Petter Rønningen will take over as daily leader of "Tromsø 2018," succeeding Bjørge Stensbøl who ran into conflicts with the group's chairman, Petter Jansen.

Rønningen played a key role in securing the Olympics for Lillehammer in 1994. He's also been an adviser to organizing committees in the US, Canada and Russia when the International Olympic Committee granted the games to Salt Lake City in 2002, Vancouver in 2010 and Sotsji in 2014.

Sports officials concerned over a lack of public support for Tromsø's bid also have secured the aid of former Olympic cross-country skiing star Vegard Ulvang. He started work Wednesday to drum up support among athletes for a 2018 Games up north.

Ulvang himself hails from northern Norway, and athletic officials hope he'll build enthusiasm among skaters and skiers and other athletes for an Olympics in Tromsø. His first official meeting was with the Norwegian skating federation.

Tromsø Mayor Arild Hausberg, meanwhile, called Rønningen the city's "dream candidate" to take over the job of leading the organizing committe.

"He's the man who can organize an Olympics," said Hausberg, who now hopes for harmony and greater enthusiasm around his city's Olympics bid.

"What we have to do is get the people enthused, and get the athletes enthused and get back optimistic faith in the project," he added. Critics have claimed an Olympics in Tromsø will demand huge amounts of public funding and that it's not worth the cost.

Others were furious that Tromsø was chosen over other Norwegian cities thought to be better suited to host an Olympics. The choice of Tromsø was widely viewed as a political ploy to plow money into an outlying district, especially since Oslo scored highest in a survey of suitable cities for an Olympics.

Environmentalists have also blasted a proposed Olympics in Tromsø on the grounds it will damage the area's fragile Arctic atmosphere and generate more carbon emissions from increased flights to the northern city.