Norway Heavy Favorite to Capture Most Gold Medals at 2022 Olympics
By Matt De Saro
While the Summer Olympics have traditionally been dominated by the United States, Russia, and Germany, the Winter Games tend to go a bit differently. Germany and Russia still remain in the mix, but Norway is the third-winningest country in the history of the Winter Olympics. Norway ranks 21st overall in gold medals won during the Summer Games for reference.
As of this writing, the gold medal count is as follows:
- Sweden 3
- ROC 2
- Netherlands 2
- China 2
- Germany 2
- Norway 2
- Slovenia 2
While Sweden is the only country with three gold medals so far, there is a lot of competition yet to be had. Heading into the winter games Norway was the consensus favorite to take home the most hardware during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Germany was considered a distant second while Canada, the ROC, and the USA made up the rest of the top five when odds opened in December.
Now that the games have begun, Norway is looking to lead the field in gold medals for the third time in a row and the fourth time in the last seven Winter Olympics. The last time Norway failed to finish as the gold medal leader was in 2010 when they missed by just a few to Canada.
While Norway may be the odds on favorite, they are far from the best value bet you can make on the Winter Olympics. Germany and Canada are both capable of knocking Norway off their pedestal and at much better odds. Consensus numbers have Germany at around 7/1 and Canada at 9/1 to win the most gold medals over the next couple of weeks. Over the last 12 winter Olympics, both Germany and Canada finished in the top five at least. Germany has won that race twice while Canada led once.
Germany also tied with Norway back in 2018. For what it’s worth, the United States has finished with the highest medal total just once in the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in 1932. Ironically, Canada’s only year leading was also a year when they hosted the games back in 2010 in Vancouver. While the US is a real longshot, Canada and Germany feel like the best plays to make if you are looking at making any for this Gold Medal prop.