– There is no good answer – VG

– There is no good answer, says Camilla Herrem, who may be on her way to fifth European Championship gold since she made a strong debut and took the party by storm in 2008.

Marit Malm Frafjord also secured her fourth European Championship gold when Norway last won in 2016.

– I don’t really know, answers the Trøndelag resident. He won his first European Championship 14 years ago.

– In the past, we have probably done well because there were very few days off. I remember that in 2006 there were eight games in 11 days. But now we have lost that advantage. Normally Norway has been a well-trained team that has endured many matches in a few days, says Malm Frafjord.

In Jutland, Norway has been exactly as good as in many previous European championships. Although the championship now lasts almost a week longer than in 2006. Norway have won three World Cup golds and two Olympic golds as well, but the numbers speak for themselves.

European Championship gold in 54 percent of the finals in which Norway has participated. Olympic gold at 29 percent, World Cup gold at just 16 percent (we’ve counted every World Cup since 1971).

And if we go a little deeper into the matter. Winning percentage in Euro games since Thorir Hergeirsson became national coach in 2009: 87 percent. World Cup games: 81 percent. OL: 70 percent.

Even though Norway has faced weak nations from Africa, South America, Asia and Oceania at the World Cup and the Olympics, therefore they win more often against stronger European nations at the European Championships.

– Yes, say it. I have also tried to find out for myself. But I don’t have a good answer for that, says Katrine Lunde. In Herning, the 40-year-old can win his fifth European Championship gold and his first in 10 years.

Heidi Løke says:

– Hmmm. No. I don’t know very well. At this European Championship, we have fewer injuries and more players available than at last year’s World Cup. But I don’t see the reason why we are better in the European Championship. But it has often been important that we have an extremely well-trained national team. We have players who can take a lot of stress. But now we have many more days off than we usually have.

Here’s the adventurous golden row.

Holland 1998: – I had to cry.

Marit Breivik had “warmed up with bronze in 1994, silver in 1996 before everything went well in Amsterdam four days before Christmas 1998. Anja Andersen had joined the national team and Denmark was crushed 24-16 by Norway in the final. Norway was renewed with brave players like Mia Hundvin and Else-Marthe Sørlie. Today’s national team coach, Tonje Larsen, was with him and Trine Haltvik finally got the gold after also being part of the breakthrough with him. World Cup bronze 12 years earlier, Norway won their first gold in handball and goalkeeper Heidi Tjugum was the best in the final.

– Everything that happened happened to me. I just had to cry everything. I thought about all the training and all the hard work behind it. The road to this has been long. This gold means a lot, Tjugum said after playing the last 10 minutes with tears in his eyes.

Hungary 2004: – Will celebrate all night!

Norway had lost the final of the European Championship to Denmark in Aarhus two years earlier. 2003 was a sporting disaster with sixth place in the World Cup and no Olympic place in Athens. Breivik failed in his plan, but came back strongly revitalized in 2004. Norway crushed Hungary for the first time with record numbers – 44-29 – in the semi-finals. Then the newly crowned Olympic winner Denmark was defeated 27-25 in the final. The European Championship gold was a first for Gro Hammerseng-Edin, Karoline Dyhre Breivang and a whole generation of golden girls. Katrine Lunde won her first title and today she is the only player left from the night Norway arrived in Budapest Budapest I VG.

– Now I’m happy and I want to celebrate all night! Hammerseng announced when he arrived at the Norwegian gold festival at 12:15 on Monday night. The captain was glad he didn’t have to go to bed.

Sweden 2006: – A “spiritual experience in the open air”

After half the team was injured during the 2005 World Cup, Norway in ninth place, the desire for revenge was huge in Sweden. Norway swept the championship with eight consecutive victories. Although the championship’s great player, Gro Hammerseng-Edin, was injured in the final, reigning world champion Russia was in place 27-24. Marit Marit Malm Frafjord experienced her first gold and Katrine Lunde was rock solid. But the final was dominated by three girls from Østfold. Anette Hovind Johansen was fantastic on defense and Ragnhild Aamodt scored the last three goals. But most of all, the 2006 final was about Kari Mette Johansen. The left wing dropped Russia by nine goals on nine shots.

– An “outdoor soul experience” … I really can’t point to anything that could have been done differently, he said before the golden party took off.

Nord-Makedonia 2008: – We are the champions

This year was Marit Breivik’s biggest. After 14 years as the head of the national team, she experienced the ultimate in leading the handball girls to the first Olympic title with the help of an absolutely perfect final in Beijing. The three months of the European Championship did not start so perfectly with a draw against debutant Spain. But Breivik cleaned up all the debris in the machinery and when the Spanish became opponents again in Skopje they won six games in a row. The final was also a parade march with 34-21. Camilla Herrem sang for the first time at the party and celebrated her first gold with Løke, Lunde and Malm Frafjord from today’s team. While Tonje Larsen and Kristine Lunde-Borgersen were Norway’s best players in the final of the European Championship.

– We are the champions, Herrem sang – later better known as “Tore Tang” – at the party.

Norway / Denmark 2010: Sweden would have problems

The handball girls were able to play their first and so far only Euro Cup matches at home. At Lillehammer, Sweden had big wins, stomach problems and losses. But Norway was not going to stop when it reached the final game, then as now, at Boxen in Herning. Denmark had sent some messages to northern Norway through the European Championship and ignited a heroic Gro Hammerseng-Edin – to the daily player of Ikast. He probably played the best game of his career when Denmark turned to ground beef in the semi-finals 29-19. The final of the European Championship was a good rematch against both Sweden and the norovirus that had devastated the far north of Mjøsa. Victory 25-20 and therefore both Nora Mørk and Stine Bredal Oftedal were EC champions. Karoline Dyhre Breivang became the final hero.

– We knew that Sweden would have problems if we kept running. So we raised the defense 30cm and ran what we could, he said.

Hungary / Croatia 2014: – Also impressed with myself

Thorir Hergeirsson’s new team was abruptly stopped in the World Cup quarterfinals the previous year. Before a new European Championship, the national coach put conscious pressure on the generation with Nora Mørk, Stine Bredal Oftedal, Veronica Kristiansen and Silje Solberg. He wanted grown women. The young players responded fantastically. For the first time, the fast-paced row devastated the knobs of the fast-paced cubes. Mørk was very good in the final, a very impressive Linn-Kristin Riegelhuth Koren. In Budapest, he was back in the room where he had won his first European Championship gold 10 years earlier: 10 goals on 10 shots and 10 points on the VG exchange.

– I think this team works very well, but I must say that I was also impressed with myself, “Linka” said after the achievement.

Sweden 2016: – I am rarely nervous.

Nothing has hurt today’s national team more than the Rio Olympics. The girls were inconsolable after Camilla Herrem missed the last shot in the last extra round of the semi-final against Russia. Revenge came in Sweden four months later. Norway was unstoppable and won all eight games. Unlike the Olympics, the defensive game with Marit Malm Frafjord in the middle worked again. Goalkeeper Kari Aalvik Grimsbø put on a great game when she set a record with her ninth and final gold in Gothenburg. But most of all, Nora Mørk was excited about a packed Scandinavium. 12 goals is a record for a Norwegian player in an international final.

– These are the games that I think are the most fun to play. I’m rarely nervous. I think it’s fun to play when there are as many people as possible in the battle, Mørk said after a final in the spotlight.