DATELINE / LILLEHAMMER : Playing Games in Hall of the Mountain King
Did you ever wish, when you were a kid, that you could play in a cave? Olympic hockey players are doing that in nearby Gjovik.
About a third of the hockey games are being played in the Gjovik Fjellhall--it means mountain hall-- an amazing sports complex carved into a mountain. Well, the Norwegians call it a mountain, but it’s more like a good-sized hill. Even so, except for the concrete mouths of the entrance tunnels, you could look at the otherwise ordinary hill forever and never suspect there was anything under the surface but ground.
Instead, an athletic wonderland--a full-size international hockey rink with seating for 5,800 and an Olympic-size swimming pool--greet the visitor. The rink can also be used for figure skating and curling, and, when it isn’t a rink, track and field.
The arena itself looks as modern as can be--there are even VIP suites--but the corridors and concourses carry out the cave theme. The rock ceilings are sprayed with waterproof concrete and the rock walls are decorated with marble slabs of etched pictograms--Viking ships, whales, moose, humans playing stickball games--reminiscent of rock carvings.
The ice arena, built at a cost of 134 million Norwegian kroner--more than $18 million at the current exchange rate--is only the latest project in the continuing development of the underground center. Excavation actually was begun by German armed forces during World War II. They wanted an ammo dump safe from air raids, so they built it into the hill. The swimming pool, normally open to the public, came years later, and the ice hall was built once the ’94 Winter Games had been awarded to Lillehammer.
Because of low maintenance costs--there are no windows to replace, no roof to repair--the rink will have paid for itself in 15 years, according to Bjorn Sandnes, the venue manager. Refrigeration costs are kept low, too, by the natural coolness of the cave and huge strips of reflective fabric stretched high over the rink, which bounce the escaping cold air back down toward the ice.
There are four entrance tunnels for public use, and one secret one for very private use. Workers blasting out the bedrock, carving the tunnels, making an arena out of the inside of a hill, thought they would get tickets to all the events there. When they learned that wasn’t the plan, they cut their own tunnel to an area high over the rink, where they put in a bank of seats that will never be sold to the public. And now, even the International Olympic Committee can’t keep them away.