Norway drops bid to host 2018 Winter Olympics

OSLO/NORWAY: Norway dropped plans to bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics on Monday after new estimates doubled the projected cost of hosting the games in the Arctic city of Tromsoe.

``It was a difficult decision,'' said Tove Paule, president of the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports.

Last week, a government-commissioned study estimated that the cost of hosting the 2018 Games would be about 29 billion kroner (US$4.9 billion), or nearly double the figure used by the Tromsoe organizing committee.

In March 2007, the Olympic committee picked Tromsoe, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the Arctic Circle, as Norway's 2018 candidate city over the central Norwegian city of Trondheim and the capital Oslo, which hosted the 1952 Winter Games.

However, before Norway could formally bid for the games it would have needed economic guarantees from the Norwegian government and parliament. The Olympic committee said it voted 9-3 Monday to withdraw its request for guarantees because the games would cost too much.

It also said there would be no Norwegian application from other cities to host the 2018 Games.

Among other cities around that world that have announced bids or interest in 2018 are Almaty, Kazakhstan; Pyeongchang, South Korea; Munich, Germany; and Reno-Tahoe, Nevada. France is considering a bid from either Grenoble, Nice or Annecy.

The International Olympic Committee will choose the 2018 host city in 2011.