TO P E V E N T
O-Ringen –
The world’s greatest orienteering event Tom Hollowell, Director of O-Ringen
has become more difficult to find clubs willing to take on this huge task, the Swedish Federation has decided to take a new path and centralize certain parts of the planning and execution of the event. This job entails efforts to simplify and increase productivity for O-Ringen organisers through centralization of tasks and helping find new ways of doing things. But it also includes the development of O-Ringen to maintain its status as the world’s premier Orienteering event. And there are lots of ideas for development! These are some of the things we are working on: •C ontinuing to develop the organisation of the competition itself, particularly using new technology to improve the service to participants and reduce the environmental impact. We are working on things like GPS tracking for all competitors, further use of technology to improve the results service and new materials to reduce non-recyclable waste. •D eveloping O-Ringen as a platform for recruiting and attracting new groups of participants to O-Ringen. For example, in 2008 we are introducing a new class for adventure racers (O-RingenMulti) with 2-man team’s mountain bike, canoe and foot Orienteering throughout the week. •D eveloping O-Ringen as a platform for recruiting and development of Orienteering leaders and organisers globally. That means building upon the experience of O-Ringen Academy but offering open education and knowledge sharing in course setting, meet organising, coaching and Otraining, etc. How about an international junior training camp in connection with O-Ringen?
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HE O-Ringen Swedish 5-Days started as early as 1965 in southern Sweden with 167 participants. The popularity of this summer vacation event quickly grew and after only a few years had as many as 5000 participants. In the early 80s when Orienteering was at a height in popularity a number of record years were noted with the high so far being 1985 when nearly 25000 runners took part. After a few years when participation dropped, O-Ringen is growing in popularity once again and has stabilized at around 15000 participants per year. Those of you who have been to O-Ringen will, I am sure, agree with me when I say it is an impressive organisational task. Approximately 1,500 volunteers put in more than 100,000 hours of work in making the week of Orienteering happen. And of course O-Ringen isn’t all about the Orienteering. It has become a vacation event with lots of fun extracurricular activities when the day’s running is over. O-Ringen is as much about socializing with other orienteers as it is about the challenge of completing five days of Orienteering. O-Ringen has been an international event right from the start. The first year one of the days was actually organised in Denmark. This past year 2006 there were over 2000 international participants from 42 countries. Through cooperation with the IOF O-Ringen annually hosts the ORingen Academy which is focused on developing and promoting Orienteering globally. Last year participants from countries like Taiwan, Georgia and Serbia attended seminars on all aspects of orienteering development.
So what’s in the future for O-Ringen? O-Ringen has, up until now, been organised completely by groups of local clubs in the organising region of Sweden. 3-4 years prior to the event an organising committee is started for the task of putting on the event that one year. This has worked just fine, but has also been somewhat unproductive as each group more or less starts from scratch leading to extra work and inconsistent quality in certain aspects of the event. As it 20 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2008
•D eveloping the concept of O-Ringen as a vacation EVENT further. In other words expanding visits to the organising region to the week prior to O-Ringen, setting up lower key Orienteering trainings and competitions on the way to and from O-Ringen, and adding activities for everyone in the family. •A ttracting even more international participants by helping make it easier to find out about, get to/from and live at O-Ringen. For example, assisting in making travel arrangements through an ambassadors program and offering more housing options than tents and campers.
A special year – 2008 In 2008 O-Ringen is special for a number of reasons. First of all it is the first time true indoor accommodations are being offered to all participants. The O-Ringen in Sälen, Dalarna, is being organised at Sweden’s largest ski resort. That means 60,000 beds are readily available in ski-resort cabins and apartments. Second, being in the mountains also means being able to offer mountain terrain for Orienteering. It is a special feeling running up above the tree-line as we will be this year on two of the days. The Orienteering is very much fun but also quite challenging. Third, Dalarna is the big skiing region of Sweden and Sälen is the starting point for Vasaloppet, the 90 km cross-country ski race which is the world’s largest. The first two days of ORingen will use the historic Vasaloppet start area as the arena for the competitions. So I would like to invite as many of you as possible to come visit Sweden and O-Ringen. If you are interested in information about O-Ringen or O-Ringen 2008, visit www.oringen.se or email tom. hollowell@oringen.se . We are looking for an O-Ringen Ambassador for Australia. If you might be interested in knowing what this entails, contact Tom Hollowell. An English language invitation is available.
