Sport activities are a national movement with half of the population actively participating, much thanks to the heavy government subsidies of sport associations (föreningsstöd). The two main spectator sports are football and ice hockey. Second to football, horse sports have the highest number of practitioners, mostly women. Thereafter follow golf, athletics, and the team sports of handball, floorball, basketball and bandy.
The Swedish ice hockey team Tre Kronor is regarded as one of the best in the world. The team has won the World Championships eight times, placing them third in the all-time medal count. Tre Kronor also won Olympic gold medals in 1994 and 2006. In 2006, Tre Kronor became the first national hockey team to win both the Olympic and world championships in the same year. The Swedish national football team has seen some success at the World Cup in the past, finishing second when they hosted the tournament in 1958, and third twice, in 1950 and 1994. Athletics has enjoyed a surge in popularity due to several successful athletes in recent years, such as Carolina Klüft, Stefan Holm, Christian Olsson, Patrik Sjöberg, Johan Wissman and Kajsa Bergqvist.
Sweden is also the seventh most successful country in the Olympic Games, as of 2010.
In schools, on meadows and in parks, the game brännboll, a sport similar to baseball, is commonly played for fun. Other leisure sports are the historical game of kubb, and boules among the older generation.
Sweden hosted the 1912 Summer Olympics and the FIFA World Cup in 1958. Other big sports events held here include 1992 UEFA European Football Championship, FIFA Women's World Cup 1995, and several championships of ice hockey, curling, athletics, skiing, bandy, figure skating and swimming.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment