Every week between now and the FIS Congress 2018, FIS will introduce one of the Candidates to host the FIS World Ski Championships that will be elected in in Costa Navarino (GRE). This week, FIS Newsflash will feature Vikersund (NOR), which has submitted an application to host the 2022 FIS Ski Flying World Championship.

The small Norwegian town of Vikersund with the world’s largest ski flying hill, once again wants to host the FIS Ski Flying World Championships. Having welcomed four Championships in the past, Vikersund now steps up to take home their fifth Championships. But a lot has changed in Vikersund since the last time they hosted the World Championships in 2012. Vikersund is now well established as a host for annual FIS World Cup events in their top modern Ski Flying hill, lately with the super final of the recent addition to the FIS Calendar «Raw Air Tournament». 

The County Mayor in Buskerud County Municipality, Mr. Roger Ryberg, is excited about the World Championship application, “to host the SFWC would be an honour and a privilege for us, and this would certainly represent an important happening for the whole region. The Championships has great potential for strengthening the region's position as an attractive destination for both business and tourism,” according to Mr. Ryberg.

Lots of culture and children’s activities
Vikersund is famous for hosting events well suited for the whole family to attend. During the Raw Air finals, they have also hosted the «Mini Raw Air», a ski jumping competition for children aged 8-12 in the HS 10 and HS 15 hills.

This is where the young athletes gets to meet with their World Cup heroes to be inspired, and also a great family event to attend as a warm up to the Ski Flying competition. Additionally Vikersund likes to offer children’s activities in the snow and around tables – to keep them active and happy during a long day at the arena.

“I’m proud of our work with children, both the part where we recruit «Next generation – future flyers», but also the part where we facilitate our event to be a really fun day for kids, and a suitable family weekend activity,” says Head of the Local Organizational Committee Wenche Backe.

“If we now get the opportunity to host the World Championships, we will plan for a two week winter festival before the Ski Flying begins, with different culture and sports events to build up the expectations and draw attention to our upcoming Championships,” explains Head of the Vikersund 2022 bid committee Håvard Orsteen.

High expectations
Having hosted a total of 60,000 spectators at the arena, and 72 million TV viewers during the Vikersund Ski Flying World Championships in 2012, the organisers in Vikersund have good reason to expect great numbers of spectators and TV-viewers one more time.

“Our goal is to show state of the art Ski Flying in Vikersund 2022, this is important for us and important for the development of the sport we love,” Mr. Håvard Orsteen concludes.

Text courtesy of Vikersund 2022 Bid Committee

Source: fis-ski.com