Anders Zorn and naturalistic ski competitions versus the progress of the hegemonic Swedish sport policy at the beginning of the 20th century

Abstract

In this essay we will use a historical approach to comprehend, firstly, the progress and challenges of the Swedish Sport Movement, and secondly, as a stimulus to a reflection on current challenges in regard to the policy and organization of Swedish sport.Thus, the famous Swedish painter Anders Zorn, and his entrepreneurial approach in regard to ski competitions, in addition to his naturalistic ideas, stood in the early 1900 as a (serious) challenge to the initial progress of the Swedish Sport Confederation and its tradition, ideology and, in the prolongation, its hegemonic position. This historical review will, additionally, be related to a contemporary case -'The Motor Sport Case'- in which the Swedish Sport Model has become challenged by EU Law and Competition Law. The presentation will offer a fair amount of - archeological - evidence to better understand the inherent (generic) conflicts as well as the hegemony of the Swedish sport movement. The theoretical framework builds roughly on the perspectives of power and hegemony, which includes concept such as domination, encapsulation, rebellion and noncomplia nce.The reflection focuses on the'organizational capital'as the vital drive in the progress of the Swedish Sport Confederation and its monopoly.