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In 1912 Sweden arranged the Olympic Games in Stockholm and rather surprisingly came first among the participating nations. This event resulted in a patriotic fervour and outbursts of national rhetoric among Swedes. It was little David's victory over many Goliaths. The cartoon above from 1912 depicts a golden Swede surrounded by throphies and a surprised John Bull and Uncle Sam in the background. The caption runs: John Bull: Look out Sam, this boy may outgrow us. Sam: Let's see if he doesn't shrink in 1916.

56 National Feeling in Sport The Case of Sweden Billy Ehn

Ehn, Billy 1989: National Feeling in Sport. The Case of Sweden. - Ethnologia Europaea XIX: 57-66.

The sporting world is a profitable field of cultural studies, especially when it comes to such subjects as feelings and collective identity. Considering its rich social life, its emotional expressions, and its most obvious nationalistic symbol­ ism, sport should have a central place in the general research on nationalism and national culture. In this article the author discuss Swedish sports journalism as a symbolic transformation of sporting activities into national pride and disappoint­ ment. Most of the examples are fetched from the Winter Olympic Games of 1988 in Calgary. One general observation is that nearly everything that sporting personalities do, and journalists say or write, is in some way a contribution to the construction of Swedish national feeling.

Docent, fil.dr Billy Ehn, Institute of Ethnology, Stockholm University, Lusthus­ porten 10, S-115 21 Stockholm.

"My particular predilection for international one's country are made so strongly and so matches is most probably connected with the unanimously. Nowhere else can Swedes talk of fact that I am wholeheartedly Swedish. In my how they feel "so wholeheartedly Swedish", home in Norrland we learnt very early on to that they "value and love their country" and value and love our country. The Swedish flag feel their "hearts beating faster" at the sight of in a foreign setting still makes my heart beat the Swedish flag. faster.(---) One never feels more strongly that These official symbols of nationhood are not one is Swedish than at that fantastic moment, completely appreciated in Sweden. On the con­ when they play before a match Du gamla du trary, there are many Swedes who are em­ fria (Thou ancient, thou free; the Swedish na­ harassed by such patriotism, because it is seen tional anthem). One stands to attention, hear­ as exaggerated, too solemn and even hyster­ ing how the expectant murmurs from the ical, as something pre-modern which belongs stands die away, seeing one's friends' strained to the dark past. Besides, history has shown faces, taken up by the feeling that one is stand­ the sort of catastrophes which can be caused by ing precisely at the focal point of the whole extreme nationalism. So internationalism has event and that one's fellow countrymen are a higher value in many circles in Sweden. hoping that one will make them happy". (Nor­ But sport is exceptional in being a protected dahl 1954: 49) area as far as patriotism is concerned. Here it is quite all right to cheer for Sweden and to This was how a Swedish football star wrote in show strong feelings when Swedes win or lose. the 1950s. And this is also the way sportsmen Nothing awakens Swedish national feeling so talk today when they are interviewed by jour­ easily and so strongly (at least among men) as nalists. Sport is nationalistic throughout the sporting success. Glorious history, royalty, a world (cf. e.g. Ball & Loy 1976, Eichberg 1973, splendid army, democracy and the welfare sys­ Hoberman 1984, Lindroth 1979 and Sandberg tem, ancient ideals and traditions, Volvo and 1985), and in Sweden there is hardly any other other great companies - none of these things area of activity where expressions of love for can measure up to sport in providing bonds of

57 national solidarity or in creating collective con­ sciousness of one's country . Creation of national feeling When the sports movement developed in Eu­ In this paper I want to look at the way in which rope, during the 19th century, the pioneers the special characteristics and practices of spoke in patriotic tones similar to those cited sport are transformed linguistically and sym­ earlier from our 1950s football-player. Listen bolically into creation of national pride and dis­ to Victor Balck, "the father of Swedish sport": appointment, happiness and sorrow. How does this shaping of national feeling, which seems to "Our deepest aim is to foster a vigorous, hard­ bridge different classes, sexes, generations and working, strong-willed and dutiful young gen­ geographical regions come about? By decoding eration, with Swedish temperament, for the (cf. Ehn & Lofgren 1982) some of the compo­ benefit and safeguard of their country . This is nents in the construction I shall try to under­ therefore an appeal for the nation to rally, this stand how it happens that sport voluntarily is what it is about . It is a glorification of the allows itself to be used for nationalistic pur­ patriotic ideal. - Not only can one acquire poses. Why has it such a symbolic power to call health and strength through sports training on forth strong patriotism among people - and one's own account as an individual, but as a above all men - who for the rest of the time Swede one also contributes to the health and seldom show any feelings of national pride? strength of a whole nation". (Lindroth 1974: I will fetch most of my examples from the 191) Winter Olympic Games of 1988 in Calgary, Canada. The Olympics constitute the very big­ Such rhetoric would provoke ridicule if used gest and most important manifestation of na­ literally in the Sweden of today, yet such tionalism in sport. Once, at the beginnings of grand, old fashioned words as "honour", "feat", 1960s, the then President of the Olympic "triumph", "hero" and "great achievement" Games proposed that research should take have survived in a sports journalism that is place on the interest shown by participating significant and meaningful for great numbers countries in order to diminish this nationalism, of sports enthusiasts, but despised by the in­ by, for instance, doing away with flags and tellectual and socially responsible. Sporting national anthems (Ball & Loy 1976: 203). The discourse is charged with atavisms. When idea was that the competetors should just rep­ Sweden recently won a dramatic Davis Cup resent themselves and not their countries. But tennis match over Czechoslovakia a journalist the proposal got nowhere. On the contrary - wrote as follows: nationalism in connection with the Olympics has become stronger than ever since then. And "It was an absolute rescue of honour. (---) The Sweden is no exception. Here both large busi­ 22-year old Smalander transformed himself in ness companies and the royal family are in­ the nick of time into a wizard, a fighter in the volved in supporting the Swedish Olympic spirit of Sven Dufva. (---) Swedish steel bites in team. As a consumer, the ordinary citizen can times of dire need, and that is something those make his small contribution by buying various Swedes anxiously watching the match on T.V. goods (eg. bread, furniture, toiletries); part of probably all agreed on." (Dagens Nyheter 21.3 . the profit going towards Swedish Olympic 1988) preparations. The Olympic Games in Calgary were looked The allusion here to well-known patriotic forward to with great expectation, particularly poems of the 19th century serves as a means of by those interested in skiing. The general rating the national significance of the Swedish opinion was that the Swedish long-distance tennis victory . These pompous and archaic skiers would take lots of medals. But the whole phrases are in fact an integral part of the wider thing began badly. In the first event the best Swedish sports movement and its accompany­ Swede came tenth. National mourning was ing Public Relations. proclaimed in the mass media:

58 "I have never experienced a worse Swedish single person, who stands as a symbol for com­ sporting fiasco. We Swedes drew our winter mon values and attributes. Intrusive details caps over our eyes, ears, noses and mouths. We from his private life - his family, his girl-friend tried to look and sound like Finns, Norwegians and an interest in writing poetry - give this or Russians. We crept along keeping near the national feeling a clear and concrete person­ walls of the houses on our way back home ." alised form, someone with whom one can iden­ (Expressen 16.2. 1988) tify . Even Royalty and the names of big busi­ ness firms are illuminated by the brilliance of the star. But then the set-backs were reversed and "the The mood of the country was no less chau­ Swedish flag was eventually flying after all vinistic at the revenge of the long-distance these sorrows and afflictions". First we got an skiers when they won the relay race. "This was unexpected bronze medal in alpine skiing . the great and wonderful day of revenge", wrote Then Tomas Gustafsson , the skater , won a gold one journalist . medal in 5,000 meters. "Swedish Tomas - what a champion!" ran one headline. "When the flag "The world's best national team was once is flying and they play the National Anthem it again best, recapturing its greatness just as really feels as if one has done it for Sweden", he easily as it had lost it. The relay victory was a said in an interview. Swedish honour was sign of inner strength - that famous morale saved for the moment . "Now we can bask in which has provided Sweden with such great the sunshine of Gustafsson's gold", wrote one success in so many team events". (Goteborgs­ journalist. "His gold came as a sort of delivery Posten 23.2. 1988). for us Swedes", wrote another. When later Gustafsson also won the 10,000 meters and beat the world record he was nominated by the One of the four in the team was Gunde Svan, journalists as "King of the Olympics" and his who is often described as a perfectionist, cold future seen to economically assured by the and rational - in this connection "typically sponsoring contracts he would now certainly Swedish". But after the victory he broke out in obtain from Swedish business firms. In one tears of joy, and this was observed by the jour­ photograph he is seen with the Swedish royal nalists. Under a big headline "you can cry, couple and the headline was: "Between us Gunde, all is forgiven", was written: royals". Over and over again he has to tell the story of the long and laborious road to victory. "You saw and heard that Gunde wept, heav­ He thanks his parents who have supported ens, how he sobbed.(---) He has the right to be him . He describes his training in the woods and more emotional with the years , as all of us countryside around his home town and his have . And he is also so fantastically blue and message is that one must never give up, how­ yellow (the Swedish colours). When he catches ever tough the opposition may be. For some sight of the Swedish flag and hears Du gamla days this blond young Swede is at the centre of du fria, there is a pounding in his heart. He is everyone's attention. He is interviewed on T.V. so archetypically Swedish chauvinistic that and his portrait adorns the front-pages of all one might almost believe him to be a Norwe­ the newspapers. One journalist describes him gian ." (Aftonbladet 23.2. 1988) as "nordiskt helyllepriiktig" and "en sund och rask solstickepojke" and as a "blond magnifi­ cent, fibre-eating Viking" . A woman reporter got a hug from Gunde Svan This is an example of how individual sports and realized then that "behind that cold perfec­ achievement can be transformed into a matter tionism exists a soul. A warm deep-seated of national prestige. The sportsman becomes, soul". The same man also won the 50 kilome­ simply, "Tomas" to the Swedish population. ters and in a newspaper picture one can see Millions of people are brought together via one him in his hotel bed with his eyes shut and

59 smiling happily, with the two gold medals on spirit", Russian "team-machines", Finnish his naked chest. His fiancee leans over him and "sisu" (endurance and "go"), the "efficiency" of kisses his forehead. In an interview she says: the Germans, and the English "sense of fair play". National feeling is always a matter of "He cries easily when things are going well for contrast; it presupposes other countries and Sweden. He is sensitive and he loves Sweden. peoples and their patriotism. Towards some No, Gunde would never think of going to live there is a particularly antagonistic attitude, abroad." (Aftonbladet 28.2. 1988) most often the neighbouring countries, those old "hereditary foes" - Finland in athletics, It actually went rather well for Sweden in the Denmark in football and Norway in skiing . Calgary Games, with four golds and a bronze But this symbolism and these contrasts is and fifth in the national table. For more than a only a superficial aspect of national feeling. fortnight in February the mass media talked The effectiveness and penetrative power of perpetually about Sweden as a nation, about competetive sport as a medium for nationalism our "blue and yellow feelings", about our great consists mainly in the fact that it appeals di­ joy over Swedish victories and disappointment rectly to the spectators' sense of collective be­ over defeats. T.V., radio and the papers bound longing. In this "backbone nationalism" the the Swedes together as a people for hours and rhetoric surrounding sport is primitive. The hours every day. And they actually talked subject is us and them, winning or losing, fight­ about feelings, sentiments, just as much as ing or giving up. This kind of talk is open to all about achievements. The Olympics became an and easy to understand. arena for different ways of expressing Swedish When Swedes win a major competition they national feeling - including everything from are always asked the question: "How does it the flag and the national anthem, to the indi­ feel? Can you describe your feelings?". And the vidual characteristics of the participants and answer is nearly always the same: "It was un­ their family backgrounds. It was a general believable, simply unbelievable. I can't de­ mustering of Swedish patriotism on a massive scribe it, you have to be there to understand scale, hardly allowable or even thinkable m what it's like. I am over the moon, that's all I any other area of society. can say". It is not necessary to say any more. One can hear or see their joy and it rubs off onto the involved spectator, just as does the Symbolism and empathy nervousness beforehand and the tension dur­ After the relay race victory the skiers painted ing the actual competition. So national feeling the Swedish flag over the whole of each other's is, in fact, a very concrete, a very physical faces. A colour picture of their blue and yellow experience, and has not really much to do with war paint dominated the evening papers. abstract concepts or questions as to what a When Tomas Gustafsson won his first gold nation really is. In sport the nation is held medal the Swedish flag was on the front page together by people's strong united desires, with the headline "Oh, so wonderful!". hopes and expressions of delight; but also by National symbolism is over-explicit in con­ the bitternes of defeat which awakens the lust nection with competetive sport: the team's uni­ for revenge. form clothing, the flags, the national anthems, Millions of Swedes in front of the T.V. or everything which emphasizes the differences listening to radio enter into their fellow coun­ between countries. International sport is often trymen's struggles and strains. They stare likened to "a war without weapons" (Dunning tensed up at a ski-track on a forest slope and 1971: 11) and in competitions it is quite legiti­ wait for a Swede to turn up at just the right mate to hate other countries and see them as moment to stand a chance of winning. When a enemies. Both positive and negative stereo­ well-known Swedish name comes onto the typed ideas about other peoples are common. screen, followed by the magic letters SWE with For example, we have the American "fighting the digital timing, nationalism is actually a

60 live experience, something which exists just at cannot explain the national importance of that moment, in the body of the spectator. One victory and defeat. The sports journalist acts as can see this with the naked eye, since most a kind of mediating preacher, who translates people who are interested in sport show what the physical achievements into national sym­ they feel on these occasions. They jump up and bolism, and national values back into sport. down in their excitement, chee"r on their fellow The words seem to be as important as the countrymen, bite their lips, close their eyes, actions in this process of constructing national thump the table with the fists and howl out feeling. their joy or disappointment. People are like madmen, is the usual comment about sports fanatics, and women stare in amazement at National self-understanding their otherwise sullen and quiet husbands, Sport is also a mirror for national self-under­ who suddenly clap them on the thighs or dance standing. Those things Swedes are regarded to around the floor, just because Sweden has won. value particularly highly are co-operation, dis­ Sport can therefore be seen in national terms cipline, purposefulness and self-control. The as a story with a moral, via activities and con­ successes of sporting personalities contribute cepts which do not in the least seem to have to the repetition of these values. At the same much to do with grand projects, but simply time their outbursts of joy, and even the reac­ with well-defined solutions to problems in tions of the Swedish spectators, remind us of trivial situations: skiing as fast as possible, get­ whatever we ordinarily are not. When Gunde ting a puck or a ball into goal, jumping over a Svan weeps in front of the T.V. cameras obvi­ cross-bar placed higher and higher. Seconds ously no-one gets cross, not even the strictest and hundredths of a second can give millions of of Swedes, but many probably cannot help Swedes their strongest feeling ever of being squirming a little and being tremendously con­ one people and belonging to one nation. Look­ scious of a culturally-drawn boundary inside ing at Bjorn Borg playing tennis or Ingemar themselves as to what passes and what does Stenmark skiing downhill has been some of the not. peak moments in modern times for Swedish And so it is that nearly everything sporting national feeling. personalities do, and commentators say or But without sports journalism and the rheto­ write, is a contribution to this construction of ric surrounding competitions, victories and de­ Swedish national feeling. If a gold medalist feats, this collective sentiment becomes quite weeps at the presentation ceremony and an­ incomprehensible. The special characteristics other shows not the slightest emotion, both and significance of competetive sport have to reactions can be used symbolically to consoli­ be translated into non-sporting language in or­ date ideas of how Swedes are and what it is der to produce national joy or sorrow. The jour­ that singles out our nation. In this way nalism describes and explains what happens Swedes' own imaginings about themselves are on the pitch or on the slope, but it is also a formulated via sport and its special language, ritual magnification of the emotions awakened not only in the competitive arena, but also in by the competition. The sport in itself is about the personalities and private lives of the sports muscles, will and tactic, not about national competitors themselves. identity. Sportsmen most surely do not strain A telling example of this is the journalists themselves for their country in the moment of way of contrasting the various Swedish sports exhaustion. This sort of motivation is added on stars with one another. During the last few afterwards and gives meaning to the behavior. winters it has been a matter of our "ski kings" The competitors themselves concentrate on Gunde Svan and Tomas Wassberg, who are more practical tasks, the next slalom pole, the described as two quite different types of next ball, the next step. It is all about phy­ Swedish personality. Gunde Svan is the perfec­ sique, pain and will-power, about loneliness tionist, who leaves nothing to chance, but and liability. But these simple things alone trains with the aid of computers and has

61 freeze-dried food with him for the Olympic question of mixed marriages is also important Games, a clean-living man, a mummy's boy, in a society with more than half a million im­ who is nice, but also intelligent, every mother­ migrants from different countries. in-law's dream. In him one is able to recognize It is therefore possible to describe Sweden the Swedish political dream of the rational, through the contrasts between these two perfect and decent society, where everything is skiers. But this national interpretation is most under control down to the minutest detail in often unspoken. Reports and interviews ap­ the best interests of the population as a whole. pear to be solely about sport and individual Tomas Wassberg, on the other hand, is de­ character, not in the least about national cul­ scribed as a genuine, unpredictable, slightly ture or social tensions. It is, I think, just for indolent, eccentric, who does what he feels like, this reason that they make a deeper impres­ a child of nature, who skis as long as it is fun to sion and have a more general distribution as a do so. This is also a Swedish value: to live in symbolic and emotional means of relating to harmony with nature and to follow the inclina­ national themes, than they would have if this tions of one's own. Wassberg and many other function had been verbalised and intellec­ Swedes like walking the dog, strolling alone in tualised. As long as one talks about a person the forests and passing the time in silence at a and not about a nation Swedes do not need to lake-side, watching the fishing-rod. defend themselves against the effects of grea­ But it is not only their personal character­ ter patriotism, since that is a sensitive subject istics which symbolize the different sides of the in a society with many immigrants and "Swedish national character". Even physically tendencies to enmity towards foreigners, and and socially both men provide different types of where the Swedish flag and national anthem goods for this cultural construction. Svan is for many people, in fact, symbolizes right-wing blond, blue-eyed and smiling, with a winning extremism (and sometimes even Nazism). way and a Swedish fiancee. Wassberg is dark During the Olympics in Calgary Gunde Svan and bearded, really untidy, reserved and diffi­ was once accused of being selfish and a threat cult to understand, and furthermore his wife is to the morale of the Swedish team. The reason foreign. Of the two Tomas Wassberg is gener­ was his own food and the fact that he hired a ally regarded as the one most beloved by the car, instead of going by bus with his comrades. people. But this criticism made some journalists an­ With the aid of these two sporting stars I gry. They defended Svan, saying that they had think many Swedes reflect more or less con­ themselves seen him being helpful and un­ sciously on what it means to be Swedish. We selfish. To accuse someone of being disloyal is recognize the different sides of ourselves and in Sweden, and maybe especially within the our society which are presented in a lot of other sports world, a serious thing. The ability to contexts, but not perhaps as clearly or with cooperate and to be a good team-member are such strong feeling. To watch Svan and Wass­ highly valued qualities. Stars always make an berg when they are competing and to read obligatory bow to the team when things have interviews with them and descriptions of their gone well. "The streggth of the Swedes lies in personalities, is therefore, if this reasoning the team itself and in its morale", says an ex­ holds, a way of seeing and feeling one's own pert during an international ice-hockey match cultural duality and central conflicts in shown on T.V. He praised a number of players Swedish society. Everyday, people in Sweden particularly for being "reliable, loyal players discuss how much life should be planned, and who sacrifice themselves for the team" or for how much freedom the individual should have. being "useful". Discipline and team spirit are A lot of Swedes also argue about how far it is regarded, in this rhetoric, as especially suitable to show one's feelings, how much Swedish qualities. Therefore the Swedes are at strongheadedness and individuality can be al­ their best at "fighting as underdogs" and "help­ lowed, and how far we should keep pace with ing each other", but rather bad at "leading the the demands of industrial development. The match".

62 ically concrete, and the past. When reports and Moral examples commentaries are about the individual quali­ Official Swedish values (those that are often ties of sports personalities, their character, articulated in schools, in working life, in day family and home town, a tangible and emo­ nurseries, in politics and the mass media) are tional basis for national identification is pro­ also present in sport, both directly and in­ vided. All due respect to the flag and the na­ directly. Many Swedes certainly recognize tional anthem - but as a concrete source of themselves in and identify with, for example, national feeling probably Gunde Svan's Swedish ice-hockey, when it is described as mother or Ingemar Stenmark's home village , "mature, considered, planned, intelligent and Tarnaby, have at least as strong an effect. tactical" . Similarly many Swedish sports stars Since sporting stars come from a variety of are named as moral example . On the whole one larger and smaller communities across the gets the feeling that Swedes, as described in whole country nationalism also acquires a mul­ sports journalism, are finer , more honourable tiplying factor in terms of place. The same rea­ and purer in heart than people from other son which in national competitive sport leads countries. Their fair hair, and being a lintott to antagonism between different Swedes, i.e. ("a flaxen-haired child"), is associated tacitly, local patriotism, contributes in international together with light skin, with a lighter tem­ championships to a geographic concretisation perament aljd purer intentions. Swedes do not of the abstract concept "Sweden". Rivalry be­ cheat, do not go in for doping and do not know­ tween clubs and local communities is set aside ingly damage their opponents - according to a for the sake of one's country . In the Olympics, usual national self-image . in world championships and in international Sportsmanship and fair play are certainly matches Stockholmers and Gothenburgers are also central to the values of other countries, united with Tarnaby and Skamhed (the home and perhaps also associated there with na­ village ofGunde Svan). Villages which one had tional feeling. But in Sweden this means of never before heard of suddenly become na­ identification is strengthened by other ideals tional cult-places. Towns acquire special char­ which are ascribed to one's own country: peace­ acter by being associated with one or the other fulness , humanism, democracy, justice and national sport. equality. Swedish sport is described in a way Another important aspect is the historical that reflects and confirms this ideal picture, one . Those interested in sport are fanatical but not always without self-irony . When things about result statistics , and are also history­ went badly for the Swedes at the beginning of conscious . They keep count on earlier competi­ the latest Olympics it was blamed on wrong tions and the achievements of sporting person­ ski-wax, on high altitude, bad preparations, alities of 60, 70 years ago. One remembers and and on the fact that certain opponents prob­ compares those "unforgettable moments", ably were doped. At least one journalist reac­ those "historic victories", "the classics" and ted against the last "explanation": "greatest competitors through the ages". On T.V. and radio they rub in a historical con­ "I wonder what we would have said at home, in sciousness of sport by showing or relating ear­ that place on earth where honour had its ori­ lier Olympics , and by letting former stars de­ gins, if someone had asserted that our extreme scribe how it was then and comment on their successes earlier on in the year were due to our young successors . heroes having been on drugs ." (Aftonbladet Sport has many different faces . It is both 21.3 . 1988). attached to tradition and changeable, old-fash­ ioned and ultra-modern, concentrating on de­ velopment and on "beating the record" (cf. e.g. Person, place, history Brohm 1978 and Eichberg 1973). But through The rhetoric of national sports journalism is the respect shown to old or dead sporting per­ oriented towards the individual, the geograph- sonalities depth is given to contemporary na-

63 tional feeling. There is retroactive happiness, and well-educated coaches. The emphasis is so to speak, over earlier victories, over achieve­ put on the structure of the Swedish welfare ments which have long since been surpassed. society, not only on the individual sportsmen. There is also a strong tendency to see the ongo­ ing present as history in making, to designate "As a small country we have every reason to be matches and races as "historic" or "classics" proud of the large group of young people who whilst they are still taking place. This hap­ are world champions in many areas of sport. pened a number of times with Bjorn Borg and Clearly they contribute to the impression that Ingemar Stenmark, and even now, when they Sweden is a country which can foster their have scarcely reached the age of thirty, they young to bring off sensational achievements." are talked of as "legends". (A former minister for foreign affairs; in: Sveri­ gebilder 1987: 101.) "Soon we shall be living on memories which can never be wiped out, which will be passed on Descriptions in the mass media of the home from generation to generation. Between 1971 towns and family circumstances of gold and 1988 we experienced the most fantastic medalists anchor these idolized victors in a years in Swedish sporting history. Sweden flew Sweden which most of the inhabitants surely out into the big wide world and put its nose out recognize and which can be associated with of joint, bursting out: Come on then, here we Swedish democracy, education, working life are!" (Expressen 26.2. 1988) and social rights. Of course this is a one-sided success-story of a society almost without pover­ Retrospectives are also a method of consoli­ ty, insurmountable class-differences, and polit­ dating ideas about different national sports ical terror. Gunde Svan, Tomas Wassberg and and especially "Swedish specialities". Those the rest are, despite their individualism and sports where Sweden has been particularly different personalities, both representatives successful, distances such as the 50 kilometers for and products of, a certain type of social skiing and the 10,000 meters skating, where system, with which sport, as a cultural me­ there have been a number of golds "through dium, helps us - the Swedes - to identify. Per­ time", are designated Swedish. The word fem­ haps even the most impopular of decrees, e.g. mil (50 kilometers) consequently evokes a spe­ high taxes and far-reaching state control, can cial sort of pleasure, associated as it is with in this way be more accepted through their Swedish national pride, which, for example, association with gold medals and national the word "100 meters" does not in the least. In pride? this way Swedes also work up a picture of Another aspect of this national identification themselves as tough and having stamina, reso­ via sport is the commercial one. Sport is nowa­ lute and long-suffering, a people who are able days part of business and industry, not an iso­ to endure long periods of solitude and who like lated play-activity. Top sportsmen themselves being out in wide open spaces in all weathers. define their activity as work, as an occupation. So that it is not only successes in themselves The spectators are also never allowed to forget which activate national feeling, but also cer­ this connection with economic realities. The tain branches of sport and some distances more symbols and language of sport are in our time than others. permeated by industrial metaphors and big business-interests (while the leaders in in­ dustry and politics like to talk of their own The Swedish Model work in sports-language). Through the fact As is well-known, sport is used as propaganda that many companies buy advertising space on for different ideologies and social systems. the sports clothes of Swedish stars and on plac­ When Swedes win it often happens that jour­ ards round the arenas, they are, or hope to be, nalists and politicians explain this by such fac­ more or less consciously associated with sport­ tors as good organization, skilled leadership ing successes. Concepts such as Volvo, Spar-

64 banken, Folksam, Wasa brod and Kalles kaviar therefore be very easy to assume that the na­ (different Swedish companies, producing cars, tional rhetoric of sports journalists is willingly bread and caviar paste, or selling insurances) received by millions of Swedes, who use it to become an integral part of the whole victory construct a sense of collective identity. message which the national designation Sve­ But once again one must ask what pene­ rige (Sweden), with its occasionally magic gold­ trating power sporting nationalism has. It is en power, brings forth. too easy to exaggerate its importance, without Sporting personalities in practice do duty as checking it, since it is given so much time and billboards, both for "the Swedish Model" and place in mass media. In many respects sporting for private industry. So different ideas about nationalism is, of course, a limited phenome­ Sweden are amalgamated by virtue of the fact non with certain emotional peaks, above all, as that sport, the state and the business compa­ I have said, in the category of men interested nies of the country seem to share the same in sport, and perhaps especially men from the overriding goals as to how individual achieve­ working class. In what way do these emotional ments can be transformed into collective profit high points permeate the rest of these men's and national prestige. By "concentrating on lives, with their families, at work, in their oneself' - as the current individualistic mess­ other involvements in society? To what extent age goes in Sweden - one can also serve one's is this nationalism a separate loyality, without country. That is one of the nationalistic lessons any important spill-over into other areas of which is given several times a week every year life? in T.V ., radio and newspapers, reporting on I have argued, without being absolutely sure sport in many different forms. about it, that sport has a great national signif­ icance, even outside journalistic rhetoric. I have said that sport, at certain moments, turns The penetrative power of national millions of Swedes into one people, into one feeling distinct, geographical and emotional we with a In this article I have discussed national feeling collective memory. I have also maintained that in Swedish competetive sport, mainly through sport, however playful and trivial it seems - the sports journalists' observations on the and standing outside really serious questions, Olympic Games in Calgary. One theme has at least in the moment of competition - still been old-fashioned and high-flown rhetoric, has great economic, political and, in very broad another the sporting world's own modernism terms, educational importance. Finally I have in chasing after ever-improved methods and suggested that there is no other social arena in results (with the aid of the latest scientific Sweden - during peace-time - with such strong knowledge and support from big business). The nationalistic symbolism and sentimentality. rhetoric is public and very well-known. It plays These are of course hypotheses which can be a central role in the general image of sport. But tested empirically. Such research would pro­ what actual significance has this formula-like vide an interesting opportunity for examining nationalism in people's emotional life and daily the "innocent" character of sport, i.e. how its practice? strong concentration on the body hides deeper We are all well aware that sport is a common cultural and philosophical concerns. In its di­ subject of conversation in places of work, in rect and unsophisticated manner, sport is a schools, at cafes, and among groups of friends. ritualistic dramatization of the relation be­ In factories and workshops you still can see tween the individual and society. (cf. e.g. No­ posters of Bjorn Borg and Ingemar Stenmark vak 1983 and Blanchard & Cheska 1985), and beside those of pin-ups. A lot of people, though it also clarifies the meaning of setting goals mostly men, devote a lot of their time to sport, and straining oneself towards them . Both spec­ watching, reading or talking about it, or to tators and competitors can be seen as actors in their own sports activities, for which the na­ an endless show, where small facts speak to tional heroes are inspirational models. It would large issues. This is why a study of sporting

~ Ethnolo gia Europaea XIX,I 65 nationalism does not necessarily have to start again that sporting nationalism is an active at the top level, at the international champion­ and dynamic identity process , with a quite flex­ ships and its obvious patriotic rhetoric. Nation­ ible construction and reconstruction of useful alism is in a way enacted just as much, al­ elements. though in a more disguised manner, at club competitions at the local level. This is so be­ cause sport, in all its aspects, is a preliminary exercise in nationalism, where young people, References in an unproblematic and physical way, learn to Ball, D. W. & J. W. Loy (eds.), 1976: Sport and Social transfer individual energy to collective goals. Order: Contributions to the Sociology of Sport . The club and the team is a miniature nation . Reading, Mass .: Addison-Wesley Publishing Com­ This means that, in fact, every sports area, pany . Blanchard , K. & A. T. Cheska, 1985: The Anthropol­ football pitch and tennis-court is an arena for ogy of Sport . Massachusetts: Bergin & Garvey national micro-processes. Every competition is Publishing Inc. a preparation for national representation. Fur­ Brohm, J-M ., 1978: Sport - A Prison of Measur ed thermore, it is a part of the sport-world social­ Time. London : Links . Dunning, E. (ed.), 1971: The Sociology of Sport . Lon­ ization into such values and qualities as loy­ don: Frank Cass & Co. alty, team-spirit, the will to win, courage, hon­ Ehn, B. & Orvar Lofgren, 1982: Kulturanalys. Lund: our and pride. These concepts are then, Liber. without any opposition, elevated to the higher Eichberg, H ., 1973: Der Weg des Sports in die in­ level of national identification. dustrielle Zivilisation. Baden-Baden: Nomos. Hoberman, J . M., 1984: Sport and Political Ideology . The ground for national feeling is therefore Austin : University of Texas Press . already prepared at local level , although with­ Lindroth, J ., 1974: ldrottens uiig till folkrorelse . (Ath­ out any of the due symbols or patriotic rheto­ letics Becomes a Popular Movement. Diss .) Up­ ric. On the other hand, one can observe today psala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Lindroth, J., 1979: ldrott och nationalism. (Sveriges how national attributes are used in apparently Centralforenings for ldrottens Frii.mjande arsbok non-national contexts. Before ice-hockey 1979). matches between Swedish teams the national Nordahl, G., 1954: Guld och grona planer. Stock­ anthem is often played, and cliques of sup­ holm: Bonniers. porters at football matches wave blue and yel­ Novak, M., 1983: Th e Joy of Sports. New York: Basic Books. low flags on which they have written the name Sandberg, H., 1985: Olympia och Valhalla: idehisto­ of their team. In these situations the ordinary riska aspekter av den moderna idrottsrorelsens symbols of Sweden are used to celebrate local framuiixt . (Sport and ideas : aspects of the rise of matches and teams, and to give them a more the modern sport movement . With a summary in English.) Stockholm : Almqvist & Wiksell Interna­ solemn framing. Of course they also contribute tional. to blur the boundary between all-Swedish and Suerigebilder. 17 svenskar ser pa Sverige. SOU: international events. This example shows 1987: 57.

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