European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 30, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse A Luger makes it i test run on the track built for luge and bobsled races at Lap Agne for the 92 games. Meanwhile Norway prepares for 1994 by Doug Mellgren the associated press while next month s Winter olympics Are getting most of the attention some people Are More concerned about the 1994 games. These folks for the most part Are not athletes coaches or fans. They re people living near the Mountain town of Lillehammer Norway. And they just want the games Over. Aud Pedersen s House rattles several times a Day every time a chunk is blasted out of a Hill for an underground ice hockey rink being built directly beneath her basement. Anders Fretheim s farmyard is crowded with workers and heavy equipment for a downhill ski run. Quot i have nothing against the olympics but i would t have minded having them at a distance a like five or 10 Kilometres three to six Miles a and not right against the Wall of my House said Fretheim. While construction of Competition Sites intrudes on the Solitude of some of Southern Norway s mountains Many nearby places Are left untouched. In Lillehammer the Center of the games the five ring olympic Symbol appears on to shirts and sidewalks. But the town s narrow streets lined with Well preserved 19th-Century wooden houses Are largely undisturbed. Quot those who notice construction live next to a venue Quot said Haakon Brusveen a 1960 olympic Gold medallist in nordic skiing. Quot we Don t notice it in Lillehammer he said some of the 23,000 residents fear the games will ruin their picturesque town and diminish the Beauty of nearby Pine forests around Lake Moesa the largest in Norway. Quot i would have been happier if the games had done More for the District. The olympics have not created As Many jobs As expected said Brusveen who runs a sporting goods store. The norwegian olympic organizing committee says projects budgeted at 7 billion Kroner about $1.1 billionaire on schedule Halfway through the four year construction period. Winter sports Are such a part of Lillehammer traditions that a skier adorns the town s coat of arms. The Region claims to be the Cradle of modern skiing. Many residents can t resist talking about the 1994 games. Quot we have heard Little else sinc e we rolled Over the Border Quot said French tourist Erik Muller. Quot we Are hosting the olympics in France this Winter but we hardly hear anything about in the nearby town of gjovik dump trucks trundle into a Tunnel to an underground ice hockey rink. Atop the Hill about 10 Yards directly above the Man made Grotto is Pedersen s restored 80-year-old House. Quot every time they blast the whole House shakes. Sometimes pictures fall off the Walls. Windows and holdings have a amps gigs Schuettler not everyone is upset about the 1994 Winter games in Lillehammer souvenir dealers Are preparing for booming business. Cracked. I m very Muc h against the games Quot she said. Designers say the $0.2 million rink will have an unsupported roof Span of 193 feet the largest of any such underground Structure. Quot it s impressive but i really did t want it under my House Quot Pedersen said. Fretheim a Herd of c own has Given Way to the clutter for a ski run that will occupy 85 percen of his property at ring Ebu North of i Lillehammer. Quot there have been a lot of strangers Here every Day for me it s been quite a process to make it through. But i won t run away. I la make it Quot said f Netheim >7. During the games rat ers will Whiz past Fretheim s House i the c Ould watch h trom his pore h. I he rising c Ost of the c Nimes about tour time s the original estimates worries some norwegians. They say it is too much flt it a a c country of 4 2 million people to spend. But Brusveen reflect my what seems to be the prevailing View said Quot we must make the games As Good As after several warm Winters in a Row one thing worries him. Quot Well need Snow Quot he said january it1992 stripes Magazine 11
