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MANY OLYMPICS: King Harald has participated in three Olympics and has visited many more. Here with Queen Sonja and then IOC member Gerhard Heiberg during the 2008 Beijing Games. Photo: Helge Mikalsen, VG
King Harald doesn’t think there will be an Olympics in Tokyo next summer. It emerges in a meeting with the ghost of obstacles, Karsten Warholm.
It is Karsten Warholm who asks the king the Olympic question directly in NRK’s new series “Karsten & Leif” which opens on Sunday.
– Do you want to gather 70,000 people now? King Harald asks the 400m hurdles world champion during the meeting at the royal court in Bygdøy.
Warholm coach Leif Olav Alnes slides in with a suggestion that the Olympics can be held without spectators.
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– No, we can’t do that. Neither for the sake of the participants nor for the mood. It will be completely empty, says the king, who was himself the standard bearer for Norway when the Olympics were last held in Tokyo in 1964. He participated in yachting at three Summer Olympics. His father, King Olav, won Olympic sailing gold just 92 years ago.
– What separates the Olympic Games from other events is that spirit. If you can’t bring people together and have that community, then part of it disappears, says Karsten Warholm.
– The only place where all sports are concentrated, he describes.
This summer’s Olympics were postponed as the corona pandemic developed rapidly in March of last winter. The Olympic opening is scheduled for July 23, 2021. It may be the first Olympic event without spectators.
Karsten Warholm mentions on the NRK show that he “cynically as an athlete” can compete regardless of the audience or not.
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– You can do it with 400 meters of track, you, the king responds quickly.
– It is better to compete than not to compete. At the same time, there are many considerations that are more important now. I’m kinda sorry, says Warholm.
– It is interesting, but also a little scary, answers the king.
Tonight’s episode can now be seen on nrk.no and is shown on NRK 1 at 7:45 pm tonight.
Karsten Warholm has used crown time well and on 23 August set a new European record in the 400m hurdles in Stockholm. The time of 46.87 is the second best ever and just nine hundredths behind Kevin Young’s world record of 1992.
It was a fun meeting between the sports-minded king and a Warholm in a suit jacket and shorts.
King Harald advises against Ulsteinvik’s golden hope of becoming the Norwegian flag bearer if there is any of the Olympics next summer.
– It is not wise, says the king and refers to his own experience in Japan 56 years ago. It was a long day, the king was going to compete the next day and he thinks the smartest thing to do would have been to leave the opening ceremony.
