Kari-Ame Johannessen, President of the Confederation of Sports, said Monday that the three cities bidding to represent Norway in its bid for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games have definitely passed the “quality criteria’s” set by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The three cities hoping to become Norway’s candidate are Trondheim, Tromso and Oslo.
Rita Ottervik, Lord Mayor of Trondheim said, “we will make an arena for the whole world, with human beings at the centre – our region is the largest and the best. We tailor-made the Games for the competitions and Trondheim is the best candidate in the world. More people can access the venues by foot, rather than by planes in our compact Games”.
Peter Jansen, chairman of the Tromso candidate city board said, “we can make the Games even more compact and will put all the athletes in one Olympic Village. Spectators can go to any arena by boat or bus in the first Games over north of the Polar Circle. The world will see something they never dreamt of with nature and light of unbelievable quality. And we will offer this possibility to the world of sports”.
Touting Oslo whose bid focused on bringing the Olympics to the people and not the people to the Olympics, Kristin Berge Vikoeren said, “we have 1.7 million inhabitants within one hour’s drive of Oslo, and our city does not need any extra funding for the use of sports facilities after the Games because we can use the facilities for everyday use”.
