Diversity - Ridderrennet

King Olav V on skis at the first Ridderrennet, April 1964, flanked by two young children holding small Norwegian flags. A larger Norwegian flag and crowd stand behind him.

Ridderspranget

We who ride in the dark

The story of a small organisation with big visions, and a plan to save the world. Or at the very least, to make it a touch less lonely.

A tweed flat cap rests on a desk in the foreground. Behind it, in soft focus, a gaming PC screen and a couple of fantasy knight figurines on a shelf.

Ridderspranget

When the body fails, the soul needs a passport

A debate is raging about screen time. It is missing some crucial nuance. And Beitostølen, of all places, already holds the key to the future.

Queen Sonja, in a white wool hat, laughs heartily with Erling Stordahl, founder of Ridderrennet, in a red knit cap. King Harald stands behind in red. Snow falls around them.

Ridderspranget

The Queen was told in no uncertain terms: "blow your nose on your mitten!"

In an age when diversity and inclusion are meeting resistance around the world, and are reduced at best to polished after-dinner speeches, the story of Ridderrennet and the Norwegian royal family tells a rather different tale.

A lone runner on an empty, curving athletics track, seen from above in black and white. The runner casts a long shadow across otherwise deserted lanes.

Diversity

Are you ready for the Paralympics of loneliness?

They look perfectly healthy. They sprint for the bus, they scroll the feed, they perch on expensive ergonomic chairs in their home offices. And yet they are quietly qualifying for a sport those of us with disabilities have dominated for rather too long.

An elderly Japanese barista pours coffee behind the counter of a traditional kissaten, surrounded by vintage cups, glassware and well-worn café equipment.

Ridderspranget

Are you afraid of growing old?

I will admit it. I am afraid. Not of growing old, exactly, but of becoming dependent on help and not receiving it. Still, I have quiet hope of rescue from an unexpected direction.

A man in a pinstripe suit and sunglasses skis down a snowy slope beside a young girl in a pink jacket seated in a wheelchair fitted with skis, under a bright blue sky.

Ridderspranget

Banking is the key to inclusion

Included by the bank, included in society.

Two smiling children in blue Ridderrennet beanies and sunglasses hug on a sunny winter day, wearing Children's Ridderweek race bibs. One proudly holds up a medal.

Ridderspranget

A diverse business community!

Diversity and inclusion deliver stronger finances, happier staff and a greater impact on society.

Two cyclists ride a tandem bicycle along a gravel road through a dramatic mountain landscape, with steep mossy slopes and distant peaks under a cloudy sky.

Ridderspranget

Where everyone becomes a hero

King Olav opened Ridderrennet and sent a gaggle of blind and partially sighted skiers straight onto the course. A spot of royal chaos was the starting gun for a movement built on inclusion.

Two people on a rocky plateau above a fjord, with cloud-capped peaks beyond. A woman in a red jacket sits on a stone beside her companion in an orange Joelette off-road wheelchair.

Diversity

Nobody quite manages the whole lot alone

You already know a fair few of us as members of Team Pølsa. Ridderrennet is diversity and inclusion in practice, not a tick-box exercise over coffee.