Aksel Lund Svindal: Building Winning Teams Under High Pressure

Aksel Lund Svindal knows what it takes to win under pressure. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, five-time World Champion, and now a successful entrepreneur, he’s lived his career at the intersection of performance, stamina, and teamwork. At Oslo Business Forum, he shared lessons from the Norwegian Alpine Skiing Team—a small team with fewer resources than many, yet one that went on to dominate the world stage.

“I was privileged to have a lot of success, and it was because of the team I was a part of,” Aksel said. 

The Power of Data and Transparency
Sports are compelling because the results are transparent. Your performance is measured live, tracked in numbers, and broadcast to the world in real time. The same principle, Aksel argued, holds true for business. Data tells the story of your journey, shows where you succeed and fall short, and enables you to measure yourself against others.

For the Norwegian team, data was central to their success. They filmed entire races, layered the footage, and studied every move. This gave them insights others missed, transforming information into strategy. Too often, without good data, the temptation is to jump straight to execution.

“We have a strategy because we know the data,” Aksel said. “And that allows us to decide how we will execute.”

Good data, he emphasized, also builds trust. In a culture where feedback is routine, teammates can hold each other accountable for showing up prepared, respecting the team, and improving together.


"There are very few things in life that we don’t do better if we get a second chance."

Aksel Lund Svindal at Oslo Business Forum 2025

A Culture of Supportive Rivalry
“If you know you are working as part of a system that has good data, it’s easier to make the right decisions,” Aksel said. 

Despite competing against one another for medals, Aksel and his teammates prioritized collaboration and teamwork. At the 2018 Olympics, he shared exactly what went wrong during his run with the teammate racing behind him. And later, the roles reversed. 

“We won both these races,” Aksel said. “It works not because it’s a strategy, but it’s a part of our culture.”

Even thought-leader Adam Grant noticed this approach, saying:

“I’ve never seen a culture embody more productive generosity than the Norwegian Alpine team. Aksel and his team built so much trust that they even helped each other when they were competing against each other for Olympic medals. Every team and organization can learn from their example of supportive rivalry.”

Practice Beyond Performance
For Aksel, practice wasn’t just about improving individual performance; it was also about shaping team dynamics. 

In practice, athletes can experiment, fail, and try again. But they also learn how to respond to each other’s successes and setbacks. “How you react when you lose, how you celebrate when you win, and how you support others matter as much as results,” Aksel said.

He reminded leaders that emotions are contagious. A bad loser can drag down morale, but a bad winner can do even more lasting damage by eroding trust. 

It’s ok to be a bad loser, but you can’t have bad winners. 

In other words: failure stings, but gloating or dismissing teammates’ efforts undermines the foundation of mutual respect. The Norwegian team treated practice as both a testing ground for performance and a proving ground for values, creating an environment where athletes pushed each other without tearing each other down.

Create Winners Every Day
In the Olympics, everyone on the winning team gets the gold medal. For Aksel and his team, building a sustainable culture meant creating winners daily. Off-season and in-season, they designed situations where everyone could share in success, foster unity, and build momentum over the long run.

In the end, Aksel reminded leaders that it’s not just about building strategy; it’s about building culture. And culture, he said, must be grounded in data. “Nothing is as sharp as something you can’t debate. If you want to build a strong culture, you have to handle the data very well.”

Key Points

• Data drives trust and strategy. Good data not only sharpens performance but also builds accountability and confidence within teams.
• A feedback culture creates resilience. When tough feedback is normalized, teams can stay aligned and work together to improve.
• Supportive rivalry fuels success. Helping teammates, even when competing against them, strengthens culture and improves collective outcomes.
• Practice is about more than skills. It’s also the arena for shaping team dynamics.
• Leaders must create winners every day. Sustained success comes from designing moments where everyone shares in victory.

Questions to Consider

• How are you using data not just to measure outcomes, but to build culture and trust?
• What are you doing to create a culture where accountability is welcomed?
• In your team, how do you strike a balance between competition and collaboration?
• Which rituals or practices could you put into place to help you create “winners every day”?

Join Oslo Business Forum 2026: The Human Edge now! The Human Edge is about unlocking the strengths that no machine can replicate: creativity, courage, trust, and resilience to thrive. Don't get left out - join Northern Europe's greatest leadership happening today!