Bislett Stadium
The venue for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and the figure skating and speed skating competitions at Oslo 1952, Bislett Stadium is synonymous with athletics.
Located two kilometres north of the city centre, it is Norway's main athletics training and competition facility and has hosted the prestigious Bislett Games every year since 1965. A fixture on the IAAF Diamond League calendar, the Bislett Games is Norway’s largest sporting event.
The stadium also hosts the country’s athletics championships every year. When they are not being used for training and competitions, both its outdoor and indoor running tracks are open to the public and Oslo schools all year round. The most-used sports venue in Norway, it is currently the home of IL Skeid football club, which plays in Norway’s third tier. The country’s national football team also trains at the stadium on a regular basis, and it is used regularly for concerts and other non-sporting events.
A total of 69 athletics world records and 25 speed skating world records have been set at Bislett Stadium, which hosted 13 world and ten European speed skating championships between 1925 and 1986.
The original stadium was built in 1922, on a site that had been used to host sporting events as early as 1907. The stadium’s speed skating rink was removed in 1988, and the stadium was itself rebuilt in 2004. The new 15,000-capacity Bislett Stadium was erected in its place the following year and has the same unique architectural style as its predecessor. In 1999, Sports Illustrated named the venue the world’s fifth most important sports arena of the 20th century.