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New leader of Tromsø’s Olympic committee

Foto: Tromsø 2018

North Norwegian city of Tromsø is planning to apply for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. However, recent disagreement within the local Olympic committee is threatening to hamper the plans. On Wednesday, Mr. Petter Rønningen was appointed new committee leader.

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The former leader of the committee, Bjørge Steinsbøl, resigned from his position last week, after a long period of criticism and national media attention on his job. On Wednesday the former leader for the Lillehammer Winter Olympics in 1994, Petter Rønningen, was presented as new leader for Tromsø 2018, the committee in charge of the application.

Petter Rønningen has been adviser for the Winter Olympics applications from Salt Lake City 2002, Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014. All three cities were selected by the IOC as hosts for the Olympics. Rønningen says to NRK that the Tromsø 2018 application is the best one he has ever seen. In Rønningens opinion Tromsø 2018 has a unique concept, with compact games in unique arctic nature.

The Norwegian Government still hasn’t decided whether they will give a state guarantee for the Tromsø 2018 application or not. It will be impossible for Tromsø 2018 to apply for the Winter Olympics without financial guarantee from the Government.