Global party at Holmenkollen
March 17, 2013
PHOTO FEATURE: They came from all over the world: Thousands of ski jumping fans, and probably lots of folks who may never have seen ski jumping in their lives before, gathered at Holmenkollen in the hills above Oslo on Sunday to watch men and women hurl themselves off the newly rebuilt hill in World Cup [...]
Sun finally shone on sporty weekend
March 17, 2013
Norwegian sports fans were torn during the weekend among the annual Birkebeiner ski race in Lillehammer, World Cup competition at Holmenkollen in Oslo and even the launch of the football season. After a surprising snowfall that began Friday, the sun finally came out and so did thousands of fans and participants at all the major [...]
Holmenkollen tries to lure back fans
March 13, 2013
World Cup ski jumping and ski racing are set to return to Holmenkollen in Oslo this weekend, and organizers are hoping that cheering crowds will return as well. Grandstands were embarrassingly empty last year, after a sharp rise in ticket prices, but now tickets are cheaper, some local embassies have tried to help stir interest [...]
Ticket sales brisk for cheaper ski jumping
January 14, 2013
Skiing officials learned a tough lesson last year, when they jacked up ticket prices for the annual World Cup ski jumping event at the still-new Holmenkollen Ski Jump in Oslo, and ended up with the smallest crowd in years. Now they’ve brought prices back down and sales are brisk. “Prices cut in half, widespread mobilizing [...]
Fewer back an Olympics in Oslo
January 4, 2013
A new survey indicates that just 42 percent of Oslo’s residents are now positive towards the prospect of the city organizing the Winter Olympics in 2022. Public support for an Olympics has fallen markedly during the last 20 months. The survey, conducted by polling firm Respons for newspaper Aftenposten, shows that 33 percent of Oslo [...]
Northug out for the season
March 13, 2012
UPDATED: Petter Northug didn’t take part in the Nordic skiing World Cup competition at Holmenkollen in Oslo last weekend, nor could he race in Wednesday’s sprint competition in Drammen. Now comes confirmation that Northug’s World Cup season is over, mostly because of tummy trouble. His managers reported earlier that Northug fell ill during a gathering [...]
High ticket prices kept crowds away
March 12, 2012
Oslo’s annual Holmenkollen Sunday turned into a deep disappointment for its organizers, when less than half the estimated number of spectators turned up for the World Cup ski jumping competition. High ticket prices for even the cheapest grandstand seats were blamed for the large areas of empty benches. Arrangers had expected far fewer spectators than [...]
‘Kollen’ aims to earn money in the summer, too
March 9, 2012
Oslo’s famed Holmenkollen Ski Jump and surrounding winter sports arenas, popularly known as “Kollen,” will be the site of the largest summer music festival in the country this year. Organizers hope 60,000 people will attend during the course of the festival weekend. Officials at the ski association responsible for running Holmenkollen, Skiforeningen, also hope the [...]
Thousands head for Holmenkollen
March 9, 2012
Organizers aren’t expecting as many spectators as in years past, but thousands of winter sports fans will once again head for the hills above Oslo this weekend for the annual World Cup competitions in Nordic skiing and ski jumping. Around 25,000 are expected on Sunday, when the world’s top skiers will hurl themselves off the [...]
Snowboarding disappointment
February 15, 2012
Some of the world’s best snowboarders are in Oslo this week, competing in the World Snowboarding Championships 2012, but local disappointment kept popping up. One thing has been the lack of a main sponsor and slow ticket sales, and then a Norwegian gold medal favorite didn’t even make it to the semi-finals. Torstein Horgmo ruined [...]
Etiquette guide to the ski trails
February 13, 2012
With ski season in high gear, and thousands of skiers taking part in some big races most every weekend, calls have gone out for better etiquette on the ski trails. Oslo residents were offered some polite guidelines last week, just before what’s now known as the Holmenkollen Ski Marathon began. Around 6,000 skiers actually started [...]
Hopeful world champs arrive in Oslo
February 2, 2012
Holmenkollen’s arenas and the hills above Oslo are coming alive once again with the sound of skiers, snowboarders and cheering fans, as the first of two major international competitions gets underway. First out is the IBU World Cup Biathlon, to be followed by the World Snowboarding Championships next week at nearby Oslo Winterpark at Tryvann. [...]
New ski jump needs to earn money
December 20, 2011
Oslo’s newly rebuilt Holmenkollen Ski Jump shattered all budget estimates and now is costing much more money to operate and maintain than the old one did. That means the ski association in charge needs to start renting it out on a regular basis, in the hopes of generating needed income. Skiforeningen, the ski association that [...]
Sports leaders want Olympics in Oslo
October 25, 2011
Cheering crowds and Norwegians out in front at last winter’s Nordic World Ski Championships in Oslo were all it took for local sports bureaucrats and civic boosters to start plotting their next big project: Attracting the Winter Olympics to Oslo in 2022. Rival host sites in Norway are already protesting. Sverre Seeberg, president of the [...]
Brand new ski jump full of mistakes
August 4, 2011
Oslo’s new Holmenkollen Ski Jump opened just in time for last winter’s Nordic Skiing World Championships, after enormous budget overruns and political controversy. Now it seems it’s full of construction mistakes and deficiencies, and the price tag may rise further. Newspaper Aften reported last week that a long list of problems has cropped up after [...]
