before I could ride a bike.

Norwegians are born with skis. Half the population goes into the countryside every weekend, every vacation and even extends their vacations to ski more... that's all they do 😅 Impossible to work with, they're always out of office.. skiing.

Er det bare jeg som syntes den videoen Tyler så på her suger baller?

It is a little strange that you claim you don't have Cross Country Skiiers, when you have Jessica Diggins 😉

... YEP!

Actually, USA has the best skier in the world rigt now. By far. Jessica Diggins 😊

Neither Nansen or Amundsen reached the North Pole. It was Peary together with inuits. Amundsen was however first to the South Pole. Nansen and his crew was the people who reached closest to the North Pole before Peary.

Maybe 10% in school that think Skiing are fun...

4 To 7 yo going siis or downhill just normal

Gee, Tyler, which country has a history of dominating the Summer Olympics? (Hint Your own. It's not too shabby at the Winter Olympics either.)

There are American high school kids who play in front of THOUSANDS of people (in some cases 10,000-25,000 people in high school specific stadiums).

I have seen the first 6 minutes, and so far the video he watches, seems like pretty much bullshit. Tyler needs to find a better video about why Norway is so go at Skiing, or pretty much any sport.

Have you ever heard of, e.g., age group swimming? My God, you're clueless about everything. Guess who won a gold medal in the women's 100m breaststroke at the most recent Summer Olympics -- an ALASKAN. (P.S. Real snow exists in the Lower 48, too. Did you see this past week's snowfall at, e.g., Tahoe in the Sierras? No.)

We have skiday at School.

It's about the only thing they are good at. That and BS.