Bandy v. ice hockey in Sweden

Abstract

In 1920, the year ice hockey was introduced to Sweden in connection with the Olympic Games in Antwerp, the traditional British bandy was already a well established team sport on ice in the country. In the early 1900s it had become popular among the upper classes, both men and women, since its deep connection with nature applied to the time’s sense of nostalgia. The Swedish male bandy cup final, which was first played in 1907, is still the country’s oldest large-scale annual sports event. In the press, comparisons were constantly made between the two sports and bandy and ice hockey were seen as contrasts. This resulted in bandy being regarded as truly Swedish and part of the native culture. Concurrently, the sport spread to the working people in Sweden’s rural manufacturing towns while the capital Stockholm established itself as the centre for ice hockey. Elaborating on Allen Guttmann’s theories on modernization, ice hockey’s higher degree of modernity is presented. Adjusting to the modern world was a struggle for bandy and therefore followers of ice hockey predicted its early demise. Still it survived, however surrounded by an even stronger atmosphere of nature-centred nostalgia. The increasingly Americanized sport of ice hockey, on the other hand, became the main player in the growing commercialization of Swedish sport.