{"id":632,"date":"2012-08-14T13:52:26","date_gmt":"2012-08-14T13:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=632"},"modified":"2012-08-14T13:55:00","modified_gmt":"2012-08-14T13:55:00","slug":"denmark-at-the-2012-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2012\/08\/14\/denmark-at-the-2012-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"Denmark at the 2012 Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"By Original author: Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons\" href=\"http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3AOlympic_rings_with_white_rims.svg\" aria-label=\"128px Olympic Rings With White Rims.svg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\"  alt=\"Olympic rings with white rims\" width=\"128\" height=\"62\" \/ src=\"\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/a\/a9\/Olympic_rings_with_white_rims.svg\/128px-Olympic_rings_with_white_rims.svg.png\"><\/a>A tiny nation obsessed with <strong><a title=\"That\u2019s hygge to me!\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2012\/03\/10\/that-is-hygge\/\">hygge<\/a><\/strong> (having a good time in cosy surroundings, like when you\u2019re sharing a birthday <strong>lagkage<\/strong>, layered cake, with your family), Denmark is rarely associated with athleticism. Wrote poet Piet Hein in 1950:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Den slankekur en dansker gerne tager \/ i h\u00e5bet om at blive let og mager \/ er s\u00f8ndagsturen til kvarterets bager \/ samt turen hjem igen med fl\u00f8dekager.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>The reducing treatment preferred by a Dane \/ hoping to become light and lean \/ is the Sunday stroll to the local <a title=\"A Visit to the Baker\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2012\/04\/29\/a-visit-to-the-baker\/\">baker<\/a> \/ and the stroll back home again with creamy cakes.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><div style=\"width: 240px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a title=\"By Charlie Cowins from Belmont, NC, USA (Caroline Wozniaki  Uploaded by Yjenith) [CC-BY-2.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons\" href=\"http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3ACaroline_Wozniaki_snapped_at_match.jpg\" aria-label=\"256px Caroline Wozniaki Snapped At Match\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"Caroline Wozniaki snapped at match\" width=\"230\" height=\"344\" \/ src=\"\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/2\/2f\/Caroline_Wozniaki_snapped_at_match.jpg\/256px-Caroline_Wozniaki_snapped_at_match.jpg\"><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caroline Wozniacki<\/p><\/div>Yet in the recent <strong>OL<\/strong> [oh-el] (short for <strong>Olympiske Lege<\/strong>, \u2019Olympic Games\u2019) in London, Denmark quietly brought home 9 <strong>medaljer<\/strong>: 2 <strong>guld<\/strong>, 4 <strong>s\u00f8lv<\/strong> and 3 <strong>bronze<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The two gold medals were won by the cyclist <strong>Lasse Norman Hansen<\/strong> and by the rowers <strong>Rasmus Quist<\/strong> and <strong>Mads Rasmussen<\/strong>, who thus helped highlighting Denmark as a <a title=\"Land of Bicycles\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2011\/07\/18\/land-of-bicycles\/\">nation of bicycling<\/a> (in the flat, windswept landscapes) and boating (along the country\u2019s numerous beaches). The silver and bronze medals were gathered in the fields of shooting, rowing, sailing and badminton.<\/p>\n<p>One of the biggest names in Danish sports, the tennis player <strong>Caroline Wozniacki<\/strong>, did not manage to live up to the enormous <strong>forventninger<\/strong> (expectations) of the Danish media: On August 2nd, the young star\u00a0was beaten by the American Serena Williams in the <strong>kvartfinale<\/strong> (quarter-final).<\/p>\n<p>Another <strong>skuffelse<\/strong> (disappointment) was the Danish male <strong><a title=\"Days of Handball Euphoria\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2012\/01\/30\/days-of-handball-euphoria\/\">h\u00e5ndbold<\/a><\/strong> team. Master coach Ulrik Wilbek and his \u201ddream team\u201d \u2013 which includes the current \u201d<em>world\u2019s best handball player<\/em>\u201d, <strong>Mikkel Hansen<\/strong> \u2013 seemed to have forgotten the fun of the game as they were outplayed by their archenemies from Sweden on August 9th, also in the quarter-final.<\/p>\n<p>Notwithstanding the two setbacks, London 2012 might be Denmark\u2019s biggest Olympic triumph ever. According to the newspaper <a href=\"http:\/\/politiken.dk\/sport\/ol2012london\/ECE1718953\/danmark-er-for-foerste-gang-skandinavisk-ol-topscorer\/\">Politiken<\/a>, it\u2019s the first time Denmark has gained more Olympic medals than its Scandinavian friends-and-rivals Norway and Sweden. Now, let\u2019s prepare for Rio 2016\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"128\" height=\"62\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2012\/08\/128px-Olympic_rings_with_white_rims.svg_.png\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image tmp-hide-img\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><p>A tiny nation obsessed with hygge (having a good time in cosy surroundings, like when you\u2019re sharing a birthday lagkage, layered cake, with your family), Denmark is rarely associated with athleticism. Wrote poet Piet Hein in 1950: Den slankekur en dansker gerne tager \/ i h\u00e5bet om at blive let og mager \/ er s\u00f8ndagsturen&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2012\/08\/14\/denmark-at-the-2012-olympics\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":2128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[237994,237990,237991,3281,237988,2360,237995,237993,229588,237989],"class_list":["post-632","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bicycling","tag-caroline-wozniacki","tag-handball","tag-london","tag-mikkel-hansen","tag-olympics","tag-piet-hein","tag-rowing","tag-tennis","tag-ulrik-wilbek"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":634,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632\/revisions\/634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}