On the Record - Oslo Touts "Games in the City" Concept

(ATR) Oslo 2022 Bid Committee Director Eli Grimsby tells Around the Ringsthe strength of a bid by the Norwegian capital will be its "Games in the City" concept while continuing the country’s rich Olympic legacy.

It's estimated the costs would be 30 billion NOK ($5.2 billion) to stage the 2022 Winter Games in Oslo.

The deadline for NOCs to submit applicant cities to the IOC is Nov. 14. The election of the 2022 host city will come July 31, 2015 at the IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur.

Grimsby spoke with ATR about the potential strengths of a bid from the 1952 host city, continuing to win public support and plans for venues.

ATR: The Oslo City Council recently voted overwhelmingly in favor of pursuing financial guarantees from the federal government for a bid for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games. Is this what you expected, and how important was this step moving forward?

EG: I didn’t expect this one year ago. I thought that this would be one of the most difficult steps to pass. I think that with our vision and overall concept of "Games in the City," from what we’ve seen in the past is that the politicians liked it and they felt that this is going to give something back to the city.

It will be a spectacular show and event, but it is also going to give the city and country something back in the years before 2022 and afterwards, so I think this is the main reason why they voted ‘Yes.’

ATR: What is the significance of Oslo having already held the 1952 Games, and what will be the strengths of a new bid?

EG: What we say here is that the legacy from the 1952 Olympics can still be seen. Holmenkollen, Bislett Stadium and Jordal, where they played ice hockey, were established in 1952 and are all still being used.

And not only the sports venues, but also the student buildings in Oslo. They were built as the Olympic Village in 1952, and students are still living there now.

After 2022, we will have both new buildings for students and flats for families. In the eastern part of Oslo, where it is hard to get private investors to build, they would be more interested to invest if they could do it together with the government and municipality of Oslo. I think that would be the main legacy.

ATR: On Sept. 4, a public referendum will take place in conjunction with the national elections as the next step to submitting a formalized bid to the IOC. What does Oslo 2022 need to do to win support over the upcoming months?

EG: We need to convince the people, in addition to the politicians. The politicians have asked the people for their advice, and unlike in Switzerland where the people decide, it is just advice, but after asking, the politicians will listen to it.

We are not going to make a ‘yes’ organization out of my organization. We will have a good website and tell the people all of the positive aspects of our Olympic concept. The sports organizations and political parties will try to convince the people, and I’m also very interested in explaining our concept.

ATR: Oslo has seen substantial cost overruns with renovations over the past decade at both Bislett Stadium and also at Holmenkollen in the lead-up to the 2010 FIS World Nordic Championships. There has been much criticism that a similar fate would follow if Oslo were to move forward with an Olympic bid. How would you respond to these critics?

EG: First of all, they are right to be concerned because both became much more expensive than what the first numbers showed. But I am not worried because I think our budgets are very well done, and maybe this is one of the reasons I was asked to do this job.

The IOC has their technical manuals, which tell us quite exactly what we need to have. We have between two and three-thousand pages of documents, and we are working very hard to get it correct.

Another reason is that after Holemkollen and Bislett, the Oslo Municipality changed the process and procedure of how to work with investments. As I have been CEO of Oslo Water & Sewerage Works, I have a lot of experience with these procedures, and we do a lot of this work with investments with water and sewerage also.

ATR: What is the plan for venues? Which pre-existing arenas will be used, and what will need to be constructed?

EG: We will re-use what we can. We cannot use Bislett for the ceremonies again because it will not fit within the spectator amount guidelines by the IOC, but we will use it for a Mini-Games for children, and then you will have boundaries back to 1952.

We haven’t chosen a stadium site yet. We would like to include the people, and we will ask them in autumn. It could be in the center of Oslo, or we also have a nice place in the southeast of Oslo called Ekeberg, where the Norwegian Cup football tournament is held. It has lovely views.

We will use Holmenkollen for all Nordic events, except biathlon. We will need to find a venue for that.

Close to Holmenkollen, we have Wyller, which will be shared by snowboarding and freestyle. We already hosted the world snowboarding championships there in 2012.

We will need to build new arenas for ice hockey, speed skating and curling. We will build a new arena for ice hockey right next to the current one in Jordal, while the existing one will be used for Teen Games.

Hafjell and Kvitfjell, which we currently use for alpine world cups, will be used for alpine skiing, while the bobsled track in Hunderfossen, near Lillehammer, will be used for the sliding events.

One of three parts on the eastern side of Oslo will be chosen for the Olympic Village and media center.

ATR: Are there additional plans for improving Oslo’s infrastructure? What might need to be developed?

EG: Oslo has quite a good infrastructure already, but we do need to do something on the eastern part and on the way up to Holmenkollen. Not necessarily roads, but for the metro. We want to use the metro to bring spectators to all arenas. We thought about this already when deciding where arenas will be. The metro will be the most efficient way.

ATR: Why should Oslo become just the third city, after St. Moritz and Lake Placid, to stage a second Olympic Winter Games, and what is the primary selling point to the IOC?

EG: I think that the rest of the world knows that the Norwegians really love winter sports, and we want to show by our "Games in the City" concept that you can also have fun with snow in the city, and you can enjoy the pleasure of winter sports even if you live in the capital.

Maybe we are the only capital in the world that can have so many venues in the city, not just the ice venues, but even the snow arenas.

Together with Lillehammer, we will have the wild mountains and also the urban life. We want to show that you don’t have to be born in the forest to love the winter; you can be a modern, urban, young boy and girl and still love the winter sports.

Reported in Oslo by Brian Pinelli.

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