Solveig Prøis
Solveig Prøis Tynning. The family album.
The Sports Leader
Solveig Prøis
b. 1933 – d. 2014, Porsgrunn
She has been labelled «at the statesman's side», but that does not do her justice. When the book «Hvem er de, hvem var de? Telemarkinger i norsk toppidrett» was published in 2000, the publisher presented its author Solveig Prøis Tynning as a central name in Norwegian sport: a former active gymnast, coach and gymnastics judge, a board member of the Norwegian Confederation of Sports and of the Norwegian Olympic Committee, and chair of the main board of Odd for many years. While her husband sat in Parliament, Solveig built her own public career, in the highest bodies of Norwegian sport.
The Gymnast from Porsgrunn
Solveig Elisabeth Prøis was born on 3 June 1933 in Porsgrunn, the daughter of William and Varda Prøis. From the late 1940s her name appears in Porsgrunns Dagblad, Breviksposten and the other Telemark newspapers — nearly fifty hits between 1947 and 1956 alone, in all likelihood the gymnastics years. She became an adjunkt (secondary school teacher), the same profession as her mother-in-law Åshild and her sister-in-law Brita, and in 1956 she married Torstein Tynning, the same year he became chairman of Telemark Young Conservatives. They settled at Søndre Valler and had the daughters Tone in 1960, Signe in 1963 and Gro in 1966.
The Sports Leader
When Torstein was elected to Parliament in 1965, it was Solveig who kept things running at home in Eidanger — with three daughters, a classroom and a farmyard — while her husband commuted to Oslo for twenty years. But she did not settle for that. From gymnastics she went on as a coach and gymnastics judge, and from there into the boardrooms: chair of the main board of the sports club Odd in Skien for many years, board member of the Norwegian Confederation of Sports and member of the Norwegian Olympic Committee. In a family where the men filled the newspaper columns with politics, it was Solveig who sat where Norwegian sport was governed.
In retirement she gathered her knowledge between two covers: in 2000 she published «Hvem er de, hvem var de? Telemarkinger i norsk toppidrett» together with Gunnar Sem and Jorunn Myklebust at Forlaget Grenland — a reference work on the county's elite athletes that is still used today.
The Matriarch
Torstein died in November 2000, the same year the book came out. Solveig lived for thirteen more years, and she experienced the family's next great political moment: election night in September 2013, when her grandson Christian Tynning Bjørnø was elected to Parliament from Telemark. NRK interviewed the 80-year-old grandmother the following day, and asked what Torstein would have said about their grandson standing for the Labour Party she answered simply: «He would have said go for it.» Her husband disliked people who did not care about politics, she explained, and he liked both the Conservatives and Labour; it was the small parties he had no time for.
Solveig Elisabeth Prøis Tynning died on 19 March 2014 in Porsgrunn, half a year after that election night, aged 80.
The thread she spun in sport carries on in the family: today Fredrikke and Marie Tynning-Bergestuen compete in rhythmic gymnastics for Norway.
Help us finish the story
To Tone, Signe and Gro: which disciplines and competitions did your mother take part in as a gymnast, and for which club? How did she end up on Odd's main board, and when was she chair? What do you remember from the years when your father was in Oslo and your mother ran everything at home? Where did she work as a teacher? And are there photographs from the gymnastics years, from the board positions and from the work on the book?
Positions and distinctions
- Chair of the main board of the sports club Odd
- Board member of the Norwegian Confederation of Sports
- Member of the Norwegian Olympic Committee
- Gymnastics judge and coach
Obituary
Obituary — Norwegian Sports Veterans
Solveig Elisabeth Prøis Tynning (1933–2014) is listed among the obituaries of Norges Idrettsveteraner.
Read the obituary(external source, opens in a new tab)Role in the family story
The sports leader — chair of Odd's main board and a member of the highest bodies of Norwegian sport.
Connection
Connected to Porsgrunn and Søndre Valler — and to sporting life in Telemark.
Key dates
- Born 3 June 1933 in Porsgrunn — daughter of William and Varda Prøis
- Secondary school teacher; married Torstein Tynning in 1956
- Active gymnast, later coach and gymnastics judge
- Chair of the main board of Odd for many years
- Board member of the Norwegian Confederation of Sports and member of the Norwegian Olympic Committee
- Co-author of «Hvem er de, hvem var de? Telemarkinger i norsk toppidrett» (2000)
- Died 19 March 2014 in Porsgrunn
Family relationships
- Married to Torstein Tynning (1956)
- Mother of Tone (1960), Signe (1963) and Gro (1966)
- Grandmother of Christian Tynning Bjørnø, among others
Memories
When Solveig Prøis Tynning died in March 2014, Porsgrunns Dagblad covered her death on the front page and across two pages inside, under the headline «The Tynning sisters want a ceremony in their mother's spirit».
From the newspapers when she died
«On Wednesday 2 April Solveig Prøis Tynning will be laid to rest from the main hall of the Charlie film centre. That the cinema lies in Storgata is in itself a great point. Prøis Tynning loved Storgata. She was a well-known Porsgrunn woman who has left distinct traces in culture and sport. She died with her girls around her on Wednesday […]. Solveig Prøis Tynning was 80 years old.»
Porsgrunns Dagblad, 26.3.2014, pp. 1, 4 and 5 (text extract only; the full article can be read at nb.no with a login).
Signe Tynning to the newspaper:
«[…] music that has meant a lot to mum. In the cinema we can use the screen to show pictures from Tynning. Mum would have liked this.»
«After the ceremony the car with mum's coffin will drive up her beloved Storgata.»
Porsgrunns Dagblad, 26.3.2014 (text extract only; the full article can be read at nb.no with a login).
The cinema:
«The family thought of the cinema, and I have understood that Solveig was very fond of Storgata. I saw no reason to say no […].»
Porsgrunns Dagblad, 26.3.2014. The ceremony was also covered in Varden, 3.4.2014.
In the same week that Torstein died, the newspaper reported on the book she co-wrote:
«New on the bookshelves is 'Telemarkinger i norsk toppidrett', written by Solveig Prøis Tynning, Gunnar Sem and Jorunn Myklebust. The publication contains facts about all the sporting personalities who have mattered to the county. The book is arranged alphabetically and describes athletes in every discipline, from football to shooting.»
Porsgrunns Dagblad, 24.11.2000.