Let’s recap. A guy breaks a ski pole and keeps racing. Not exactly the moon landing, is it? And to be clear, this isn’t a come-from-behind story. Bra was actually leading after he broke his pole, because contact had knocked Savyalov to his knees.

Also, Bra didn’t win, at least not outright. After staring at an image of the finish for about an hour, the judges decided that he and Savyalov had tied for first.

In Norway, these apparently are trifling details. “Hvor var du da Oddvar Brå brakk staven?” (“Where were you when Oddvar Bra broke his pole?”) has become the country’s most beloved and recurring question. Knowing your location, and what you were shouting, at roughly 1:54 p.m. on Feb. 25, 1982, is more than a signifier of shared cultural identity. It conveys a deep passion for cross-country skiing, which, as an essential form of transportation for millenniums, and thus a matter of survival, has long transcended sport here. The question also underscores a reverence for pluck and humility as embodied by Oddvar Bra.

Norway, a country of just 5 million that has won the most medals in Winter Olympics history, is in familiar position through the first few days of the Pyeongchang Games with more medals than any other country. It is undoubtedly about to produce another collection of Nordic skiing legends, but no matter how many gold medals Norway’s finest bring home, none will achieve the level of veneration Bra has experienced the past 36 years.