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372
IV. EDUCATION AND MENTAL CULTURE IN SWEDEN.
The sailing club next in importance to that mentioned above is Göteborg•
Kungl. segelsällskap (the Gothenburg Royal Yachting Club), which has also
a very grand racing-week.
No country is more suitable for rowing and canoeing than Sweden. The
English have termed Sweden »the Paradise of canoeists». These sports are pretty
actively pursued, and rowing clubs are found in most of the large towns. The
boats used consist, as a rule, of racing outriggers of English type; on the coast,
however, ordinary gigs are used besides. Annual boat-races are held pretty
nearly everywhere, and, in the Sound, the Scanian rowing clubs have maintained
their reputation by carrying off the Sound Challenge Cup, presented to the Danish
and Swedish rowing clubs. The Stockholm Rowing Club had, in its day, crews
that were considered invincible. These races, too, have in many places
developed into national sport festivals.
Amongst summer sports, swimming, however, may be said to be the most
practised, and in this kind of sport Swedes hold a distinguished place, especially
as regards jumping and leaping into the water, floating, and diving. Swedish
swimmers have highly distinguished themselves at swimming matches abroad,
especially in London, 1897, and in Paris, 1900, when their beautiful »swan-dive»
was much admired, and termed unequaled in its kind. Expertness in swimming
is pretty general amongst educated people of both sexes, and our abundance of
lakes offers admirable opportunities for exercise in the art. Swimming and
diving-matches are annually arranged in Stockholm, and it is chiefly in the
capital that the art of swimming has reached such a high standard of development.
There are, however, swimming clubs in many places, of which the oldest — in
Uppsala — is more than one hundred years of age.
For so-called general athletic sports — comprising pedestrianism (with
its various phases of walking and running), leaping, wrestling, throwing the spear,
tug-of-war, etc. — a number of clubs have been organized in the country, and
Swedish sportsmen have successfully taken part in matches within Scandinavia.
Annual athletic fëtes are arranged in many parts of the country. Some purely
Swedish exercises in trials of strength and hurling fall within this range, e. g.
the Gotland games of *Kasta varpa» and tStörta stång>, the latter of which is
identical with the popular Scotch sport of »tossing the caber».
Of games at ball there are several national varieties of great value, amongst
these the principal one — Gotland Park — can be said to stand its ground
at the side of English cricket. Football is practised in many places, especially
by the military. Lawn-tennis has become a very popular game in Sweden, and
many clubs have been formed for the practice of it, amongst which H. R. II.
the Crownprince’s Club is distinguished for its clever players. Annual matches
are arranged by this club.
Bicycling has, in Sweden as everywhere else in the civilized world, become
the sport most generally practised, and the Swedish make of machines
successfully competes with the foreign ones. A number of bicycle clubs exist. Annual
matches are arranged, and excellent tracks have been laid out.
Athletic Grounds have been inclosed in many places, for the purpose of
gathering together young people to the practice of sports. The chief in its kind
is the Sport Park (Idrottsparken) at Stockholm, the laying out of which cost
10,000 £. It includes a stately building for lawn-tennis, with two large courts,
as well as a larger and a smaller pavilion for bicyclists. A first-class cycle track
of cement encircles four tennis-courts, race-courses, etc. In winter this enclosure
is changed into an excellent and much frequented skating-rink. A similar sport
park has just been laid out at Djursholm, near Stockholm. Gothenburg, Malmö,
Lund, Landskrona, and Helsingborg, each have their athletic grounds, and several
other towns are considering the advisability of following the example.
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