An op-ed piece by New York Times columnist David Brooks this week used the tale of one brave WWII-era Norwegian to explain tiny Norway’s traditional dominance of the Olympic Winter Games. Jan Baalsrud (whose story is the subject of David Howarth’s We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance, tried to sneak back into Norway to help resistance fighters but was repeatedly attacked and chased by Nazis. As he swam through icy waters, climbed mountains, endured frostbite and gangrene, and survived an avalanche, Baalsrud was helped by ordinary citizens who risked the safety of whole villages by hiding and transporting him north to Sweden. Brooks ascribed Norway’s Olympic success to this combination of community spirit and gritty resilience. And, of course, the snowy country’s national obsession with winter sports doesn’t hurt either. Howarth’s book has gotten great reviews—we look forward to reading it.
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