LILLEHAMMER, NORWAY : THE NEXT OLYMPIC VILLAGE : The People of This Small Scandinavian Town Bring Centuries of Winter Sports Tradition to the First ‘Green’ Games

The announcement that this Scandinavian alpine village would host the 1994 Winter Games sent me scurrying to buy tickets for several skiing and skating events this February, even though I’m not normally a snow sports follower. I’d visited Lillehammer, nestled in the lap of hulking, snow-dusted mountains at the foot of Norway’s largest lake, several times before and am always looking for a reason to revisit its pretty wooden houses, stroll its frosty lanes and gaze at its snow-covered church steeple.

But I got my moment of Olympic glory unexpectedly, before the Games, when I found myself hurtling down a chute of ice with the Norwegian bobsled team, pulling G’s just like the astronauts. Last winter, as I toured the Olympic sports venues during my fifth visit to Lillehammer in as many years, a guide jokingly asked if anyone in my group wanted to try the bobsled or the luge. As a promotional gimmick, rides are offered to the public, for a fee.

I stepped forward immediately, but it was only after plunking down a 500-kroner note (the equivalent of about $70) that I noticed the ambulance parked nearby. I wasn’t frightened--just freezing cold as I waited at the top of the track for a U.S. team to make a training run--until Bob Cuneo, the American team’s bobsled designer, offered this scenario: “Imagine the worst roller-coaster ride you’ve ever been on, and it’s worse than that. The best thing is, you’ll be scared to death. And the worst thing is, you’ll die.”

I hunkered down in the fire-engine-red tourist bobsled, dubbed “Taxi Bob,” behind a serious-looking fellow I later learned was Hans Olav Olstad, a member of the Norwegian Olympic bobsled team. Two big guys jumped in behind me and we were off.

It was like being in a fast-forward video. We took the turns even faster. I tried keeping my helmeted head down between my knees, as instructed, but my chest ached and my head whipped around like a ball on a string.

In a matter of seconds, it was over. I climbed unsteadily from the bobsled, with a hand from the now-grinning Olstad. It was the shortest, priciest and scariest taxi ride of my life. Weeks later, I received a certificate in the mail: It reported that our maximum speed was 75 m.p.h. and our maximum G-force was 4 (four times the pull of gravity).

And that’s the fun of visiting an Olympics venue before and after the big events: A visitor can ski the very courses that challenge the world’s top athletes, hop aboard a bob or luge, or rent skates and take a spin around the ice rink. For sports fans--or dreamers like me--it may even be more memorable than seeing the Games themselves.

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Sports is just one aspect of a visit to Lillehammer, a village of 22,000 set 110 miles north of Oslo, Norway’s capital, and an area rich with history and culture.

Later the same day of my Olympic debut, I was sipping coffee before a crackling fire in a little inn downtown, mesmerized by Rolf Kjaernsli’s sparkling eyes as he shared a tale eight centuries old--an important story in local and national history.

Kjaernsli, 69, participated in three world championship competitions and three Winter Games with Norway’s cross-country team. A former teacher, he has written a book about Lillehammer’s ski traditions.

Kjaernsli told the story of a legendary political group called the Birkebeiners, literally “birch legs,” for they were poor and wore birch-bark leggings. During Norway’s civil war in the winter of 1206, the Birkebeiners carried the infant Prince Haakon Haakonsson, Norway’s future king, from the clutches of their rivals, the Baglers, and over the mountains to safety. Haakon grew up, ended Norway’s civil war and united the country. And the Birkebeiners became national heroes.

Every March (still the dead of winter this far north) a grueling ski race, the Birkebeiner-Rennet, retraces the group’s path. Each competitor wears a backpack to symbolize the weight of the little prince. The race has never been canceled due to weather. Over 5,000 skiers dash across a barren trail often whipped by brittle winds in spine-chilling temperatures.

He said he has participated in “only 38” of the races. Not bad for a man pushing 70. When I asked Kjaernsli if he enjoyed the competition, he smiled and said, “It’s good when it’s over.”

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Lillehammer was a fine choice to host the Winter Olympics, considering the town’s longstanding winter sports traditions. It is believed to be the only place in the world with a skier on its coat of arms--a Birkebeiner, naturally. Skiing, skating and sledding are a way of life here, where most youngsters hit the slopes the first winter after they learn to walk. “Practically every kid in this town has a pair of skis,” Kjaernsli said. “Some have many pairs.” When not skiing, the residents--young and old--zip around Storgaten, the pedestrians-only main street, on sparkstoetting , a two-passenger sled that one person pushes while standing on a runner.

When I first laid eyes on Lillehammer, I felt protective of the innocence of this charming place. I had read that during the Winter Games, from Feb. 12-27 next year, up to 100,000 spectators would descend on the surrounding countryside every day. As I made friends with the local people during several visits, I felt growing concern about how the Olympics would affect their town.

Peaceful as it still appeared during my visit last winter after a considerable amount of construction--Lillehammer has been the focus of a national debate regarding the environmental, social and economic impact of these record $1 billion-plus Games, a staggering sum for a nation of only four million people.

They are being widely referred to as the world’s first “Green Games” because careful attention is being paid to many environmental aspects, including arena locations, how sites fit in with the topographical and cultural landscape, construction materials, energy efficiency, recycling and how buildings will be used after the Games.

The environmental priorities came after Norwegian activists, appalled at the damage past Olympics have wreaked elsewhere, lobbied the country’s legislators and won a budget of about $100,000 a year to form a watchdog group, called Project Environment-Friendly Olympics.

The organization has fought developers and short-sighted local politicians. Environmental ethics were gradually incorporated into the arena planning. At the bobsled and luge track I sampled, a fine was imposed for cutting trees--up to $10,000 for each. As a result, the track was designed to snake along the terrain’s natural contours, and few trees were lost.

The ice rink in nearby Gjoevik is housed in a cavern, with minimal disturbance of open space. The course for the biathlon event, which combines cross-country skiing and riflery, features a special bullet-collection device that stops spent lead from sinking into the soil and contaminating the ground water; bullets will be recycled.

Adhering to Norwegian culture and traditions is also part of the environmental profile--hence, Gjoevik’s “Troll Cavern” ice rink--named after Norway’s legendary folk figures, believed to live in mountain caverns--and, perhaps the most distinctive construction of all, Olympic Hall, a speed-skating rink in the nearby town of Hamar that features a roof that looks like the hull of an upturned Viking ship.

Forging an “environmentally correct” Olympics has not been easy--despite Norway’s image as a so-called “green” nation. Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland chaired the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development whose 1987 report led to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro last year. But her party’s record on “green” issues--including its reversal on complying with the international ban on whaling--has not pleased many environmentalists. “It’s easy to be a prophet outside your own land,” commented Olav Myrholt, the leader of Project Environment-Friendly Olympics.

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Most visitors, unaware of these matters, come to Lillehammer with one thing in mind: hitting the ski trails.

From Oslo, both the E6 highway and the railway wind north across a rolling hillside of stately birches, icy streams and wooden farmhouses, painted red or mustard-yellow. I usually travel by train, surrounded by passengers wearing hand-knit woolens or ski sweaters, the overhead racks jammed with sports bags and ski poles.

Forty minutes before Lillehammer, the train stops in Hamar, where the “Viking Ship” ice rink has become one of Norway’s top tourist attractions. Hamar is the southernmost point of the 70-mile-long Olympic region, with Lillehammer smack in the heart. During the Games, the area will be closed to private traffic. Spectators will arrive by shuttle bus, express motor coach and high-speed rail.

Olympics tickets to prime events have already been snapped up, according to Don Williams, a vice president of Manhattan Beach-based Cartan Tours, the official U.S. ticket agent for the Olympics, but some events are available. Likewise, many accommodations in the area have been booked for years for the two weeks of competition, although private accommodations, some in outlying areas, can still be booked, and several companies have space left in tour packages (see Guidebook).

Lillehammer made a name for itself long before the Games. During the Middle Ages it was on the King’s Road linking the key cities of Oslo and Trondheim. Situated where the River Mesna flows into Lake Mjoesa, it was a commercial crossroads for centuries, but was incorporated as a market town only in 1827. Later it became known as a fresh-air retreat for tuberculosis patients. Eventually painters were attracted by the beauty of the snowy landscape and the renowned light--an enchantingly soft, pastel glow.

Maihaugen, Lillehammer’s best known attraction, is an open-air folk museum with 130 authentic houses and workshops collected late in the last century by a local dentist, Anders Sandvig. Sandvig wanted to be sure that Norway’s historic buildings would not be lost to future generations. The park is open year-round, but the houses and workshops throw open their doors in summer only, when Maihaugen resembles a village from another era.

Lillehammer is the gateway to Gudbrandsdal, the long valley running up the heartland of Norway. This is Peer Gynt country. Though the farmer was a fictional character of playwright Henrik Ibsen, he has become a national archetype. Today, farmers raise dairy cattle and goats and sow a variety of crops on the fertile patches of steep land--including potatoes used to produce aquavit, the potent Norwegian schnapps.

A group of enterprising farm wives have set up their own restaurant, Roboel, om the Hafjell Olympic ski slope and open only in winter. Ravenous Norwegians ski right in and trade their boots for a comfy pair of hand-knitted socks while they dine on stews and other hearty home cooking.

Social life in Lillehammer, of course, is centered around winter sports. There are miles and miles of cross-country trails, slalom slopes, pistes, mountain cabins, rustic country ski lodges and a half-dozen small hotels in town. Some visitors are amazed when Storgaten, the bustling walking street, becomes deserted after 5 p.m. That’s when the locals are heading out for night skiing, and tourists are heading in to snuggle around the hearth.

During the day, people meet at Storgaten’s small coffee shops and bakeries, or go shopping. Husfliden, at 47 Storgaten, is the local outlet of a national network of home-based artisans, selling carved wooden furniture, bowls and utensils, pewterware, leather goods, toys and hand-knit sweaters--pricey but of excellent quality. Upstairs one can be fitted for a bunad, the traditional dress that a woman wears to her wedding and other special occasions. Bunad designs and embroidery vary by region.

Though Lillehammer is certainly adapting to modern life, it remains delightfully cozy and quaint. Norwegians have told me the town can be slow to accept outsiders; skier-historian Kjaernsli has been living here for 35 years and said he still doesn’t consider himself a “local.” Nevertheless, I find the people very friendly.

Perhaps they warm up even more in summer, when Lake Mjoesa thaws and a favorite pastime is riding the Skibladner, the world’s oldest operating paddle-wheel steamer. It runs between Lillehammer and Eidsvoll, a 12-hour voyage with several stops. Most passengers dine on the traditional menu of salmon, followed by strawberries and cream. The lake is popular for boating in the summer and for skating in winter, but, as a Lillehammer ski buff told me, “People here turn their backs to the water and face the mountains.”

Last winter a cross-country race for women, Ingerlami, was introduced the weekend before the Birkebeiner-Rennet (which is open to all). When I asked a friend of mine if she planned to compete, she said, “You can’t be a woman in Lillehammer and not do it.”

I’m afraid that the bob is the extent of my personal winter-sports accomplishments. The next time I return to Lillehammer, for the Olympics in February, it will be to watch--not participate. And with all due respect to the American team, I think that when it comes to the bobsled, I’ll be cheering for the Norwegians.

Somehow, I feel like part of the team.

GUIDEBOOK

On Track to Lillehammer

Getting there: Delta, KLM, SAS, Northwest and British Airways offer connecting service to Oslo from LAX; there are no nonstop flights. For the month of October, Delta, KLM/Northwest and SAS have a restricted advance-purchase fare of $798 round trip. Midwinter fares can be lower, but many seats during the February dates of the Olympics are already sold out.

A ride on the bob or luge: Visitors to Lillehammer can sample a bobsled or luge ride before or after the Olympics when the track at Hunderfossen is not being used for training. Call the Lillehammer Tourist Office (see below) for available times. Cost: about $70 per person for the bobsled, $8 for the luge.

Hotels: In Lillehammer, the Moella is built in an old river mill in the heart of town (12 Elvegaten, 2600 Lillehammer, Norway; from U.S. phones, 011-47-612-69294, fax 011-47- 612-69295). It’s 58 rooms are decorated with Norwegian textiles and wooden furniture; cozy restaurant. In Hammer Home Hotel (108 Storgaten, 2600 Lillehammer, Norway; tel. 011-47-61- 26-3500, fax 011-47-61-26-3730) is a modern, 72-room inn set in a historic building adorned with regional antiques. During my stay the property was run by an all-female staff. There’s a sauna, solarium and comfortable little sitting room with fireplace. Complimentary tea, coffee and hot chocolate served throughout the day; complimentary cheeses, herrings, fresh bread and cakes in the evening. At both hotels, doubles start (during non-Olympic periods) at about $120 and include buffet breakfast.

Dining: Birkebeiner Stue is new and built in an old wooden house on Elvegaten, near the Olympics Information Center. The ground floor is a casual coffee shop with an open stone fireplace. Upstairs is a gourmet restaurant featuring seafood; dinner entrees run about $27. Closed Sundays; local tel. 612-64444. Mormors Hus (Grandmother’s House), across the street from the Olympics Information Center, is small and antique-filled, featuring typical Norwegian home cooking. Dinner only; tel. 612-69388.

Tour operators: The official U.S. ticket agent for the games is Cartan Tours; some tickets, other than those for prime events, are still available. Contact Cartan’s Olympic Division in Manhattan Beach, tel. (800) 841-1994, fax (310) 546-8433. Lillehammer packages and accommodations are also available from tour operators, including Scantours in Santa Monica, tel. (800) 223-7226 or (310) 451-0911, fax (310) 395-2013; Ski-See Norway in New Jersey, tel. (800) 447-5473, fax (201) 827-1363, and EuroCruises in New York, tel. (800) 688-EURO, fax (212) 366-4747.

For more information: The Norwegian Tourist Board, 655 3rd Ave., New York 10017; tel. (212) 949-2333. Lillehammer Tourist Office, 1 Lilletorget, 2600 Lillehammer, Norway; tel.011-47-612-59299, fax 011-47-612-69655. Olympics Information Center, 19 Elvegaten, 2601 Lillehammer, Norway; tel. 011-47-612-71900, fax 011-47-612-71950.

‘Greener’ Venues

Norwegians lobbied to make Lillehammer’s 1994 Winter Olympics the first environment-friendly Games. Attention was paid to construction materials, energy efficiency, recycling and the topographical and cultural landscape.