It’s Already Lillehammer Time for Norway : Pride: Its surge of success in France has the Scandinavian nation joyously preparing the sites for the 1994 Games.
LA LECHERE, France — There is a team in red, white and blue cleaning up in the Winter Olympics--and it isn’t the United States.
In Norway, the Winter Games have become the greatest thing since sliced salmon.
So far, they have 13 medals, their best total since 1968 in Grenoble, France. Germany, Austria and the Unified Team from the Commonwealth of Independent States have more medals, but it’s doubtful that they are having any any more fun than the Norwegians.
When Johann Olav Koss and Norwegian teammate Adne Sonderal finished 1-2 in the 1,500-meter speedskating event Sunday night, Norwegian fans set off fireworks in the stands.
“It feels great to be a Norwegian,†Koss proclaimed.
Kjetil Andre Aamodt scored an upset victory in the men’s Super-G at Val d’Isere and Norwegian fans celebrated by singing folk songs to the accompaniment of an accordion while keeping time to the music by beating Norwegian flag poles into the snow.
King Harald of Norway visited Koss and Sonderal after their race to offer congratulations. Actually, the King is following a busy schedule. He also sent a telegram to speedskater Geir Karlstad after he won the 5,000-meter event and was joined Monday by Queen Sonja in their chalet, where they will prepare for their part in the closing ceremony.
The 1994 Games will be in Lillehammer, Norway, and King Harald and Queen Sonja are going to accept the Olympic flags on behalf of Lillehammer in a three-minute segment of the closing ceremony Sunday.
Norway dominated the Winter Games from their inception only to fall upon hard times--it didn’t win a gold medal in 1988. Not surprisingly, Olympicmania is spreading through Norway.
The nation’s top-rated TV program last week was a live two-hour show carried by an Oslo station that featured Norwegian singers and Norwegian medal winners celebrating in nearby Megeve, France.
Tor Aune, chief press officer for the Lillehammer Games, said there is virtually no traffic in Oslo when the events are shown on Norwegian television and shoppers huddle in front of TV sets in store windows to watch the country’s winter athletes.
Cross-country skier Vegard Ulvang has emerged as Norway’s hero with two gold medals and a silver. Ulvang said he has been received interview requests from nearly 250 reporters.
Ulvang already is fretting about the avalanche of attention he can expect when the Games are over.
“I’m not even looking forward to going home,†he said.
Why not?
“Because the people are crazy,†he said.
When Ulvang saw the amount of space devoted to him in Norway’s seven national newspapers, he was close to shock.
“It’s page up and page down,†he said.
Rival Sweden seems to be taking Norway’s success hard. Expressen, the largest daily newspaper in Sweden, ran two blank side-by-side pages in its Monday editions. The only words on the pages read: “This space was reserved for good Swedish results. Unfortunately, there aren’t any.â€
Aune fears that there may be a backlash if the Norwegians do not win as many medals in Lillehammer as they have here.
“We can’t possibly do better because this is way beyond our expectations,†said Aune, who is also a sports anchorman for a television station based in London that has channels in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. “This puts enormous pressure on us.â€
In Lillehammer, work continues on the venues where the 1994 Games will be played. The total tab is expected to reach 7 billion kroner, which is about $1 billion. It will be paid by a government grant.
The most challenging venue being constructed is the Gjovik Olympic Mountain Hall, a hockey arena built entirely inside a mountain. The cost: $23 million.
Aune said that $1.8 million is already in the revenue budget, primarily from the sale of television rights fees, including CBS and Canada’s CTV.
But Lillehammer is also finding new ways to fill the Olympic coffers. Each day on Storgata, Main Street in Lillehammer, an Olympic official sits on a stool and auctions a T-shirt that says how many days are left until the ’94 Games.
Aune said the 900-day T-Shirt, expected to fetch $20, went instead for $1,500.
“Already now, people are talking every day about the Olympics and Lillehammer or Lillehammer and the Olympics,†said Ulvang, who plans on competing again in two years.
The 28-year-old from Krkenes, north of the Arctic circle, trained for this year’s Games by cross-country skiing across Greenland, which turned out to be a 15-day jaunt. The summer before, Ulvang climbed Mt. McKinley.
To get ready for Lillehammer, Ulvang plans on scaling the peaks of the tallest mountains on seven continents. He wants to do it in a month.
The way the Norwegians are going, it might be a scouting mission for a new hockey arena.
Go beyond the scoreboard
Get the latest on L.A.'s teams in the daily Sports Report newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
