Team Sweden - Profile

Highlights:

At the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Sweden had its best Games in terms of total medals since Sydney 2000, claiming 11 medals, including two gold. Jenny Rissveds won the NOC's first medal in mountain biking, claiming gold in the women's event and swimmer Sarah Sjostrom took gold in the women's 100m butterfly.

Sjostrom added a silver in the 200m freestyle and a bronze in the 100m freestyle and became the only Swedish athlete to win multiple medals in Rio, her third Olympic Games.

Sweden sent one athlete to the first Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 and since then has only missed participating in the Games once, in 1904. At the 1896 Games, Henrick Sjoberg contested athletics events [100m, high jump, long jump, discus] and gymnastics [vault] but did not win a medal. It is the only Games in which Sweden has fielded an athlete, but failed to win a medal.

Kayaker Gert Fredriksson won eight medals over four Games between 1948 and 1960 - six gold, one silver and one bronze. Fredriksson won the K1 1000m event three-consecutive times, in 1948, 1952 and 1956, adding K2 1000m gold in 1960 and the K1 10,000m in 1948 and 1956.

Fellow kayaker Agneta Andersson won three gold - two in 1984 [K1 500m, K2 500m] and one in 1996 [K2 500m] - while adding two silver and two bronze over her 16-year Olympic career. Andersson's seven total medals give her the equal-third most medals for any Swedish Olympic athlete, behind shooter Alfred Swahn [nine] and Fredriksson.

Swahn is the most successful of a number of excellent Swedish Olympic shooters, a list that also includes his father, Oscar Swahn. The younger Swahn won three medals of each type over the four Games he attended between 1908 and 1924, competing mostly in running target events. His gold medals were all won at the 1908 and 1912 Games in the running deer individual and team events. Oscar Swahn matched his son for number of gold medals, winning three, but only took one silver and two bronze. Vilhelm Carlberg was also competing in shooting events at the same time as the Swahns and ended his career with seven medals, three gold and four silver.

Sweden's second-most successful Olympian by number of gold medals won is equestrian dressage rider Henri Saint Cyr. A five-time Olympian, Saint Cyr dominated dressage events in 1952 and 1956, winning and defending both the individual and team competitions to finish with four gold.

Wrestling is the sport in which Sweden has won the most gold medals. Ivar Johansson and Carl Westergren are responsible for six of the 28-total gold medals. Johansson achieved the amazing feat of winning gold medals in both freestyle [84kg] and Greco-Roman [74kg] wrestling at one Olympic Games, in 1932, and adding another in Greco-Roman [84kg] in 1936. Westergren took his three gold medals all in Greco-Roman, winning in 1920, 1924 and 1932.

Athletics events have also proved to be a source of success for Sweden. Eric Lemming remains the most successful track and field athlete for Sweden having won three Olympic gold medals in javelin events in 1908 and 1912. The 2004 Games in Athens were the most recent high point for Swedish athletics with Stefan Holm winning the men's high jump, Christian Olsson the men's triple jump and Carolina Kluft the women's heptathlon.

Additional Information: Website
https://sok.se

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/SWEOlympic

Anthem Title: Du Gamla, Du Fria [Thou Ancient, Thou Free]

Anthem Composer: Words by Richard Dybeck, music based on folk tune.

Anthem Inducted: 1893

Official NOC Name: Swedish Olympic Committee

Founding Date: 1913

IOC Recognition Date: 1913

Delegation President: Mats Arjes

Delegation Secretary General: Gunilla Lindberg

IOC Members: Gunilla Lindberg [entry in the IOC: 1996], Stefan Holm [entry in the IOC: 2013], Arne Ljungqvist [entry in the IOC: 1994]

First OG/PG Appearance: 1896

Number OG/PG Appearances: 28 [Tokyo 2020 included]

Summary: