Sweden at the Olympics
The nordic nation of Sweden was one of the countries that competed at the first-ever Olympic Games held in Athens, Greece in 1896 and they have participated in every Olympiad since. The Scandinavian nation boycotted the 1956 edition of the Olympics in Melbourne, Australia although it is still classed as attending the Olympics as it hosted the Game’s equestrian events in Stockholm earlier that year, where its dressage team won a bronze medal.
Sweden have also hosted the summer Olympic Games once, in 1912 when it was held in the city of Stockholm.
Swedish athletes won nine medals at the 2020 Games in Tokyo, extending its medal-winning streak to 48 straight Olympic Games. Aside from Sweden the only country that has won a medal at every Olympic Games since 1908 is its Nordic neighbor Finland.
Stockholm Olympic Games opening ceremony 1912Trivia
- Oscar G Swahn of Sweden won a gold medal for shooting at the 1912 Olympics, when he was 65 years old, and took a silver medal eight years later. He was 72 years, 281 days old when he competed in 1920. He is the oldest ever Olympian of the modern era, and oldest ever to win a medal. He also qualified for the 1924 Olympics when he would have been 77 years old, but withdrew without competing.
- In 1932, after winning the silver in equestrian dressage, Swedish equestrian Bertil Sandström was demoted to last for clicking to his horse to give it encouragement, which was against the rules. He asserted that it was a creaking saddle making the sounds.
- In Mexico City 1968, Swedish pentathlete Hans-Grunner Liljenwall is the first to be disqualified for drug use, having tested positive for excessive alcohol.
- As quarantine laws don't allow the entry of foreign horses into Australia (or there is at least a 6 months quarantine requirement), equestrian events at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics were held in Stockholm in June. The rest of the Games started in late November, when it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere.
Related Pages
- Sweden at the Winter Olympics
- More trivia from each Country at the Olympic Games
- Stockholm Olympics 1912
- About sport in Sweden
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