For Beitostølen Health Sports Center and the Knights' Race, the Royal House has been part of the story from the very beginning. When Erling Stordahl gathered twelve participants for the first Knights' Race in 1964, King Olav V was present and sent the first runners out onto the track. The then Crown Prince Harald himself participated in the race. Six years later, in November 1970, he was back in Beitostølen to open Beitostølen Health Sports Center.
Of course, it was not the Royal House that built the Health Sports Center. It was brave pioneers, professionals, volunteers, organizations and employees – with Erling Stordahl as the main driving force. But when the royal family chose to support an idea that was both new and radical at the time, it meant something. It gave visibility, legitimacy and belief that this work was important for the whole of society.
That connection has never been lost.
Over the decades, members of the royal family have returned to Ridderrennet and Beitostølen. Princess Märtha Louise continued the tradition for many years, both as the high patron of Ridderrennet and as an active participant and companion in the ski track. In recent years, Crown Prince Haakon has taken over the patronage and continued the connection in his own way. When he came to Beitostølen in 2024, he himself went to Ridderrennet as a companion and at the same time opened our new family house. The time and conversations with Crown Prince Haakon that weekend gave great faith that the future will also involve a generous, wise and open royal house with room for everyone.
For me personally, it has been a privilege to experience this interest up close – through meetings here at Beitostølen and in Valdres, at the Palace and in various sports and community contexts. What I am most impressed with is not primarily the solemnity. It is the interest, the questions and the willingness to understand what our work is actually about.
A particularly powerful meeting was the audience with King Harald and Queen Sonja in connection with the Health and Sports Centre's 50th anniversary in 2020. We had a lot of time together. They were very well prepared, knew the history, but were just as concerned about the future. The King's call to us was clear: We had to continue to make a mark and take responsibility for diversity becoming an important resource in the future.
Therein lay both a recognition and a challenge.
When the anniversary book "The Art of Possibility – 50 Years of Beitostølen Health Sports Center" was published, King Harald wrote the foreword. This too had a significance far beyond the text itself. The king linked his own history with the place to the story of Erling Stordahl's idea: to see the possibilities in man rather than the limitations.
Perhaps this is precisely where the long connection between the Royal House, the Knights' Race and the Health Sports Center has its true value.
Royal presence has not done the job for us. But it has helped to highlight its importance. When King Olav, King Harald, Queen Sonja, Princess Märtha Louise, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, Princess Ingrid Alexandra and now Crown Prince Haakon have at various times shown interest and participated, they have at the same time directed attention towards people, opportunities and a society where more people should be able to participate.
For a business like ours, such recognition has given us both pride and strength. It has reminded us that the work done here in the mountains affects far more than just us who have our workplace in Beitostølen.
And perhaps it has also contributed to something that Erling Stordahl was so good at: making us raise our sights a little higher than what currently seems possible.
It is a legacy we should be grateful for – and a responsibility we should carry forward.
Astrid Nyquist
Director Beitostølen Health Sports Center
