What is the sports policy of Norway youths.

Their biggest track star, Karsten   Warhol, came to Eugene on the back of a hamstring injury that kept him out of competition for 10 months. The world no.2 in men’s 400 m hurdles, two-time defending Worlds champion, and the holder of a world-record time (45.94 seconds) set at the Tokyo Olympics last year,  Warhol was clearly out of touch, finishing seventh.

 However, the brunt of Norwegian expectation was reserved for 21-year-old Jakob Ingebritsen. The men’s 1500 m world no.1 and reigning Olympic champion may have been disappointed to bag silver at the event  but later redeemed himself by securing the country’s only gold of the tournament in the men’s 5000 m.

  Whether they lived up to their lofty standards or not, the duo are undoubtedly two of the biggest track stars in the world, coming from a country that, despite a population of 5.4 million people – a few hundred thousand short of that of Ahmedabad – has emerged as one of the most successful sporting nations in the world.

 The Norwegian establishment introduced ‘Child Rights in Sports’ back in 1987, but the 2007 update is what propelled the current generation of athletes. The eight-page-long document can be summarized by its very first sentence: “Children are engaged in sports because they enjoy it.”

  In Norway, a record number of children take part in sports, not because of organized competitions, but because they enjoy it. There are no competitive events till the age of 12, and children are not allowing to specialize. The result is that most kids participate in various different sports, which not only helps take the pressure off, but also aids their physical development more holistically.

 Even the prodigious track runner since he was eight, who completed the 1500 m/5000 m double at the European Championships at the age of 17, was pushed into different sports by his family as a child. “All of us have been playing football, skiing and running and a lot of different stuff. It’s definitely something to consider – start being really active and training from an early age,” he was quoted as saying by World Athletics.

 This policy’s success speaks for itself. At the Winter Olympics this year, the Scandinavian country topped the medal table with 37, with another table-topping feat of 16 golds. And while the Nordic country’s climate makes it a natural home for winter sports, their success in summer sports has been unprecedented too.

 The World No. 1 chess player and reigning five-time World Champion Magnus Carlson also comes from Norway, so does 2022 French Open runner-up and men’s World No. 6 Casper Rudd, and Viktor Howland, the World No. 9 golfer who finished a tied fourth the Open this month. Add to path breaker for women’s sport who won the first-ever women’s Ballon d’Or and is a six-time winner of the UEFA Women’s Champions and the top scorer in the competition’s history.

 This Norwegian concept is unlike developed countries like the United States, where children are pushed into competitive environments at a young age and there is a huge clamoring for scholarships. Or unlike India, where the competition is high and stakes even higher for athletes who wish to pursue sports professionally and they must be able to compete at the highest level by a certain age to do so.