It was not looking good for Norway after three days of competition in Vancouver. Not a single gold and their star cross country skier Petter Northug had suffered humiliation in the 15 kilometresm, crossing the line 41st, less than a minute ahead of Britain's Andrew Musgrave. The whole country was beginning to wonder whether this was going to be their worst Olympics ever and the much-vaunted 100th gold would remain a dream.

The headlines reflected the Scandinavian angst, forecasting yet more black days as the first week wore on, but along came Marit Bjørgen to lift the curse with sprint gold and the nation breathed a sigh of relief. Just one away from the 100th gold.

With two biathletes in action on Thursday there was a strong likelihood that the ton would be reached and the viewing figures from that evening back home reflected the anticipation.

When Tora Berger lifted gold in the women's 15km, 1.3 millions Norwegians were glued to their television, cracking open the brennevin. That represents about 30 per cent of the population, the equivalent in Britain of 20 million viewers.

Broadsheet daily Aftenposten cemented the euphoria by plastering a full-page splash of Berger (pictured) across the front cover, pushing the international news to an insignificant side-bar. But then, like the proverbial London bus, no sooner had the 100th gold been placed around Berger's neck than Emil Helge Svendsen claimed the 101st in the men's 20km. And that was when all hell broke loose. In an attempt to be up-to-date, news editor Ole Erik Almlid ditched the Berger pic for one of Svendsen.



Norwegian culture is proud of its sexual equality and the substitution of a woman lifting historic gold - the first Norwegian woman in history to lift a biathlon olympic title - to be replaced by a male taking an anticlimactic 101 was more than the populace could bear.   The country is famous for its storms, but the maelstrom of protest on Facebook, Twitter, abusive telephone calls and mailbox messages was unprecedented.

"The biathletes got it right, we got it wrong," sounded the apology from Almlid. "I prostrate myself," continued the breast beating that would have done Tiger Woods proud. "We simply showed poor judgment."

In the country of snow, ice, mountains and glaciers, the winter Games have a special significance. Norway often looks with envy on the rest of the world, suffering from an inferiority complex and a fear that it is not where the action is. This is why the Winter Olympics is so important, because for once every four years Norway can compete on its own terms with the rest of the world.

What was making the whole country nervous this time was that neighboring Sweden, was doing so well. Gold from Charlotte Kalla in the 10km cross country and Bjørn Ferry in 12.5km biathlon pursuit had the Norwegians looking with envy across the border at the “søta bror” or “dear brother” as the Swedes are sarcastically known. The press even suggested they should celebrate Swedish success since they had none of their own to cheer.

Over in the tabloid Verdens Gang (VG) they were busy getting their own back on the Swedes after Berger had defended the country's "honour and glory". One of the pre-race favourites, Sweden's Helene Jonsson, was "completely broken and had tears streaming down her face and was utterly inconsolable" gloated VG's man in the mixed zone. The postmortem over Northug's spectacular failure in the 15km also features a Swede, Perry Olsson, who is still eating humble pie even though he is also credited with Bjørgen's two golds.

After languishing out of sight in the lower reaches of the medals table in the early part of the week, Norway is now back in its rightful place pushing for top spot with a total of ten, five of them gold. Now they can look forward to the rest of the Games and look down their noses at Sweden in a lowly 11th. But whatever they may go on to win, there will be no feeling as sweet as that 100th gold, 86 years and 19 days after Thorleif Haug took the first.

Michael Butcher is a freelance sports journalist who has lived and worked in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Spain and Iran. He was sports correspondent for The European and has contributed to all the major British newspapers. He has attended every summer Olympics and athletics world championships since 1988