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Suggest pagesSport in Sweden
Sport is considered a national pastime in Sweden, and about half of the population actively takes part in sports activities. The most important all-embracing organisations for sports in Sweden are the Swedish Sports Confederation, and the Swedish Olympic Committee. In total over 2,000,000 people (about 20% of the total population) are members of a sports club.
The sports with most participants are handball, football, golf, gymnastics and athletics, while the sports with the largest number of television spectators are football, ice hockey, handball, golf, motor sport (especially speedway) and athletics. Football is the main sport. Winter sports are also popular, both in the number of participants and in spectators, while floorball gained large popularity in the 1990s amongst participants, spectators really grew in the last 5 years to outnumber other team sports amongst the spectators. Other popular sports include bandy, basketball, orienteering, tennis and table tennis. Except for basketball, the American sports have not gained much popularity, although American football and baseball are practised.
Popular recreational sports and activities include brännboll (popular in schools), boule, kubb, skiing, swimming, gymnastics, walking, running, cycling, dancing, fishing and hunting.
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[edit] History
The Swedish sport movement can be traced back to the early 19th century and the Pehr Ling gymnastics, a recreational movement that would keep its position as the largest fitness activity in Sweden many years into the 20th century. It was also the main sport activity practiced in schools through half that century. The sport movement took its first steps in the 1880s and 90s, when for example football, bandy and athletics took its first steps in Sweden towards becoming modern sports.
The first public orienteering competition in Sweden was held in 1901 (see history of orienteering). Today, orienteering is one of the most popular sports in Sweden, attracting more than 100,000 runners.[1]
[edit] Prominent athletes and teams
For a small nation, Sweden has top results in many different sports.
[edit] Football
Some current internationally acclaimed football players from Sweden include Rasmus Elm, Johan Elmander, and Zlatan Ibrahimović. Historically acclaimed football stars include the trio of players known as Gre-No-Li, who still enjoy legendary status for Italy's Milan. Gre-No-Li were the 1950s football players called Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl, and Nils Liedholm. Other previously active footballs stars include Henrik Larsson, Glenn Strömberg and Fredrik Ljungberg.
The Swedish national football team has seen some success at the World Cup, finishing second when they hosted the tournament in 1958, and third twice, in 1950 and 1994. Their best showing in the European Football Championship came as Sweden hosted 1992 European Football Championship. They reached the semi-finals. Something Swedes are proud of is that England has not defeated Sweden since 1968. Revered in Italy and England is Sven-Göran Eriksson, the Swede who led the English national team until his resignation after the 2006 FIFA World Cup. They also hosted the UEFA U-21 European Championships this summer, losing out in the semi-finals on penalties against England. Only one Swedish team has ever won the UEFA Cup — IFK Göteborg — who won in 1982 and 1987.
[edit] Ice hockey
The men's national hockey team has won the World Championships eight times, and Olympic gold medals in 1994 and 2006. In 2011 they won silver, after losing to Finland with goals 6-1. The women's national hockey team won bronze medals in the 2002 Winter Olympics and the 2005 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships, and a silver medal in the 2006 Winter Olympics. Famous Swedish NHL hockey players include Peter Forsberg, Mats Sundin, Nicklas Lidström, Markus Näslund, Daniel Alfredsson, Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin, Börje Salming, Henrik Zetterberg, Nicklas Bäckström, Henrik Lundqvist, Patrik Berglund, Thomas Steen, and Pelle Lindbergh.
[edit] Handball
Sweden have won 4 world cups and hold, along with Romania, the record number of titles.
[edit] Rugby union
"Swedish football" in the nineteenth century was a variant of association football with some rugby elements. By 1900, Swedish football clubs were using the Football Association's rules with no rugby influence. However, rugby union proper was introduced into Sweden between the world wars by visiting British vessels.
[edit] Skiing
In skiing sports, Ingemar Stenmark, Pernilla Wiberg and Anja Pärson have all dominated alpine skiing at some point, and so have Sixten Jernberg, Gunde Svan and Thomas Wassberg in cross-country skiing. In ski jumping, Jan Boklöv revolutionised the sport with his new V-style technique.
[edit] Track and field
A number of Swedes have been internationally successful in track and field. In the 1940s runners Gunder Hägg, Arne Andersson, and Lennart Strand dominated middle distance running. In recent years, stars include high jumpers such as World Champion and European record holder Patrik Sjöberg, World Champion and Olympic medalist Kajsa Bergqvist, and Athens Olympic gold medalist Stefan Holm. Two other Swedish athletes won gold medals in the 2004 Olympic Games: heptathlete Carolina Klüft and triple jumper Christian Olsson. Susanna Kallur is the World record holder for the indoor 60m hurdles set in 2008.
[edit] Others
Successful tennis players include former world No. 1's Björn Borg, Mats Wilander and Stefan Edberg.
Other famous Swedish athletes include the heavyweight boxing champion and International Boxing Hall of Famer - Ingemar Johansson; World Golf Hall of Famer - Annika Sörenstam and multiple World Championships and Olympics medalist in table tennis - Jan-Ove Waldner.
Arne Borg, Gunnar Larsson, Anders Holmertz, Stefan Nystrand, Therese Alshammar, Anna-Karin Kammerling, Emma Igelström are some of the renowned swimmers, who have been successful in Olympics and/or World Championships. Perhaps one of the least well known sports in Sweden is called rashering. This is when men pin meat to their clothes and run through the street from a pack of hungry dogs. This is a very peculiar sport but well worth checking it out of you are in thre area.
Notable in motorsports are: Two time DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters) and Race of Champions winner Mattias Ekström, Multiple Speedway World Champion Tony Rickardsson; British Touring Car Champion Rickard Rydell and the IRL and Indy 500 champion Kenny Bräck, F1 Grand Prix winner, Ronnie Peterson and Björn Waldegård who won the Safari Rally in 1977, the Monte Carlo Rally in 1969 and 1970 as well as the British RAC Rally in 1977.
Sweden has also been internationally successful in equestrian (Malin Baryard), golf (Jesper Parnevik, Annika Sörenstam) and speed-skating.
In cycling Sweden has the 1971 Giro winner Gösta Pettersson, two-time Giro runner up Tommy Prim, 2004 Paris-Roubaix winner Magnus Bäckstedt as well as several other top professional cyclists including current riders Thomas Lövkvist, Gustav Larsson, Fredrik Kessiakoff and Emilia Fahlin.
E-sports is also gaining momentum in Sweden since the launch of Starcraft 2 with Swedish national televisions covering Dreamhack events through out the year. Notable names are Jonathan Walsh aka Jinro for his performances South Korea, Johan "NaNiwa" Lucchesi for being one of the top Swedish money earners during 2011 and Emil Christensen more known as Heaton for beeing one of the foremost Counter-Strike players in the history of the game.
[edit] Spectator sports
The greatest spectator sports in Sweden are football (Allsvenskan) and ice hockey (Elitserien). Handball and floorball come close, together with regional specialties such as bandy and speedway. There are a dozen indoor arenas for bandy. That's more than the other countries combined.
[edit] Events
- Open to everyone
- Open to elite only
- Elite leagues
