In area, Sweden is the fifth largest country in Europe, although in population it is one of the smaller nations. With less than 9 million people in an area of 450,000 square kilometres, the population density is about 20 people per square kilometre.
Basically, Sweden is an Arctic country, with 15% of its area above the polar circle. Thanks to the Gulf Stream, however, the climate is relatively mild. The country is 1,500 kilometres in length from north to south, which means that people in the north are still skiing and doing winter sports when football and other summer sports are in full swing in the south.
Sweden is a country with good natural conditions for sport. Half the country consists of forest, there are almost 100,000 lakes, and the coastline is all of 7,600 kilometres in length. Nature itself may be said to be the most important precondition for sport and exercise. During the winter, skiing and skating are popular, as are all kinds of water sports, such as sailing and canoeing, and forest sports, such as orienteering, in the summer. Sweden is in the fortunate position of having a law encouraging free access to the countryside, Allemansrätten, the right of common access. This right in turn obliges the people enjoying it to respect nature and protect its plant and animal life from destructive human intervention. Particular attention is paid to the environment when sporting competitions are held or when people exercise by themselves or with friends.
About half of the population belong to one or other of the 22,000 sports associations or the 18,000 company sports clubs. Sports associations are found in every town and in many smaller localities throughout the country.
The organization of sport
Some 3.5 million residents of Sweden between the ages of 7 and 70 belong
to a sports associationfor exercise, or as active competitors, leaders, trainers or
supporters. Of these, some two million are active sportsmen and women. About 650,000
take part in competitive sport at various levels, and some 7,000 belong to the sporting elite,
competing at national championship level. The majority do sport for exercise,
however,.with 22,000 sport associations, it is possible to take part in organized sporting
activities anywhere in Sweden. In addition to organized sport, there are many private gyms
and sports centres offering times and facilities tailored to individual needs.
The organization of Swedish sport is completely dependent on the commitment of its cadre of volunteer leaders. Some 500,000 people have been estimated to hold one or more positions of responsibility in the Swedish sports movement. For many, their commitment begins with the sporting activities of their own children, but continues long after these have left home. This commitment finds its expression in committee work at various levels, as trainers, youth leaders, functionaries, team leaders, etc.
The Swedish sports movement is based on deeply-rooted democratic traditions. The life of the individual associations forms the foundation of all its activities. The right to form an association is written into the Swedish constitution. Non-commercial sports associations are governed by statutes requiring democratic practices such as annual general meetings, elected board members and voting rights for all association members. This democratic tradition shapes the whole sports movement from individual local associations and the specialized sport federations to the national Swedish Sports Confederation.
The supreme decision-making body in sport is the Swedish Sports Congress (Riksidrottsmötet) attended by 206 elected delegates from specialized sport federations (specialidrottsförbunden) and area sports federations (distriktidrottsförbunden). The Congress elects the members of the Swedish Sports Board, and decides whether to admit new members (new specialized federations). It also decides general sporting policy and the kind of activities it wishes to promote.
The Swedish Sports Confederation (Sveriges Riksidrottsförbund) and its board is an umbrella organization for all sport in the country. It consists of 63 specialized sport federations and 22 area sports federations. The different specialized federations organize the various associations within each sport. In terms of active participants, meetings, children's and youth work and competitive activities, the biggest sport is football. The area sports federations, in their turn, are regional bodies providing local associations with support and service, training and education, and contact with regional political bodies.
All educational activity is channelled through the Swedish Sports Study Association (Svenska Idrottens Studieförbund, SISU), which administers a comprehensive programme of study circles for the training of leaders, referees and other officials, instructors, etc.
Focus on sexual equality
Even though the statutory foundations of sport are democratic, the decision-makers are still
not sufficiently representative of the active members. Despite a big equality drive, the
representation of women on the boards of the specialized sport associations has only risen
to 24%. Thirty-five per cent of the board members of the area sports federations are
women. Young people are also under-represented. The sports movement has therefore
decided that the election committees at these levels shall be composed of at least 40% of
both sexes. Locally, at regional level, many federations have also decided to set aside at
least one place on the board for under-25s. On the National Sports Board there are at
present five women out of eleven members, and the vice-chair is a woman. What is more,
the Board has two members aged under 25.
The sports that attract most women are football, riding, athletics, gymnastics and golf. More than 50,000 women are active in competitive football, for instance.
In 1995, most Swedish successes in international competition were notched up by women. Annika Sörenstam was the world number one in golf, Maria Brandin won a gold medal in the world rowing championships, Helena Kjellander was a world champion in water- skiing, Sara Eriksson won a world championship in wrestling and swimmer Linda Olofsson won the European championship in the 50 metres freestyle.
State support
The value to society of sport is indisputable. Sport is the biggest youth movement in
Sweden, and plays a significant role in the education and upbringing of young people.
Sport is preventive health care. And it also provides joy and companionship. Sport also has
economic ramifications. The Swedish public spends some 10,500 million kronor (1995) on
its own or its children's sporting activities, or to watch sport. Sport provides large tax
revenues for the state, mainly in the form of value added tax. For these reasons, the state
supports sport at various levels.
566 million kronor in state funding were allocated to the Swedish Sports Confederation in 1995. This sum is distributed to the various specialized sport federations and to the Swedish Olympic Committee. The area sports federations receive allocations from county councils amounting to a total of 100 million kronor per year (1995).
When it comes to public support for sport, however, by far the largest share comes from local authority funding. This amounted to 4,500 million kronor in 19953,500 kronor for the construction of facilities, 600 million kronor for running costs and 400 million kronor for sport associations. It is the responsibility of local authorities to provide high-quality sports facilities for school students, active sportsmen and women in local sport associations, and other municipal residents.
These figures may seem to indicate that Swedish sport is completely dependent on public funding. This is not the case. Most sports support themselves financially to a great extent. Contributing to this are membership fees, starting fees, lotteries and jumble sales, etc. For the more high-profile sports there are also radio and TV contracts and sponsorship fees. On average, Swedish sports federations cover 50% of their own costs. There are of course great differences between sports here, depending on a sport's media appeal.
Schools and sport
A study has shown that Swedish children and young people today have weaker muscles
and greater body weight than they did 15 years ago. For this reason it is important to
integrate sport and health into other subjects at school in order to help students to develop
an active lifestyle for their future leisure activities. This has been taken into account in the
new curriculum for the 9-year compulsory school and the upper secondary school. All
students are guaranteed at least 390 hours of compulsory Sport and Health during their nine
years at compulsory school, which works out at one or two hours per week.
Some upper secondary schools have special sports classes where students get extra time for top-class sports training. This is important if young people discover they have a special talent for a particular sport. The main intention is to help young people combine elite sporting activities and education, and to bring together promising young athletes so that they may be offered better facilities and opportunities for training. It is also important that the community shows a sense of responsibility towards young athletes with a serious commitment to their sport. Students at upper secondary sports schools are integrated in the regular school programmes and spend five hours a week of school time developing their special sporting interests.
In principle, anyone is entitled to apply to these schools, but selection is carried out by the specialized sport federations taking into account elite-level demands in the sport concerned. This specialized sport education is sanctioned by the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag), and it has produced major successes including world champions and olympic gold medalists, such as Jörgen Persson in table tennis, Pernilla Wiberg in slalom skiing, Torgny Mogren, Tomas Wassberg and Gunde Svan in cross-country skiing, Peter Forsberg in ice hockey, Anna Olsson in canoeing, and many others.
Competitive sport
Competitive sport is one of the main programmes into which the activities of the Swedish
sports movement are divided (the other two being youth sport and mass participation
sport). It comprises activities where achievement is the main consideration. A survey
shows that 700,000 people take part in competitive sport, of whom some 7,000 are elite
sportsmen and women, i.e. competing at national championship level. Elite sports are
mainly practised by seniors. They thus constitute a very small proportion of total sporting
activities, most of which involve children and youth. Almost all specialized sport
federations are involved in international competition.
Sweden traditionally ranks as one of the world's major sporting nations. She took part in the very first modern Olympic Games, in Athens in 1896, and has taken part in all the summer and winter games since then. Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, hosted the Summer Olympics in 1912, and was also the venue for the equestrian events of the 1956 Olympics (the other events being arranged in Melbourne, Australia). Sweden has won a total of 547 Olympic medals, winter and summer, including 211 gold medals.
Sweden has hosted world championships in most sports. Most recently, the World Athletic Championships were a great success in Gothenburg in 1995. In 1995, Swedish teams and individuals won 22 world championship titles in bandy, archery, curling, tug-of-war, frisbee disc, canoeing, team figure skating, motorcycle, sailing, swimming, underwater rugby and weight lifting. There were also notable Swedish victories in golf and tennis. There are large numbers of disabled Swedish sportsmen and women who have done well in international competition. In 1995, Sweden won 14 team and individual gold medals at the World Championships for the Disabled. At the Paralympics in Atlanta Sweden won 37 medals, of which 12 gold medals, in swimming, table tennis, riding, athletics and shooting.
Many foreign observers have been surprised that Sweden with its small population has been able to do so well in international competitions. There are of course many reasons for this. Interest in sport is aroused at an early age in most Swedish children and youngsters, and in recent years this has been further stimulated by the successes of such stars as tennis players Björn Borg, Mats Wilander and Stefan Edberg, the table-tennis player Jan-Ove Waldner, the downhill skiers Ingemar Stenmark and Pernilla Wiberg and the highjumper Patrick Sjöberg. In addition, local authorities have built a large number of facilities for intensive, systematic training all over Sweden.
Sport for all
The mottos of Swedish sport are Sport for youth and Sport for all. Sport for all is a concept
introduced in the early 1970s, implying that everybody should be offered the opportunity
for sporting activity in accordance with their interest and capacity within the framework of
Swedish sport. It means that practically all Swedish sport federations have programmes
intended to encourage sport as exercise in addition to exclusively competitive activities.
Sport is international and therefore a useful aid in the acclimatization of immigrants. Around 10% of the Swedish population are immigrants or the children of immigrants. Great efforts are being made to give immigrants the opportunity of participating in sports in their adopted country. A special action programme to encourage immigrants to practise sports, including the translation of rules into various languages, has been in effect for many years.
Great efforts are also being made with respect to sports for people with functional disabilities. For instance, appropriate alterations have been made to sports facilities so that they can be used by disabled people. The Swedish Sports Organization for the Disabled is very active all over the country. Past experience has clearly demonstrated the tremendous importance of this type of sport. The effort put into developing sport for the disabled has borne fruit (see chapter Competitive sport).
Swedish people have always been interested in safeguarding their health and going off into the countryside to get exercise. During the summer they can follow trails marked with cairns. This is traditional in mountain regions, but in recent years attractive hiking trails have also been opened by numerous local authorities in the south of Sweden. Jogging was popular in Sweden long before it developed into a worldwide trend about three decades ago. Indeed, physical welfare has come to play an increasingly prominent part in sports with mass participation.
Skiing, cross-country as well as downhill, is a real mass participation sport. Cross-country skiing used to be the main winter sport in Sweden. It is still very popular, and cross- country ski races attract very large fields. The alpine prowess of Ingemar Stenmark and Pernilla Wiberg has done a great deal to boost interest in downhill skiing. In a very short space of time, many new slopes have been opened and skilifts installed. This is also true of the southern part of the country, where snow machines are used in an attempt to prolong the winter season.
Long-distance skating is another winter activity which has been popular for decades and has been attracting a growing number of participants in recent years.
Sweden, with its many lakes, offers good opportunities for sailing and canoeing. In many places there are canoeing centres where craft can be inexpensively rented.
Another recent development has been the growing popularity with all age groups of keep fit exercises to the accompaniment of music. During the summer, free fitness sessions with music are organized in big parks, attracting thousands of participants of both sexes.
Many people prefer to take their exercise on their own or in the company of friends.This is particularly the case with older people who have been active participants in other sports. Once intensive competition is no longer their main interest, they scale down their activities but still wish to take regular and vigorous exercise.Here, the Swedish Sport-for-All Federation (formerly known as the Inter-Company Sports Federation a large workplace- based sports network) has an important part to play, operating as it does with an outreach and activation policy. In this way, efforts are made to activate people to take part in sport and exercise at their workplaces or in their home neighbourhood. The objective is to make it possible for people to participate in sporting activities at their own convenience at work or at home.
The steady growth of interest in physical activity is reflected in a number of mass events which are becoming more and more popular. These include such classics as the Vasa Ski Race (cross-country skiing, 90 km), the Vättern Circuit (a bike race of 300 km around Lake Vättern), the Vansbro Swim (river swimming, 3 km) and the Lidingö Run (cross-country running, 30 km). There are also numerous marathons, the most prestigious being the Stockholm Marathon, run in early June. The participants rarely aim for medals, they simply take part to test their own capacity.
In the past decade, a number of mass sporting events have been organized exclusively for women. The biggest such event is the Girls' Own Run, a 10 km street race in Stockholm in which up to 30,000 women take part each year.
This fact sheet is part of SIs information service. It can be used as background information on condition that the source is acknowledged.
Pictures in the printed version are not included in the Internet edition
September 1996
Classification: FS 60 f R
ISSN 1101-6124
Fact Sheets on Sweden