Participation in O-Ringen 2008 is breaking all imaginable records. While this is both incredible and fantastic, it is also creating real problems on the housing front. As a result, the organizers are appealing to the orienteering community for help.

 While entries for the world's biggest orienteering festival keep pouring in, we are currently short on beds for approximately 7,000 participants.
- We will not be able to fulfill the promise we made in the beginning about all the competitors getting beds in cabins at the advertised price. We feel like we have worked hard and done a lot, and it feels really terrible to disappoint so many competitors, says Jimmy Birklin, general secretary of O-Ringen 2008.

18,000 have registered. 26,000 beds are booked. Right now, Jimmy Birklin is split in two. On one hand, he could never imagine such a great interest in O-Ringen and is overjoyed with the response. On the other hand, he realizes that many will be dissatisfied.
- It feels particularly terrible to disappoint families of beginner orienteers. I know that many clubs and organizations have advertised this year's O-Ringen particularly hard to beginners, and many of them were really looking forward to spending a week in Sälen, says Jimmy.
In addition to the cabins secured in Sälen through the usual channels, O-Ringen 2008 has also obtained about 5,000 cabin beds by contacting private cabin owners. Organizers have written letters, posted notices, searched on the web, called cabin owners, and even knocked on their doors. This campaign has yielded results, but it is still not enough.
- We know that there are more beds available, and we are frustrated that we have not managed to get them. Normally, around 50,000 lift passes are sold in Sälen during a regular week in the winter. Unfortunately, the infrastructure to support this scale of tourism simply does not exist there during the summer months, says Jimmy Birklin.

- At the same time as we are feeling upset and disappointed, a desire to keep fighting and turn this thing around is waking up. We will get ourselves out of this depression, even if it feels very difficult right now. We need to do something about this, and we are now appealing to everyone who cares about our sport, says Birklin.
The enormous interest in O-Ringen 2008 in Sälen is, of course, extremely positive for the sport of orienteering and its future. Those competitors who have been left without guaranteed housing still have other alternatives.
- We hope that everyone examines their accommodation possibilities closely. Make sure that you have not booked beds you do not need. It is also possible to search for housing on your own, for example via blocket.se. If you have a caravan, perhaps you can choose to live in it or rent it out to another family that has not gotten housing during the O-Ringen week.
Necessity is, as is often said, the mother of invention.
- O-Ringen Dalarna 2008 will be the most spectacular O-Ringen ever. That is a promise we will keep, says Jimmy Birklin