Battered but brave after bad fall

UPDATED: Norwegian ski jumping star Tom Hilde put a brave but badly bruised face on his spectacular fall during the annual New Year’s week of competition in the alps. He blamed himself, managed to smile and joke and was in amazingly good shape despite being told his season was over. “I’ll just have to use [...]

Brand new ski jump full of mistakes

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 [...]

Northug back to playing poker

Norway’s cross country skiing star Petter Northug has swapped his ski poles for poker chips, and that’s not good news for the national athletic association or gaming officials. Meanwhile, sports bureaucrats are looking for a new coach for Northug and other skiers and ski jumpers with several candidates in the running. Northug, who won a [...]

More than 100,000 hailed skiing stars

Oslo police estimated that around 120,000 persons gathered in downtown Oslo Saturday night to watch their winter sports heroes get their medals, after at least 100,000 had lined the ski tracks and filled the arenas at Holmenkollen during the day. The athletes and even the organizers of the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships (Ski-VM) were [...]

Combined team wins another bronze

Norway’s men’s combined team, which includes ski jumping and skiing, ended up with another bronze medal after Friday’s relay and jumping off the large hill at Holmenkollen, and the athletes were disappointed. Austria wound up winning the gold medal, and Germany the silver. Magnus Moan of the Norwegian team said he felt like a pile [...]

Ski jumpers try to keep smiling

Their coach had ordered them to smile before taking off from the huge new Holmenkollen Ski Jump in Oslo, but it ended up not helping very much. After doing well in the first round, Norway’s ski jumpers failed to win any medals, which instead were claimed by Austria and Switzerland. Austria emerged as the winner [...]

Combined jumping and skiing yields another medal

CORRECTED: Norway was still leading the total medals count at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Oslo on Monday, not least after the men’s team competition in combined ski jumping and a skiing relay. Magnus Moan of Norway even provided a bit of hope for a gold medal, but it ended with bronze for [...]

Jumpers put Norway in medals lead

Norway, the host country for this year’s FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Oslo, jumped back into the medals lead after the Norwegian men’s ski jumping team won silver on the 100-meter Midtstuen Hill Sunday afternoon. Austria, once again, was best. Conditions were much better on Sunday than they’d been on Friday and Saturday, when thick [...]

Men also had to fly through the fog

If it’s any consolation to Norway’s frustrated female ski jumper Anette Sagen, who complained about foggy conditions at the world championships on Friday, her male counterparts also faced thick fog and poor visibility during their competition on Saturday. The Austrians did the best on the 100-meter jump at Midtstuen and the Germans won the Combined [...]

Ski jumping faded into the fog

Norway’s pioneer female ski jumper Anette Sagen was furious after Friday’s important ski jumping competition at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Oslo. The fog was so thick at times that not even those in the press box could see the jumpers, and Sagen thinks the event should have been postponed. “They would have [...]

Olympic boss suffers heart attack

Gerhard Heiberg, the former Norwegian boss of the successful Olympics at Lillehammer who went on to join the International Olympic Committee (IOC), underwent surgery Thursday morning following what’s being called a mild heart attack. Heiberg, age 71, reportedly was on holiday in the mountains when he felt unwell and contacted his doctor. “Fortunately he got [...]

All eyes on Åsne for Ski-VM

With hundreds of thousands of spectators descending on Oslo over the next two weeks for the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2011 (known as ‘Ski-VM’ in Norwegian), all eyes will be on the capital – and Ski-VM CEO Åsne Havnelid, the woman responsible for ensuring that it all goes smoothly. While Havnelid can hardly be [...]

Ski-VM 2011 finally underway

Neither snow nor sleet nor a sudden (and fortunately short) breakdown of Oslo’s public transit metro line would ruin the start of the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships (Ski-VM) in the Norwegian capital. The royal family was among those set to be out in force at opening ceremonies Wednesday evening. King Harald, Queen Sonja, Crown [...]

Ski jumping coach in court

The coach of the Norwegian men’s ski jumping team reportedly has a heavy foot on the gas pedal when driving. He’s had numerous fines for speeding back home in Finland and now faces charges he lied about his income. Just days before he’s supposed to lead his ski jumpers in the World Championships in Oslo, [...]

Ski-VM to profit despite unsold seats

There were still 75,000 tickets available this week to the Nordic World Ski Championships (Ski-VM 2011) that starts in Oslo on Wednesday,  and only one event is sold out. Organizers claim they’ll still log a profit on the event that will help keep new facilities at Holmenkollen alive long after the next 12 days of [...]

Next Page »