Explainer | Beijing 2022: world’s best Winter Olympics countries – Which nations are most successful in snow and ice?

Norway still sitting pretty but the 12 member nations of the ‘23 club’ no longer have it all their own way as countdown to Beijing 2022 ticks past year mark

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The Netherlands owes a lot of its Olympic success to its rich history of speed skating. Photo: Vladimir Smirnov\TASS via Getty Images

Published: 3:00pm, 5 Feb 2021Updated: 11:28am, 7 Feb 2021

How does one possibly go about identifying the most successful nations in Winter Olympics history? Is an overachieving nation more successful than a dominant one? There are economic and cultural factors at play. How important is a nation’s population to determining if they punch above their weight in winter sports? Of course, delegation size has an effect on medal chances, but can one judge the question fairly if some countries get more snow and ice than others?

All questions for someone else.

This list of the most successful countries in Winter Games history is part data-driven (considering stats on participation and performance), part historical (looking at a country’s pedigree on the winter stage) and part feeling (everyone likes a good underdog story).

There are examples of these factors having some bearing on a nation’s Winter Olympics success equally, as often as there are of having none.

Iceland, for example, is darn cold. Greece, however, is not. Yet both of these nations have participated in the same number of Winter Olympics (19) with the same (lack of) success. Interestingly, both countries have sent a total of 99 athletes to the Games and neither have a single medal to show for it.