Lillehammer Idrettforening is a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 athletics

Athletics (track and field)

Athletics is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking...

 club from Lillehammer

Lillehammer

is a town and municipality in Oppland county, Norway, globally known for hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. As of May 2011, the population of the town of Lillehammer was...

, founded on 28 May 1919. At that time city already had four different sports teams; for cross country skiing (since 1882), gymnastics

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...

 (since 1892), speed skating

Speed skating

Speed skating, or speedskating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in traveling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating...

 (since 1897) and football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 (since 1911) respectively.

Its most prominent recent member is Morten Sand, who participated at the 2006 European Championships. Prominent former members include high jumper Astrid Tveit

Astrid Tveit

Astrid Tveit is a retired Norwegian high jumper. She represented Lillehammer IF and IL i BUL.She finished tenth at the 1975 European Indoor Championships, fifteenth at the 1978 European Indoor Championships and tenth at the 1978 European Championships...

 and long-distance runner Brynhild Synstnes

Brynhild Synstnes

Brynhild Synstnes is a retired Norwegian long-distance runner who specialized in 3000/5000 metres and later marathon. She represented Lillehammer IF and SK Vidar during her heyday....

.

The club hosts the Veidekkelekene, the second largest athletics meet in Norway.

History

In 1973, Stampesletta opened, and the club moved from Sportsplassen i Lillehammer to there, with the old venue being retired in 1975. In 1977, the club hosted the Norwegian Athletics Championships at Stampesletta. It was the last time the championships were held on gravel, and this caused problems because excessive rain drowned the venue, and the fire department had to pump off the water. The club started planning fixed surface on the venue in 1980, and was granted a loan for NOK 500,000. On 18 August 1981, the municipal council voted to grant NOK 200,000 for the upgrade. The work was largely done with voluntary work, and the new surface was inaugurated on 28 August 1982 with the Norwegian Relay Athletics Championship. The running track was renovated in 2003, and received a new surface layer and paint job.

Lillehammer IF has hosted the Norwegian Athletics Championships three times, in 1977, 1995 and 2009. They have also hosted a series of other Norwegian championships, such as the Norwegian Junior Athletics Championships in 1958, 1987 and 2002, and the Norwegian Relay Athletics Championships in 1960, 1974, 1976, 1982, 1991 and 1999. Veidekkelekene is an annual track and field tournament held at Stampesletta. In 2010 it had 1,150 participants and is organized by Lillehammer IF, Gausdal FIK and Moelven IL. The tournament is the second-largest track and field event in Norway, after Tyrvinglekene.

Venue

Lillehammer IF is based at Stampesletta, a multi-sports complex located 1 kilometre (0.621372736649807 mi) from the town center. The track and field venue has eight lanes around the full course, as well as a start allowing 110 meter hurdling

Hurdling

Hurdling is a type of track and field race.- Distances :There are sprint hurdle races and long hurdle races. The standard sprint hurdle race is 110 meters for men and 100 meters for women. The standard long hurdle race is 400 meters for both men and women...

. In addition to the track and field venue, it has a main artificial turf football field with a grandstand

Grandstand

A grandstand is a large and normally permanent structure for seating spectators, most often at a racetrack. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap all or most of the way...

, which is shared with the track and field venue.