Fewer back an Olympics in Oslo

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 [...]

Cross-country queen secures reign

Norwegian ski queen Therese Johaug retained her crown when the season officially kicked off over the weekend with the first cross-country (langrenn) races at Beitostølen in Valdres. Both she and fellow champion Marit Bjørgen had already been voted the country’s most popular athletes, and Johaug’s opening performance was especially impressive. Johaug skied, for example, her [...]

Northug weary of his own celebrity

Petter Northug, Norway’s sometimes surly skiing star, reportedly is getting tired of his celebrity status at home. The coach of the men’s cross-country ski team is worried Northug may cut his career short so he can just be a normal guy. Vidar Løfshus told newspaper Adresseavisen in Trondheim that he sees how Northug is plagued [...]

Sports leaders want Olympics in Oslo

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

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 [...]

Olympic efforts underway

Sports boosters and skiing bureaucrats seem to be moving forward with efforts to attract another Winter Olympics to Norway. A recent public opinion poll suggested nearly 60 percent of those questioned would support an Olympic bid, and the local media hype has begun. The afternoon paper in Oslo, Aften, has run several articles claiming widespread [...]

Ski-VM refunds tickets

Around 2,000 skiing fans who missed the skiing world championship (Ski-VM) events they had tickets for, because of transport chaos on February 26, will finally get their money refunded. They were furious when the public transit system meant to get them up to Ski-VM events at Holmenkollen proved inadequate to handle the crowds. They ended [...]

Not easy being a Swede in Norway

NEWS ANALYSIS: When Norwegian skiing star Petter Northug flaunted his prowess and tried to humiliate his Swedish arch rival at the world championships last week, it was just the latest in a long list of recent jabs against Norway’s neighbours. Swedes have had to tolerate a lot of abuse in Norway, and not just on [...]

Gold fever rises to Olympic pitch

The flags had barely come down at Holmenkollen on Sunday before the calls started going out that Oslo should bid for a new Winter Olympics. It was perhaps predictable: Sports bureaucrats already had started carefully planting the seeds of an Olympic bid before the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships (Ski-VM) began, and their success has [...]

Crowds posed no problems for police

Even though an estimated 650,000 people packed the streets of downtown Oslo during the skiing world championships during the past two weeks, police reported no major disturbances and merchants were delighted. Only one drunken brawl among some campers near the ski tracks caused any real concern. “We’re plain and simple impressed over the public at [...]

More action at Holmenkollen soon

Even though the Nordic skiing world championships are over, the arenas at Holmenkollen in Oslo where they were held haven’t been idle for long. An estimated 10,000 children, their parents and other supporters took part on Sunday in the annual Barnas Holmenkolldag, billed as the world’s biggest ski festival for children. It’s sponsored by local [...]

Sunset over Holmenkollen Ski Jump

A sunset view of the Holmenkollen Ski Jump, seen from Oslo’s northern Sinsen district. After almost two weeks of world championship competition at Holmenkollen, a sense of normalcy returned to Oslo on Monday. As the crowds and athletes went home, the newly rebuilt ski jump remains the capital’s premier landmark. PHOTO: Matt Lato

Sun sets on skiing world championships

After years of preparation and huge investment, the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships (Ski-VM) were suddenly over on Sunday after 12 days of competition. It’s generally agreed the major event turned into a huge party the likes of which many claimed only the Norwegians could host, because of their deeply rooted passion for cross-country skiing. [...]

Ski-VM ends on final golden note

Norway’s Petter Northug did it again on Sunday, skiing his way to another gold medal in the tough 50-kilometer race in front of more than 100,000 cheering fans in Oslo. Russia’s Maxim Vylegzhanin was less than two seconds behind Northug in the last event of the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships (Ski-VM) at Holmenkollen. And [...]

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 [...]

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