section_path: Culture/Sports
section_name: Sports
paragraph_text: Sports
  
  Sports are a central part of Norwegian culture, and popular sports include cross-country skiing, ski jumping, mountaineering, hiking, association football, handball, biathlon, speed skating, and, to a lesser degree, ice hockey.
  
  Norway is known internationally for its role in the development of modern winter sports, particularly skiing. From the 19th century Norway also became a premier mountaineering destination, with books such as William Cecil Slingsby 's Norway, the Northern Playground contributing to the country's popularity among early mountain climbers.
  
  Association football is the most popular sport in Norway in terms of active membership. In 2014–2015 polling, football ranked far behind biathlon and cross-country skiing in terms of popularity as spectator sports. Ice hockey was the biggest indoor sport as of 2013. The women's handball national team has won several titles, including two Summer Olympics championships (2008, 2012), three World Championships (1999, 2011, 2015), and six European Championship (1998, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014). Men's handball experienced a boom in the late 2010's and early 2020's, with star players including Sander Sagosen and Magnus Abelvik Rød, the Norway national handball team reaching the finals of the 2017 and 2019 IHF World Men's Handball Championships, and Kolstad Håndball having among the highest group stage average crowds in the 2023–24 and 2024–25 EHF Champions League seasons.
  
  In association football, the women's national team has won the FIFA Women's World Cup in 1995 and the Olympic Football Tournament in 2000. The women's team also has two UEFA European Women's Championship titles (1987, 1993). The men's national football team has participated three times in the FIFA World Cup (1938, 1994, and 1998), and once in the European Championship (2000). The highest FIFA ranking Norway has achieved is second, a position it has held twice, in 1993 and in 1995.
  
  Norwegian players in the National Football League in American football include Halvor Hagen, Bill Irgens, Leif Olve Dolonen Larsen, Mike Mock, and Jan Stenerud.
  
  Bandy is a traditional sport in Norway and the country is one of the four founders of Federation of International Bandy. As of January 2018, the men's national team has captured one silver and one bronze, while the women's national team has managed five bronzes at the World Championships.
  
  Norway first participated at the Olympic Games in 1900, and has sent athletes to compete in every Games since then, except for the sparsely attended 1904 Games and the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow when they participated in the American-led boycott. Norway leads the overall medal tables at the Winter Olympic Games by a considerable margin. Norway has hosted the Games on two occasions:
  
  It also hosted the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics in Lillehammer, making Norway the first country to host both Winter regular and Youth Olympics.
  
  Norway featured a women's national team in beach volleyball that competed at the 2018–2020 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup, and later a men's national team in beach volleyball at the 2020 Summer Olympics that won gold metal.
  
  Chess has gained huge popularity in Norway. Magnus Carlsen, a Norwegian, was the world chess champion between 2013 and 2023. Many of the biggest chess tournaments are broadcast live on national television, with the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships airing on the country's biggest television channel NRK1.
  
  Norway has produced many track and field athletes at the highest international levels, including, but not limited to, Egil Danielsen and Andreas Thorkildsen (Men's javelin throw), Grete Waitz (Women's long distance running), Vebjørn Rodal, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, and Henrik Ingebrigtsen (Men's middle distance running), Karsten Warholm (Men's 400m running and hurdles), Sander Skotheim and Markus Rooth (Men's pentathlon), and Kristian Blummenfelt (Men's triathlon).