Norway Sabotaged Its Bid for the Olympics
This post follows on from the previous post We Want the 2018 Winter Olympics
After what seems to be a long battle, Norway has withdrawn its bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics. The reason is simple: the southern part of the country was miffed that the Northerners, namely Tromsø, had won the vote to bid. There was so much anger, especially from Oslo – who cried ‘foul play’ even in their own voting system. So, instead of supporting their elected Tromsø to represent Norway, nearly every deed was done to sabotage Tromsø’s 2018 Winter Olympic bid. Norway would rather withdraw their bid than allow a northern city, such as Tromsø, to host the Winter Olympics.
This side of the Norwegian character seems very dark to me. Even though there are very happy things in Norway there can also be an undercurrent of enmity. I especially see this as an immigrant. They say that Norway doesn’t like change, that it doesn’t like ‘the new’ and that it wants things to stay ‘just as they are’. Who are they? – They are Norwegians. In certain circles, they say it is because the country has been beaten down by rulership of the Danes and Swedes, and so Norwegians have a habit of sabotaging their success – so they say.
I would have hoped that Norway took on the Aussie-spirit in this ‘Olympic’ occasion. This is the reason why Sydney had the 2000 Olympic games: For years the individual States would apply for the Olympics without success. They realised it wasn’t working. So they decided to work together and promote Sydney for the bid. In the next Olympic bid Australia won! It was a great lesson to learn and one that Australians have taken to heart.
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Large wooden racks called hjell are for drying fish.
Is it hard to get a job in Norway?
There is always something beautiful waiting for us around the corner.
The darkest day of the year is known as winter solstice.
A lonely mountain on the edge of the Finnmark Plateau.
That’s really a shame they couldn’t join together. What a unique Olympics that would have been so far north. And it would have brought so many people to a part of your country who many never would have gone there otherwise.
It’s interesting that you mentioned that side of the Norwegian character. Being of Norwegian descent, I’ve seen this stubborn streak in many of my own relatives. I even have to admit I sometimes struggle with change. And yes, I’ve heard stories of the Danes and Swedes in particular.
I actually read in the paper today that a Danish member of the International Olympic Committee said Tromsø would never have gotten the Olympics anyway – mainly because of the low support in the Norwegian population. The support among Norwegians was less than 30%, which would have been unacceptable for the IOC – they require at least a 75% support for a country to be granted the Olympics.
As a northerner myself, I have to say I was over-joyed that Tromsø didn’t bid for the Olympics. Why? Easy, there is no room for all the bed spaces for Olympic visitors, no sports arenas of Olympic quality. Everything would have had to be built. And where’s the space to build such structures, of which Northern Norway has little use for post-Olympics? In nature, that’s where. Those Olympic structures would have gobbled up lots of the Tromsø hiking trails that I love so much. And that would n-o-t be OK, Olympic glory be d-mned. Me and the environmentalists up here would have demonstrated like crazy should that nonsense ever have reached Tromsø.