Why Germany?

Germany currently has 21 medals to the U.S.'s 25. Pretty good for a country that is roughly 1/4 the size of the U.S. This isn't a fluke either. Germany had a combined 33 medals in the winter games in '88 and has not gotten fewer than 22 in any winter olympic since. I wonder if it has something to do with the historical communist influence. The olympics offered bragging rights for the Free and Communist World. Communist countries were renowned for the resources they would devote to the games. To that end, East Germany always received more medals than did West Germany. When the wall fell Germany was reunited, but the institutions that trained top athletes were able to persist because of the relative affluence of the country. Impoverished Russia, on the other hand was not able to maintain their olympic training organizations and as a result their medal count has diminished. That is why (according this speculative theory, anyway) Germany has been so dominant in the winter olympics.

As for Norway, I got nothing.