Sweden

Team profile: Swedish Elks

Country snapshot
SWEDEN is a northern European country bordering Norway and Finland. The third largest nation in Europe, it is sparsely populated, with nine million people, and landscapes dominated by forests and lakes.

Historically, the Swedes have been dependent on the sea for their livelihood, travelling east on trade expeditions to modern day Russia, a name believed to have originated from the name of a Swedish Viking, “Ruser”.

Sweden enjoys high sporting success relative to its small population, and has won more Olympic medals than Australia in the all-time medal tally. The most popular sports are soccer, ice hockey, basketball and handball, and adventure activities like rock climbing, diving, river rafting and water sports (Sweden has more than 97,500 lakes greater than two acres in area), skiing and orienteering.

Famous for
IKEA, tall, blue-eyed blondes, Vikings, ABBA, tennis legends Björn Borg and Stefan Edberg, Volvo drivers, Saabs, the Nobel Prizes, the Vasaloppet – a 90km cross-country ski marathon.

Australian football history
Sweden’s first Australian football side, the Helsingborg Saints, were established in 1993 and joined the nearby Danish Football League. The game has gradually spread throughout the rest of Sweden and there are now around 300 players at clubs in Malmö, Göteborg, Landskrona, Karlstad, Falun, Uppsala and three clubs in the capital, Stockholm.

The Swedish Elks will compete in the International Cup for the first time in 2008.

National jumper
Blue and yellow with an elk on the front.

Secret weapon
Experience in sports such as ice-hockey and handball on the world stage gives Swedes an edge when it comes to fast, physical games.

We have a winner
It was thought that the most northerly game of Australian football was held in Helsinki in 2006. But Sweden overtook Finland in this statistic when the Svärdsjö Crows hosted a game against the Falun Diggers in June, 2007.

In 2009, the teams are planning another game, to be held north of the Arctic Circle. It seems the great Aussie game is reaching all the world’s nooks and crannies . . . games on the moon may be closer than we think.

In more traditional milestones, Elks national team captain and champion, Andreas Svensson, has played over 200 games of footy.

Hardest thing about playing football in Sweden
It’s all very well for old-timers to reminisce about having to trek halfway across the state on dirt roads to get to football training in their youth. But imagine having to travel 800km to get to a match. That’s the reality for some teams in Sweden, where distance between clubs is a major obstacle.

Swedish weather is also a challenge that truly puts players’ commitment to the test. In the heart of winter, training takes place in the snow – and often in the dark -- as daylight only lasts four hours out of 24.

Elks patrons
The Elks may be competing in their first International Cup, but they can rest easy knowing there will be some support for them down under, including Swedish-born Adelaide Crows defender Kris Massie.

Brownlow medallist Jimmy Bartel owns an honorary No.3 Elks Guernsey, but his allegiance will be tested, as he also boasts Finland’s No.8 and has spent some time promoting footy in Denmark. Safe to say, he will at least be behind Scandinavia.

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