Sport in Sweden comes from some tough years. The coronavirus largely prevented, albeit somewhat differently from sport to sport, training, matches and tournaments around the country.
But since then figures from the Norwegian Sports Confederation point to improvement in many areas.
– Sports as a whole on the children’s and youth side seems to have recovered and coped fairly well after the pandemic, states the association’s operations controller Peter Eriksson and continues:
– Now we see above all how some of the bigger, classic sports are going strong. Not least football.
The so-called LOK support – local activity support – is government support for youth sports that is distributed to the country’s sports associations. The support is based on the number of participants and the number of training opportunities for young people aged 7–25.
Approximately 59.7 million participation opportunities were reported to the Swedish Sports Confederation in 2023, compared to 58.1 million in 2019. The figure can be seen as an indicator of young people’s activity level, but also of the well-being of various sports.
Fakta.LOK support
Local activity support (LOK support) is a government support that the National Sports Confederation distributes to associations’ children and youth activities. The associations themselves must, every six months, apply for the support, which is based on the number of activities, leaders and participants.
Source: Swedish Sports Confederation.
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– When it comes to the overall trends, and above all within the major sports, it is a very good indication of how much children’s and youth activities are carried out in Sweden, says Peter Eriksson.
The National Sports Confederation has asked the latest figures for 2019, i.e. before the outbreak of the pandemic in Sweden. The results show that some of the major sports are now growing properly, such as football and basketball. Gymnastics, ice hockey and handball also show positive trends compared to 2019.
However, it looks worse for a number of other major sports: Athletics, martial arts, equestrian sports, swimming and floorball.
Does the Norwegian Sports Confederation view this development with concern, or is there a fundamental optimism that we are on the right track after the pandemic?
– I wouldn’t say that there is any concern for sports overall, says Peter Eriksson.
– But this will also be a bit silly. We are one and the same sports family, at the same time that the associations and the athletes are in a way competitors. They compete for children and young people’s free time.
– The basis from the Swedish Sports Confederation is that we obviously want as many children and young people playing sports as possible. Which sport they choose basically matters less. The important thing is that there is the right range, so that you can find sin sports.
Facts. National Sports Confederation
The National Sports Confederation has 72 member associations (special sports associations, SF) which together have approximately 19,000 sports associations. In total, the sports movement gathers around 3.3 million members. The National Sports Confederation, in turn, has 19 districts that work to support sports associations around the country.
Source: Swedish Sports Confederation.
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At the same time, Peter Eriksson says that the Swedish Sports Confederation has no “clear answers” as to why certain sports do not seem to have recovered after the pandemic, while others seem to have succeeded significantly better.
– There are certainly several explanations, but we have no given analysis as to why.
– If it is the case that certain sports really did the job in a very good way during the pandemic and made sure that the associations were brought along in a good way when the restrictions were lifted, or if there are other things behind the numbers.
Someone might be thinking whether the continued loss of certain sports is about a reduced interest among the young practitioners, or whether in some cases it may be that there is an interest – but no associations.
– The number of associations that report activities fell slightly during the pandemic, states Peter Eriksson.
– But now we are up to approximately the same number of associations again. Possibly a little lower, but not to any great extent. So it’s not like a lot of associations have disappeared.
Peter Eriksson, operations controller at the National Sports Confederation. Photo: Wilhelm Wigardt/National Sports Confederation
He continues:
– Our general assessment is rather that quite a few sports during the pandemic lost a form of youth generation in various ways, and that they then failed to compensate for this by recruiting children to a corresponding extent.
– At the same time, we see that a decent number of the major sports managed quite well. If it is then a sign of the times, that certain sports are more attractive to children and young people, or if certain sports are better at marketing themselves to children and young people – it is difficult to say.
