Tromso’s bid for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games was vetoed by the Norwegian Parliament, but now the former 2014 bid committee is turning its sites to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games and has officially changed its name to Tromso 2018.
The bid committee says Tromso and Northern Norway received much praise in its 2014 bid from several of Norway’s political parties and others were “waiting in the wings to support the bid”.
Because of all the positive feedback the committee feels the time is right for the Winter Olympics to come to Norway in 2018, with wide national support and support from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The Olympics have never been held north of the Arctic Circle, and the Tromso 2018 Web site states that “Tromso can, as a coastal city, lend a new dimension to the event and offer solutions, images and experiences not previously possible. For the first time the Winter Olympics will be held where the mountains meet the sea”.
Tromso 2018 says it now knows more about the criteria of success and will apply it to the 2018 bid. “We have more time now – and this time will be used to improve the project and the process”.
Since the IOC says it wants to limit the size of the Olympic Games, the bid committee says the new criteria “fits Tromso like a glove”, saying, “we will try to use the benefits from the principals in the IOCs Games Study (of 2003) even better than we managed in our first national application”.
