The Swedish Sports Confederation, RF, defines itself as a ‘popular movement’. This notion has been one of the most fundamental elements of the sports movement’s self-image, and it has also been used as a way for the movement to legitimize itself – considering it is financially supported by the Swedish state. This sport organizational identity also denotes that RF is governed democratically. Both the social movement identity and the notion of democratic comportment have been fundamental to the sports movement’s self-understanding. The governing of Swedish sport has so far been scrutinized mostly on a general level concerning the relationship between public authorities and RF. The association level has not been considered to the same extent in previous research. Nor has the issue of sport democracy been particularly highlighted as a research topic in its own right. However, in order to understand the governing of as well as the social and cultural impact of Swedish sport, we must understand how those institutions in authority have been managed and regulated. Based on both innovative theoretical models and empirical in depth analysis, the articles in this special issue find new ways to explain and understand how Swedish sport has been governed and controlled.
Previous research has maintained that the governmental control of sport in Sweden has been firmly limited. In this article this statement is called in question. The article states that government authorities have influenced the sports movement through a continuous legitimization of sport and a normative standardization of how sport support should be distributed and the sports movement should act and develop. Furthermore, the article states that both the governmental methods of control and the Swedish Sports Confederations, RF’s, position of power within Swedish sport to a great extent can be explained by the concept of sportrelated public welfare. The idea – and later on discourse – formed conceptions of how sport could contribute to the solution of different problems in the advancing welfare state. The discourse and the close relationship that developed between the state and RF have come to influence the public allotment of resources to sport and the movement’s internal distribution of resources, its structure and aims. The guiding-star for “Sport for all’ has in practice meant that a competition-directed RF has got the exclusive rights to redistribute a large amount of the general means intended for sport according to their own discretion, in spite of severe criticism against the chosen corporate administrative model. This has, by extension, contributed to the fact that some sport federations, clubs and athletes have been allotted considerably more resources than others.
Kerstin Bornholdts avhandling i historia inleds med en skildring av historiens första olympiska 800-meterslopp för kvinnor, genomfört i Amsterdam 1928. Spännvidden i vittnesuppgifterna är påfallande: där någon skakas av åsynen av kvinnor som utmattade kollapsar efter att ha passerat mållinjen, ser andra en helt normal trötthet efter genomförd tävling. Den förhärskande bilden kom dock bli den att ett flertal av deltagarna var utpumpade intill medvetslöshet. Föga hjälpte det att en kvinnlig läkare, Hede Bergmann, efter ett möte med de kanadensiskor som orsakat allra mest upprörda känslor kunde förmedla att de hade kastat sig till marken inte av utmattning, utan i besvikelse och frustration över den egna otillräckliga tävlingsinsatsen. Inte heller det faktum att samma kanadensiskor dagen därpå erövrade guldet i 100-meterstafetten tycks ha haft någon betydelse. Skandalen var ett faktum och skräckbilden ”Amsterdam 1928” etablerad för lång tid framöver. Det skulle dröja ända till 1960 innan kvinnor återigen tilläts springa så långt som 800 meter i olympiska sammanhang.