The geopolitics of failure: Swedish journalism and the demise of the national ice hockey team in Salt Lake City, 2002

Abstract

When the Swedish ice hockey team lost to Belarus [Vitryssland] in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics after a ‘sudden death’ goal, the Swedish media surpassed one another in throwing insults at the team, and the players were regarded with contempt as traitors. Of key significance in understanding this animosity towards the team's loss against Belarus are the historical and geopolitical power structures that the match brought into the open, the notions of development and underdevelopment and centrality and peripherality on a European scale. Theoretical considerations regarding the mythological role of journalism and the processes of identity construction will be taken into account to fully appreciate the attractive force and the ideological significance – the geopolitics – of the press coverage on the loss of the Swedish team against Belarus.