The 1912 Stockholm Olympics: Essays on the Competitions, the People, the City ed. by Leif Yttergren and Hans Bolling (review)

A century has passed since the fifth Olympic games were held in Stockholm in 1912. In The 1912 Stockholm Olympics the games are examined in twelve different chapters. With the exception of the final chapter, which presents results, the various contributions analyze the planning of the sport events, the art competitions, the participants, the games as a social event, and the debates taking place at the time. The book contains several black-and-white photographs, although unfortunately the paper quality is too poor to do them justice.

Newspapers and electronic sources, as well as material from the Swedish National Archives and the Olympic archives in Lausanne, constitute the source material for the book. In addition, a digital database on the participants has been created for this book based on the entry forms for the games making it possible for conclusions to be drawn in regards to the socioeconomic background and sex of the participants in the various different disciplines. The analysis of the female participants in aquatics, tennis and gymnastics (the latter was a demonstration event) are especially interesting. Whereas the female tennis players generally came from an upper-class background, were often married and among the oldest of the participants in the games, the female aquatics competitors were much younger, often single and came from a working-class background. The gymnasts’ socioeconomic background lay in between that of the tennis players and aquatics competitors. The women’s socioeconomic background is also discussed in relation to dress regulations in the various events.

Scholars have recognized that sport has long been affected by professionalization and commercialization, and therefore it is significant that several contributions to the book examine the games from an economic perspective. The introduction explores the costs of the games and how organizers requested permission to hold lotteries (otherwise prohibited at the time) in order to cover the costs as the authorities did not provide financial support. Yttergren provides another example of these processes in his discussion on how the Swedish track-and-field coach, Swedish-American Ernie Hjertberg, was chosen, brought from America and paid a high monthly salary in a time when amateurism was the ideal.

Commercialization is also evident in the marketing of the games, and Andersson and Kjellberg analyze this issue in an interesting chapter. Steorn provides a different perspective on marketing and the Olympic games, describing how a big art exhibition held in Stockholm at the time of the games exploited the latter for marketing purposes. Steorn demonstrates how Coubertin fruitlessly tried to stop the use of the concept “Olympics” in the title of the exhibition.

The only female author, Therese Nordlund Edvinsson, examines the importance of homosocial networks for the organization of the games and examines power conflicts within these strong networks. In 1912, it was mostly men who planned, organized, led, and ruled the games, and the work of the few women who were involved in organizing the event was rarely mentioned.

The Stockholm games are also analyzed as a social event. Both men and women were found among the participants. In his chapter Hellspong discusses the difficulties in finding out the exact number of spectators and estimates that “A very cautious and maybe meaningless conclusion … would be that between 30,000 and 350,000 different persons watched at least one of the Olympic competitions in Stockholm 1912” (p. 158). According to him, the most important contribution to Swedish sporting culture came from the United States, which brought organized cheering, something unheard of in Sweden, in support of the American athletes. Except for being part of the games as spectators, some were invited to specific social events; these are analyzed by Bolling.

Not all Swedes approved of the games. This is evident from discussions on the art competitions, which were criticized by Swedish art organizations of the time. The critique...