In May 1981, the queen made her second visit to Norway.

The first, in 1955, took her, with her husband Prince Philip, among others, to Holmenkollen.

Such visits are more polite.

But this time the queen is visiting relatives at the Norwegian royal house, diplomatic etiquette has been put aside in favor of commitment and genuine curiosity.

Opening norwegian statue

This time the queen wished Elizabeth instead of getting into the east car in Oslo to see how the new Bjerke Animal Hospital treats its four-legged patient.

Chief veterinarian Arne Holm received a very engaged guest he could hardly imagine on a tour.

Before Queen Elizabeth left Bjerkebanen this Thursday and made her way back to Trondheimsveien towards Sinsenkrysset, she also unveiled a statue of a cold-blooded horse. “Prince May”which stands proudly in front of Norway’s largest trotting track to this day.

Queen Elizabeth and the cold-blooded horse.

On the one hand, it couldn’t be more poetic and respectful of the country he visited.
There’s nothing glamorous or serious about Elizabeth’s horse people.

Her son, now King Charles III, called equestrian sport his mother’s “passion of life” as recently as 2021.

This is even more evident during big races at Royal Ascot or other racetracks. The race gave Elizabeth’s breeder and horse owner an arena to express an open and genuine enthusiasm that she very rarely showed.

“I like to breed horses that are faster than anyone else,” he said to himself. And it seems.

First final

Sport does not define the reign of the queen, but in part provides her with an arena for breaking away from the royal framework – and in part a presence in several layers of society, including as part of the football audience.

One of Elizabeth’s first duties as Queen was to present the FA Cup trophy in 1953. The date was May 2, and exactly one month until Elizabeth II was officially crowned.

Never before has a football game in the British Isles had that many spectators. Too many people in the postwar period had bought their first television to watch the coronation ceremony mentioned above. But before that, the BBC broadcast the FA Cup final from Wembley live.

Blackpool and Bolton were the final team, and it was the most goal-rich final in the tournament’s history to date. Two very late Blackpool goals turned the game around for a 4-3 win for the side from the Northwest Coast resort town, and legendary captain Stanley Matthews was honored to receive the trophy from the new queen.

Historic trophy

But the most important of all the trophies that Queen Elizabeth has presented is the one she presented to Bobby Moore on July 30, 1966. The Jules Rimet trophy, as it is called, was the first World Cup trophy – and the only one that England have ever won.

This Saturday will go down in history as the biggest in English football history.

England beat West Germany 4-2 after extra time and controversy and were the best in the world, a feeling they have been reluctant to give up in most other contexts for decades.

The next time England hosted the premier men’s soccer championship, the European Championships in 1996, it was also king who presented the trophy at Wembley. But the symbolism is too precise.

The world has moved away from British rule. And Germany captain Jürgen Klinsmann who happily accepted the trophy from Elizabeth II.

Hence, it might as well feel safer as the king of England to visit some of the big cricket arenas in his home country. The Queen’s efforts to keep the British Commonwealth together for decades are so well epitomized by cricket, which is a Commonwealth sport more than any other.

The tennis match that changed history

But if equestrian was closest to the Queen’s heart, it was tennis that changed her life the most. In 1939, then-Princess Elizabeth and her father, King George, visited the Royal Naval College in Devon.

On the tennis court inside the compound, he saw the athletic Prince Philip of Greece. The story goes that she decided right then and there that he was the man in her life. 73 years as a couple proves that the queen-to-be’s assumptions might be right.

In that case, one would think that the Wimbledon tournament would get extra attention from the Queen. He was also the tournament’s high patron for 64 years. But after she oversaw Virginia Wade’s victory in 1977, it would be a long 33 years before the Queen returned to SW 19, as the tournament is often called, after the zip code where the tournament was played in South London.

Instead, it is the next queen, the tennis-enthusiastic Duchess Kate, who has taken over the protective role and is also present in the royal stands with her family every year.

Lovely Lilibet

Because if there’s a place where you can do this with the continuation of tradition, it’s in the royal family. When London hosted the first Summer Olympics after the Second World War, it was King George VI who presided over the opening.

The next time one of the Commonwealth countries hosted, in Montreal in 1976, her daughter, Elizabeth II, was in charge of the opening, as “Queen of Canada”, as she put it in her welcoming speech.

But Queen Elizabeth has never shocked the world like she did when the Olympics returned to London in 2012.

Immediately following the celebration of his first 60 years on the throne, it’s no surprise that he will be in charge of the unveiling.

It was the way it was done that left the entire enchanted world gaping open.

Queen Elizabeth in a subtle smiling interaction with the British Empire’s second greatest legend, Agent 007, better known as James Bond, in the form of Daniel Craig, revitalizes the image of a queen to all.

And a queen who gave the British capital the long-awaited boost in the form of the world’s biggest sports festival, under the motto “Inspire a generation”.

For 96 years, the world’s most famous woman has inspired many generations.

As well as a statue of a cold-blooded horse in the car park at Bjerke in Oslo.