Why would Norway give the IOC bureaucrats a reception with the king? The entire point of the games is the ATHLETES, it is not? IOC seem to think they should be celebrated more than the reason people like the Olympics – the sports. The IOC attitude is the problem. I voted “no” in the Oslo referendum, as more than 40% of Oslo’s population did, so David should’ve included that the vote was pretty split.

I think for most Norwegians the problem was that for us, the Olympics is all about sports, the joys of winter and sportmanship, magic moments on a slope, etc. We wanted to host the Olympics to show the world how it CAN be done, without the excess grandeur of certain former games. We wanted to host it to show our beautiful capital and, most importantly, because we love winter sports. Our passion for it is exactly the reason we ended up quitting the race – because it didn’t seem to be about sports anymore at all, but about prestige. I am glad we did, it was the right decision.