A platform for the growth of Swedish sport 

One-third of Sweden’s 10 million inhabitants between the ages of 6 and 80 are active members of sports clubs, with 2.4 million of them competing on a regular basis. Some 7,000 are elite athletes. Participation figures are even higher among young people, with more than 70 per cent of boys and about 50 per cent of girls between the ages of 6 and 12 belonging to one of the country’s 20,000 sports clubs. Some 12,000 of these clubs organise sport for youngsters.

The right to found sports clubs without outside interference and to participate in them is even guaranteed by the Swedish constitution, while the collaboration between local authorities and sports clubs is a key pillar of the country’s vibrant and democratic sporting community, as is generous government funding of organisations and facilities.

This support can be traced back to the Olympic Games Stockholm 1912. The Organising Committee saw the Games as a means of promoting sport and the contribution it could make to people’s health, while sports supporters advocated other perceived benefits such as the stiffening of the country’s moral character and national unity. With the Swedish public’s perception of sport enhanced by the Games, the government began awarding annual grants to sports organisations as early as the year after the Games, providing a significant boost to the national sports movement.

Cooperation between the state and the service sector continued in the 1930s with the creation of the so-called Swedish Model, with increased government funding enabling the growth of organised sport and the implementation of expansive programmes for the construction of sports facilities.

Meanwhile, Sweden’s elite athletes receive valuable support from the Swedish Olympic Committee (SOC), which runs a number of elite athlete development programmes and initiatives and works closely with the Olympic Movement.

The SOC, which was created a year after the 1912 Games, has set a target of 20 medals – including five golds – at both the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 and the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028, a goal it hopes to achieve by setting up elite programmes including “Top Talent” for athletes and coaches and “the Olympic Offensive” for younger athletes, training environments and sports research.

"Top Talent" is a tailored support programme targeting athletes with the potential to achieve Olympic medal capacity. It provides individualised assistance, including funding for international competitions, training camps, coaching and access to the SOC's resource team, which specialises in areas like physical training, nutrition, medicine and performance psychology. The goal is to enable athletes to reach the world elite within three to six years.

Launched in 2019, "the Olympic Offensive" is a comprehensive project aimed at creating conditions for long-term Olympic success within the country. The initiative encompasses four areas: enhancing training environments nationwide, special projects for young talent, coaching development programmes for both female and male coaches, and research and development efforts.

Through these initiatives, the SOC is striving to provide athletes with the necessary resources and support to excel on the Olympic stage.

The SOC was founded with the aim of creating a formal structure to prepare the country’s athletes to compete at the Olympic Games. It served as a permanent replacement for the temporary ad hoc committees created ahead of previous Games. It now partners with Swedish companies to fund its activities and programmes.