Anders Zorn and naturalistic ski competitions versus the progress of the hegemonic Swedish sport policy at the beginning of the 20^th 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 noncompliance. The reflection focuses on the ‘organizational capital’ as the vital drive in the progress of the Swedish Sport Confederation and its monopoly.

Keywords:

• Skiing
• entrepreneurship
• governance
• organizational capital
• naturalism
• amateurism
• commercialism

Preface (acknowledgement)

We feel obliged, to a certain extent, to put the subject in this essay (see below) in a broader context and, thus, contextualize the analysis – prior to the presentation of the essay’s subject. Thus, this social context is the origin and the progress as well as the characters and the position of the Swedish sport movement and, subsequently, the associated academic writings in this field.

Needless to say, the progress of modern Swedish sport, in general, is principally originated through and coined by the governance of Swedish sport and, thus, formed by the identified and endorsed values and ideals of the principal sport organization, the Swedish Sport Confederation [Riksidrottsförbundet, RF]. To stress, the Confederation, initiated in 1903, operates as an umbrella of 71 sports associations, with more than 3 million members in 22,000 sport clubs. Annually, the Swedish State supports financially the Confederation, through the tax system, due to the confederation’s postulated focus on voluntary work, social fosterage, integration and public health as well as the confederation’s legal status as a non-profit organization and as a popular movement.

In light of a general political context, a distinct Swedish’ model [Folkhemmet] emerged after Second World War, in the wake of the Social Democratic Party’s consensus-oriented welfare politics. This political model – and its culture and character – has also shaped the organization of the Swedish sports model (Norberg 2003). No doubt, this powerful relation, as well as the Confederations demonstrable progress, has produced an apparent ‘hegemonic dominance’, as well as a firm idealistic world-view in Swedish sport. This model has, however, become increasingly challenged due to an increasing commercialization process in sport.

Evidently, the progress of the Swedish sport model, and its organization and governance, has interested different sports scholars. This interest has, for instance, resulted in studies related to the sport movement’s policy of participation for all, and its various efforts and problems (Skille 2011), the sport movement’s impact on (popular) democracy (Norberg 2003), the policy and virtues of idealism and voluntarism (Seippel 2010), the degree of self-regulation and autonomy (cf. Norberg 2011; Carlsson and Lindfelt 2010; Fahlén, Eliasson, and Wickman 2015), the implicit contract between the Confederation and the State (Norberg 1997, 2011), its relation to elite sports (Norberg and Sjöblom 2012), and its relationship with Svenska Spel and their previous monopoly at the gambling market (cf. Norberg 2009), supplemented with general organizational studies (cf. Fahlén and Stenling 2016), and studies related to sport policy (Fahlén and Stenling 2016; Karp, Fahlén, and Löfgren 2014; Bergsgard and Norberg 2010), as well as reflections and diagnosis related to the models relation to commercialization and the market (cf. Stenling and Fahlén 2009), as well its ‘commercial immaturity’ (Andersson and Carlsson 2011; Carlsson and Backman 2015) .

Albeit departing from and relaying on this field of knowledge, which would generally favor a literature review as an alternative, this essay will pay a major attention to some challenging actions of Anders Zorn, a famous Swedish painter, which took place parallel to his carrier as a notable painter and, relevantly, during the origin and the organizational development of the Swedish sport movement, at the early start of the 20^th century.

Introduction to the essay’s subject and narrative

Thus, for clarity, Anders Zorn (1860–1920) is a legendary Swedish painter, and the legacy of Swedish national romanticism banks deeply on his works of art, in addition to Carl Larsson’s (1853–1919) folkloristic paintings and John Bauer’s (1982–1918) blend of naturalistic and mythological pictures. However, Zorn was not only a painter. He was also recognized, due to his financial assets, as a tenacious patron of young sport athletes as well as the initiator of ski events and competitions in the early 1900s. Thus, this form of ‘odd entrepreneurship’ at the start of the 20^th century will become the main subject of this essay and not Zorn’s paintings or his profound artistic contributions. Actually, Zorn’s entrepreneurial approach, in addition to his naturalistic ideas, stood as a (serious) challenge to the initial progress of the Swedish Sport Model and its tradition, ideology and virtues.

Accordingly, as a rationale, we will use historical narratives and findings as a method to comprehend, firstly, the historical progress and challenges of the Swedish Sport Model, and secondly, as a stimulus to a reflection on current challenges in regard to the organization of Swedish sport. By referring to the ski competitions in 1907–1909 and Zorn’s entrepreneurship, we will use historical events and experiences as a manner to comprehend, by ‘archeological’ and ‘genealogical’ efforts (cf. Markula and Pringle 2006) contemporary issues and problems related to Swedish sport policy and the hegemony of the Swedish Sports Confederation and, in the prolongation, its delicate and complex relation to EU Law and Competition Law. In light of EU and Competition Laws, ‘The Motor Sport Case’, as the case is labeled (Hettne 2013), in 2004 laid the emphasis on the Swedish Sports Confederation and the monopolistic managing of sport in Sweden (ibid.). Actually, the case became a legal matter outside the self-regulation of sport. In the decision, the Swedish civil court system disallowed the Swedish Auto Sport Federation’s [Svenska Motorsportsförbundet] autocratic position and regarded their actions against a member as ‘anticompetitive and dominant ‘as ‘limiting fair and reasonable competitions’ (Hettne 2013).¹

The Motor Sport Case was, despite its magnitude, not the first challenge of the Swedish monopolistic and hegemonic sport model governed by the Sports Confederation and its sub-federations (such as the Auto Sport Federation and the Swedish Ski Federation [Svenska Skidförbundet]). As mentioned, the painter Anders Zorn, beyond his artistic work, initiated special ski tournaments as early as 1907–1909, as a challenge and in opposition to the progress of the Sports Confederation and the Ski Federation as well as to the conservative values of the Swedish Ski Association [Föreningen för skidlöpningens främjande i Sverige].

The Swedish Sports Confederation was created and launched in 1903, forming the start of the Swedish pyramid of clubs and federations (such as the Ski Federation) ordered by the central governance of the Sports Confederation. Initially, the Confederation had no monopoly position in regard to sport in Sweden. Alternative organizations, such as the bourgeois and philanthropical Association for the Promotion of Sport [Centralföreningen för idrottens främjande] and the Ski Association, had already been established and turned into opponents to the Confederation. To stress, whereas both the Sport Confederation and the Ski Federation were characterized by local identity, democratic forms and member commitment, the Confederation as well as the Ski Association were affected by weak loyalty, brief local identity and by the dominance of the board, which represented the upper layer of the community (Yttergren 2006).

At the turn of the 20^th century, traditional competitive games reflecting agrarian society were gradually transformed into modern sports with the emergence of industrialized society, in which competition ideals became natural. However, the modernization of sport has occasionally been challenged by traditionalists (e.g. national romanticists). To preserve sport according to old customs and traditions became a form of resistance as well as a method to demonstrate local independence (Yttergren 2002; Møller 2014). Thus, Zorn’s naturalistic position and ‘rebellion’ have inspired the subject for this essay and its findings, presentations and reasoning. In addition, this article has the ambition to demonstrate the politics of (failing) opposition and alternatives in early Swedish sport, as well as its relation to the position of the developing Sports Confederation (which kept generating organizational pros) and the Ski Association (with its patrician pedigree). 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. In this respect, the conflicts and the tensions in the motor sport case of 2004 will become additionally recognizable and significant.

Perhaps, more rigorously, the motor sport case, and particularly its inherent problems, ought to be highlighted in relation to EU Law and Swedish Competition Law. This has, of course already been done (e.g. Hettne 2013). Through history we can still archeologically, and perhaps genealogically, confront the subject and thereby shed a sharper light on general problems and dilemmas in the progress of Swedish sports and on the authority of the Sports Confederation. Thus, the event organized by Anders Zorn, as well as its reasons and responses, demonstrates the logics – and part of the genetics – of the Swedish Sport Model and its foundation in a fairly enlightening and revealing manner. Imaginably, sometimes it is even more rewarding to use historical testimony as support in order to understand current problems, such as the monopolistic position of the Sports Confederation and its disablement to apply EU Law in a Swedish context. Hence, the text will present and analyze the Zorn Ski Events in relation to concepts such as tradition, nature and culture as well as power, resistance and subordination.

Material, methodological reflections and ‘critical lenses’

In the presentation of Zorn’s position and the progress of the Swedish sport movement we will work with some historical cases taking place between 1907 and1909 (cf. Lidström 2015). Besides adding to the comprehension of these historical data, we argue that the findings work as an effective reflection on current issues in the Swedish sport context. Seemingly, our history presents itself, in many respects, as more visible and understandable in comparison with contemporary issues in which we are set and situated. In a certain sense, our history is marked by more solid records and blueprints which, despite their accuracy, still form a business for interpretations.

Apparently, the study depends on historical documents and written materials, such as letters, media coverage, policy declarations and other written analyses of this historical period. However, letters, media coverage and policy declarations have a crucial advantage ahead of general empirical material because of their existence regardless of scientific society’s intentions and dealings. Still, these written materials also have their shortcomings. Important letters from the period might be missing or impaired. This also means that some documents have to be tested by other forms of documents as well as by previous research in the area. The support of previous research also has the advantage of generating a contextual understanding of the investigated period and its events.

The Zorn Museum has been helpful by giving access to the archives of Zorn’s correspondence. Yet, the information related to the Zornian ski Competitions is not optimal, due to fragmentism and lean materials. Essentially, it consists of minor notices, small articles, and individual items in minutes that have been woven into the present narrative. All historical documents belonging to the Swedish sport movement, including those of the Sports Confederation, are to be found in the National archive of Sweden, located in Arninge outside Stockholm. Thus, minutes of meetings as well as reports from 1906–1909 have been examined, in light of the responses to these competitions. The accounts in local newspapers have, in addition, been crucial in our attempt to recreate and mirror events and reactions.

The theoretical framework builds roughly on the perspectives of power, hegemony and rebellion. Power and hegemony are generally recognized as useful concepts in sport studies (cf. Hargreaves 1987; Karen and Washington 2018; Markula and Pringle 2006) which focus on, for instance, culture, policy and governance. Rebellion, on the other hand, is a relatively neglected concept or departure. Still, rebellion and civil disobedience have occasionally occurred in the context of sports. Tommy Smith’s and Juan Carlos’ Black Power protest at the Olympics in Mexico 1960 is an illustrative action. Although being disobedient and challenging, this form of protest was not mainly directed towards sport, but to the inequalities in American society in general, particularly with regard to the racial discrimination of black people in the USA. Hence, sport was used as an effective platform for a political message, despite sport’s ‘non-political aura’ (cf. Bale and Cronin 2003). Still, there have also occurred individual protests against unfair treatment in sport even among Scandinavian athletes. For instance, the Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian opposed the International Wrestling Federation and its improper dealing with his complaints regarding unfair judgements and rulings by throwing his bronze medal on the floor at the prize ceremony during the Olympics in Beijing 2008, a symbolic protest (due to disappointment) which, naturally, caused additional sanctions from an offended federation. Still, organizations of alternative sport events, as an alternative to the hegemonic organization of sports, are more uncommon, at least in a Swedish context, due to the traditions and the culture of the Swedish sport movement and its normative and organizational influence on the development of the Welfare Society (Tolvhed 2015; Skille 2019).

Regardless of Zorn’s initiatives, the general lack of reactions, tests and alternatives in Swedish sport in the 20^th century supports and illustrates the state of hegemony organizationally as well as culturally and psychologically. By focusing on Zorn’s ski projects, the following essay has laid special emphasis on the premature promotion of alternative sport events (at the start of the 1900s) rivalling the general developmental trend in Swedish sport during the 20^th century. These sport events will hence be illuminated and inspected in light of the perspective of hegemonic culture as well as of power and noncompliance. In that respect, a ‘Gramscian lens’ seems a natural approach. Moreover, as a Foucauldian complement, the thesis of Thomas Mathiesen, a Norwegian socio-legal scholar, has drawn attention to questions related to domination and noncompliance. Hence, Gramsci’s (2012) thesis on culture and hegemony will, together with Mathiesen’s Foucauldian conceptions (1989, 2004) of, for instance, counter-power, encapsulation, ruling out, the creation of acquiescence and abolition implicitly and tacitly rule the essay’s primary attempts to analyze these events as they progressed, as well as the dominance of the Confederation and its current position and challenges.

Background: Anders Zorn, a short biography

As mentioned, Anders Zorn is, along with Carl Larsson and John Bauer, the prime representative of national romanticism in the history of Swedish art. With paintings such as ‘Midsummer Dance’ and ‘Summer Pleasure’ illustrating everyday life and leisure among farmers and foresters with their families, Zorn has become an icon of ‘Swedishness’, among both ordinary people and art columnists. In addition, the painting of Gustav Vasa’s escape in 1521 (as Swedish king-to-be) from Danish soldiers and their lackeys in a rough Nordic landscape, implicitly illustrating – at least symbolically – the arduous origin of the Swedish nation and its forthcoming severity in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, demonstrated and endorsed through Zorn’s paintings.²

To comprehend Zorn’s position and character, we have to recognize that Sweden’s rapid transition from an agricultural to an industrial society was a fertile soil for the progress of romantic nationalism, as a primary movement in art, with a search for national identity and symbols, such as Midsummer, the Nordic light, as well as agrarian images (i.e. the county of Dalarna). Thus, Anders Zorn was influenced by as well as becoming a significant contributor to this naturalistic and folkloristic art movement (Brummer 1994). Of course, the passion for folkloristic culture was also a way for Zorn to return to his rural roots in Dalarna. Being a class traveler, Zorn was ‘born as a bastard’ in poor circumstances, but he died world famous and very wealthy. At the time, he was also considered to be one of the wealthiest individuals in Sweden and, as mentioned, a sponsor of young sport athletes as well as of monetary prizes in various competitions, particularly in relation to ski sports (Cederlund and Romson 2009).

However, Zorn never sought any kind of emancipation from his simple background. On the contrary, the more his prosperity grew, the more his native place and its cultural life escalated in importance. For Zorn, it was the Dalecarlian landscape and temper that he cherished, even though he had become domesticated in bourgeois salons. He was, thus, pleased by the simplicity of the Dalecarlian identity and at the same time upset by the haughtiness of the upper classes (Brummer 1994). However, he had a natural talent for moving between social classes. In this respect, he could decide to live parts of his life in small, primitive and unmodern cabins (i.e. Gopsmor) in rural Dalarna, eating squirrels and staging various naturalistic ideals that were worshipped and recognized, or return to modern civilization and its comforts in Stockholm or Paris (Lidström 2015).

Zorn’s passion for sport was apparent already in early childhood. He was a good skater and had some skill at fencing. Swimming and horse riding were other activities that he seems to have enjoyed. Still, couple dancing stood out as Zorn’s main physical interest and skill (ibid.). In addition to these sport practices, Zorn became engaged in sport both as a patron and as an organizer of events. After being initially supplied by his wealthier wife Emma, Zorn grew rich from selling his paintings. Thus, part of his income was used for generous donations to sport activities. In general, per se, he donated 100 SEK (today, €500) to ski competitions, unattended. In 1913 he offered 5000 SEK (today, €25,000) to the local sport club in Mora. Zorn and his wife were supporters of the local agrarian environment at large, promoting and strengthening folkloristic culture by financial means and innovative projects.³ No doubt, the support of ski competitions had a similar value and logic in the vision of the Zorns’ local policies.

In addition to giving financial support, Zorn was also a frequent organizer of sport events. Most famous are the trotting races of 1906–1920, in which sleigh equipages, arrayed according to Old Norse tales, competed on the plowed ice with Zorn as a referee. In all these competitions, Zorn gave monetary rewards to the winners, contrary to the values of the growing Swedish sport movement.

The case/the empirical material: the rise and fall of Zorn’s ski tracking (the ‘Zornian ski competition’)

Anders Zorn was not part of the growing sport movement. However, in a fairly self-absorbed manner, Zorn contacted the Swedish Ski Association in order to financially support an annual cup in agreement with his naturalistic conception of a good skier (Zorn 1907a, 21):

It occurred to me that, in a moment of danger when, although every contact is cut off, there is an urgent need for sending a message, nobody asks for this club or that organization, but for the best skier in the neighborhood. This person may lack any notion of the existence of clubs. He is a poor Lapp boy or peasant son, who certainly will not make a 20-meter leap across a mountain, thereby running the risk of falling and being torn to pieces together with his important letter, but finds his own path, is possessed with strong lungs and will arrive with a message which may save an army detachment from a certain defeat.

Accordingly, Zorn had no strong feelings for the growing sport movement. On the contrary, he regarded the modern form of sport as an obstacle to the real (societal) benefits of skiing. Predictable and universal tracks formed by the sport association were, in Zorn’s opinion, a break with the real tests of the terrain and of skiing in everyday life. In this controversy, arising from not receiving any attention for his ideas, Zorn decided to start his own ski competition events.

Thus, only a few weeks before the annual National Ski Competition in 1907, Zorn launched an alternative ski competition in line with his naturalistic ideas of skiing as well as with rather extraordinary and open victory premiums (Zorn 1907b). Interestingly, the Sports Confederation’s rule of amateurism had received consensus among all sports only a few months earlier (Svenska Dagbladet 1906). Consequently, by open monetary honors, Zorn had crossed the Rubicon by seriously challenging the sport movement and the ideals of sportsmanship. That the skiers were obliged to submit to unconditional medical examination tells a lot of the spirit of the competition, which took place in a difficult terrain with tough slopes, which differed substantially from ordinary competitions in society. By mapping individual roadways, the skiers were supposed to choose their own trails to the goal and by passing a mandatory control in the small village of Indor (Zorn 1907b). Through this odd form of competition, in addition to the money, it was Zorn’s intention to support his naturalistic concept as well as local underprivileged skiers, at the same time confronting – openly – the Sports Confederation and its allies. Thus, the competition’s target group consisted of local and poor skiers and not of athletes affiliated to a sport federation that had the possibility to reserve time and resources to compete every weekend. Consequently, due to the commanding rules of amateurism, athletes affiliated to the Sports Confederation were per se excluded from the event. In this respect, Zorn could ensure that the ski competition would comprise a battle between what he considered as natural and authentic skiers. According to Zorn, the ideals of amateurism were twisted by moral ambiguity. Wealthy athletes who could afford to set aside time and money possessed a huge advantage, whereas others, lacking similar resources, were excluded from these competitions organized by the Sports Confederation in accordance with their – cryptic – virtue of amateurism (Olsson 1907).

Needless to say, Zorn’s plans for having this alternative event take place close to the annual National Ski Competition was not disregarded by the Sports Confederation. Yet, the time to react substantially was, evidently, limited. Still, its Legal Office decided to send a reminder to Zorn, informing him about potential future actions (Swedish Sports Confederation 1907). In addition, instead of focusing on Zorn’s actions, the local and regional representatives of the (con)federation forewarned potential athletes about the possible consequences of participating in this ‘Zornian event’ (Dalarna’s Ski Federation 1907). In a sense, succumbing to the (unclear) amateur rules became a way of showing loyalty to the Sports Confederation.

In effect, the threats from the sport movement led to a peculiar list of participants. Several (10) skiers, insecure of the consequences, lined up with the ambition of taking part in the competition but without claiming any prize money. Still, the majority (16) were skiers who in the spirit of Zorn thus competed for the desirable 100 SEK bill. In this respect, according to the tabloids, the competition harmonized with Zorn’s ideal of sport. At the same time, the result of the competition was an anticlimax. Despite its hard conditions and unusual character, it was the trained and more experienced athletes from the sport clubs who succeeded and dominated, but they participated without competing officially, due to the confederation’s rules of amateurism. Thus, the audience had to wait several minutes before the official winner, the forestry worker Anders Hansson, arrived (Mora Tidning 1907).

However, Zorn’s Ski Competition was largely reported in the local and nationwide newspapers, despite the primitive form of competition and the low number of participants. The topics in these reports or letters were, actually, related to the inferior form of organization, the power/monopoly of sport as well as to social classes and exclusion as a consequence of the virtue of amateurism (Lidström 2015). Still, by the time of Zorn’s Ski Competitions, this virtue had steadily grown in the Sports Confederation,⁴ and Zorn’s marketing of monetary prizes in relation to the competition was, consequently, a huge threat to its ideology and to its attempt to spread the snow-white gospel of amateurism. By the 1907 Competition, Zorn had initiated a conflict with the growing sport movement, which was to continue for two years, in which Zorn became ‘a nail in the eye’ for a self-confident organization with regard to determined rules about the way sport should be organized.

February 9, 1908, is the date given for the second Zornian ski competition. The weather was cool and fresh, the skiers had a nice tailwind but were challenged by drifting snow on the possible tracks. Two compulsory control stations were passed, Evertsberg and Oxberg. The number of participants was slightly lower (14) than the previous year and the competition turned into a battle between two skiers. Zorn, as always, invited the participants to an extravagant dinner where he celebrated different winners and friends without pretending any noteworthy respect for rules or fair play (Mora Tidning 1908).

There is a huge difference between the competitions in 1907 and 1908. The 1908 competition was not followed by any considerable conflict. There were no threats or admonitions from the (con)federation or from the sport movement at large. Neither were the newspapers especially interested, and no local letters to the editor followed. The competition, or at least its impact, seems to have vanished into silence and oblivion.

Yet, Zorn and his Ski Competitions became again a fresh objective during the 1909 edition taking place on March 14. The amateur question was again in focus. In January 1909, John Svanberg, a Swedish distance runner and current sport star, had been declared a professional and lost his amateur status due to unreasonable financial compensations. Lo and behold, Svanberg had also sold his cups and medals. The Svanberg Case was, in this respect, the first time that any retaliation was directed towards the violations of amateur status and virtues (Wikberg 2005). In the wake of this case, the bourgeois media’s interest in Zorn’s use of prize money was renewed.

The Swedish Ski Federation started to work intensively against Zorn and his ski competition by, for instance, making an appeal to the Crown Prince to prohibit competitions with prize money. The appointed chairman of the federation, Fritz af Sandeberg, was an aardent opponent of prize money and worked throughout his career for the support of amateurism. He had no intention to turn a blind eye to Zorn and his movements (Swedish Ski Federation 1909a).

Despite the infected debates on amateurism that evolved, Zorn stood determined in his position and ventilated his concept of sport in an interview in connection with King Gustav V’s, visit to Dalarna. It reads:

Like Dalecarlians in general, he [Zorn, our remark] is not a man of many words. He acts. On Sunday the 14^th, the distance races will take place. Zorn himself is charge of keeping order at the goal, and order there is. The races took place last Sunday with everyone receiving a monetary prize from Zorn. Zorn wishes to teach the growing generation how to use skis, not for skiing races but for the general good. They may proceed whichever way they can, which teaches them, in the words of Zorn, in moments of danger in this difficult terrain to act as messengers (‘Hos Anders Zorn’, Svenska Dagbladet March 14, 1909).

The Ski Federation intensified its work when Zorn advertized the competition in February. Its pragmatic ambition was to reduce the number of participants considerably and, by several firm warnings, issued together with the local ski organizations/clubs, the federation operated to scare and obstruct potential participants. In addition, a local sport club (Orsa IF) invited participants to an alternative competition on the same day as the Zornian event. Several local sport clubs, such as IFK Falun, forbid their members to start, even if they participated without competing for prize money (Swedish Ski Federation 1909b). Still, the local federation was worried that there existed parts in this rural wilderness that were still unorganized and were hence to be regarded as sporting outlaws, on whom the rules and morals of the sport movement had no influence… as yet. Thus, it was considered necessary to inform them about the existence of the Ski Federation and the Sports Confederation, as well as the force of the virtue of amateurism. This cunningly worded and quite intemperate warning was posted in the local newspaper (Mora Tidning):

Ski runners!

On account of the invitation published in the newspapers by Zorn, the artist, for competing on skis, starting from Vänjan Church on Sunday, March 14, at 8 a.m., and further due to the proclamation that prizes will be distributed this year, like last year, the Board of The Swedish Skiing Federation and The Swedish Sports Confederation wish to remind the ski runners who aim to participate in the aforementioned competition arranged by Zorn that the regulations issued by The Sports Confederation forbid every amateur to participate in any display or competition for payment or a monetary prize. Whosoever, in spite of these regulations, participates in Zorn’s, the artist’s, competition, thereby transgressing the amateur issue, will hence be considered a professional, which entails that, for a time period of no less than 2 years, he will be prevented from participating in any sporting competition whatsoever, whether on skis or in any other sport arranged by an association approved by The National Sports Confederation, or in which a sportsman belonging to such an association participates. Additionally, any sportsman who participates in the competition arranged by Zorn will be excluded from the possibility of receiving the sport badge of the National Sports Confederation.

This warning is, actually, quite similar to the warnings issued in 1907, even though these threats derived from a small local association. In 1909, it had the support of a maturing and substantial national sport organization. Besides, the local officials’ wording of the warning was based on the notion that the skiers who participated in Zorn’s competition did so because they were inadequately informed. They had not as yet been informed about the virtues and ideals of sport or of snow-white amateurism, and hence could not be blamed.

In 1909, the Zornian event attracted fourteen skiers. The alternative and hostile competition taking place on the same day in Orsa drew over two hundred participants. In this perspective, the competitions organized by Zorn in 1907, 1908 and 1909 were quantitively rather insignificant. The warning, most likely, involved other agendas. During his lifetime, Zorn was already a world-famous artist, and his events attracted a great deal of attention. Thus, once and for all, the sport establishment had to show who should decide on the progress and organization of cross-country skiing. In a sense, the Sports Confederation had to demonstrate power and authority. Still, the Zornian events had become recognized and famous due to their open and distinct disregard of the rule of amateurism. Evidently, this was distressing for the progress of the sport movement, its organization and acclaimed ideals.

Digression: the 1909 Zornian ski competition, and beyond…

As expected, March 14 became a tough day for those who had decided to participate in the competition organized by Zorn according to his vision of natural (real) sport. As the weather conditions were terrible and shifted radically during the day, with a hard upwind, not all skiers were able to reach the goal. Strål Lars Eriksson, Zorn’s favourite skier, was expected to win, particularly because he had had the opportunity to test and track the route in advance. (The start and the goal had been announced in advance.) Yet, due to the skills, tactics and manoeuvres of two other competitors, Strål Lars was defeated, not by a few seconds, but by three minutes. However, the myths and the rumours were more important. Hence, the following coverage, 21 years after the race:

At the goal, no one hitherto knew the outcome of the race, but suddenly two chaps appeared arm in arm [Johan Larsson and Oskar Eriksson, our remark], crossing the line simultaneously. But a few yards behind them came Strål-Lars, crying and swearing. No one except him had explored and tracked all the thirty miles, but suddenly, a few hundred yards beforehand, the two of them sneaked past and reached the goal before him! Zorn listened to his complaints and settled the dispute easily: ‘You two’, he said, ‘have ceased competing and will share the first prize. But Strål-Lars alone will receive the second’. Protests and complaints were in vain. Zorn asked them to keep their mouths shut and said that on this spot he was the one who decided. It was no use arguing (‘Norrbotten dominerar Vasaloppen’, Idrottsbladet, March 3, 1930)

The value of entertainment is more significant than veracity. Without doubt, Zorn had a hard time to cope with two victors, particularly if they defeated his protégé. As mentioned, rules and fair play were not part of Anders Zorn’s custom or interests.

The Swedish Ski Federation received a report from the local officials immediately after the competition. It was stated that none of the fourteen participants were members of a sport club affiliated to the Confederation. Notwithstanding this formal condition, the Executive Committee decided to send a letter to all fourteen, filled with the confederation’s sport policy and virtues, in order to investigate their knowledge of and commitment to the sport movement. Actually, the EC’s desire was to check whether these skiers had violated the rules of amateurism due to their lack of knowledge or if, by participating in a Zornian event, they had disobeyed the sports movement consciously (Swedish Ski Federation 1909b).

On June 4 1909, Fritz af Sandeberg called the committee to a decisive meeting in order to consider the skiers’ response. Eleven of them had responded, five of whom declared their will to submit to the rules and virtues of the confederation by not participating in competitions with prize money. Two of them were the double victors of the 1909 Zorn Competition. In spite of everything, six skiers had no intention to leave any promise of eternal amateurism, for instance Strål Lars and his brother, as well as some local Dalecarlian skiers (from Evertsberg and Blyberg) (Swedish Ski Federation 1909c).

The Confederation decided, on a proposal from the Committee, to suspend all fourteen from all competitions organized by the Ski Federation for a period of two years. However, the five skiers who had made an apology were given a one-year suspension only (Swedish Ski Federation 1909d). Obviously, it is a fairly peculiar punishment that the skiers became suspended from competitions in an association to which they had never belonged (as members). Still, the decision is rather symptomatic, despite its pettiness, for a movement in progress with self-esteem, organizational skills, and beginning to turn into a hegemonic culture, dominating and forming Swedish sport by its monopoly for centuries.

Intermediary reflections

The ski competitions which Zorn initiated in 1907, 1908 and 1909 have become legendary because of his dispute with the Swedish sport movement. We find, thus, ‘a self-confident, unruly artist against an immature and bureaucratic organization, with huge pretentions’ (Cederlund 2015, 9). Without doubt, the conflict grew due to a society which at the time was undergoing a transition in which the Swedish sport movement in its most expansive and rationalistic phase confronted some obstinate and passionate remains of a local and natural sport culture. Thus, this intermediary reflection will initially shed light on the perspectives lying behind Zorn’s interests and campaigns and will, secondly, describe the rationale of the conflict from the point of view of the sport movement.

Zorn’s perspective: a Zornian world view

Hence, what were Zorn’s initial intentions and what were his reasons to stand up, more or less toothless, against the establishment? For the discussion of this topic, we depend on secondary information. Zorn was a public person and attracted media attention. However, simultaneously with the ski competition, he had plenty of other projects in addition to his artistic skills. Most likely, the sport movement viewed Zorn’s deficient and outdated sport principles much more seriously than the extent to which Zorn was upset by the sport movement’s threats and admonitions.

Yet, Zorn apparently cherished a concept of sport that differed radically from the sport movement. This concept was firmly integrated into his world view of national romanticism, which is expressed substantially in his art. Sport – particularly skiing – was not about rules, statutes and forms of association. For Zorn and the other national romanticists skiing was to be related to the wilderness, to snow, Gustavus Vasa, manhood and the conception of Swedishness (Sörlin 1995). Thus, Zorn’s Ski Events seems like a bold project in which he strived to convert the naturalistic ideal of his art into reality. In that way, the ski races represented the struggle between man and nature in its most challenging form, i.e. the Swedish winter landscape.

The positive statements about and attitudes towards poor local skiers, in addition to the violation of the rules of amateurism, were for Zorn a question of social and economic fairness, as well as a patronage of rural life. He regarded the virtue of amateurism as biased, disfavouring local (natural) skiers. In this respect, Zorn’s attitude is radical, probably influenced by his childhood and class travel. Yet, Zorn’s position is quite conservative with its homage to country life, local patriotism and valiant manhood in rough engagement with nature.

Obviously, Zorn had a traditionalistic concept of skiing as a sport,⁵ in comparison with the progressive sport movement. Yet, his disregard of amateurism seems, from a commercial point of view, more modern (professional). Overall, Zorn’s input to skiing implicitly gave vent to his polemics against the increasing organization of sport, with the federations’ addiction to standardized race tracks and rule bureaucracy, which, in Zorn’s view, stood for a violation of aesthetics and masculinity committed by petty characters.

Zorn was, of course, defeated when the organized sport movement decided to put him down, a result which Zorn probably ignored. The legacy of the Zornian Competitions has thus become a charming and stimulating narrative that describes parts of a historical time when the Swedish sport movement became a Movement.

The perspectives of the sport movement: an organizational legacy/imprint

The Swedish sport movement was undergoing a crucial and vital progress at the time when Zorn decided to arrange alternative ski competitions. The Swedish Ski Association had been initiated in 1892 in order to support the progress of skiing by generous bourgeois patrons. In 1903, when the Swedish Sports Confederation was formed, The Ski Association unexpectedly received a soft competitor. Still, by comparison, the confederation’s strength did not lie in their financial resources. However, during the years to come, the organization developed a profound organizational skill with solid rules and efficient governance.⁶

The 1907–1908 period was particularly loaded. This was the time when the Ski Association released its grip over skiing and handed it over to the Sports Confederation and their sub-organization, the Swedish Ski Federation, which had been founded in late 1908. The Ski Association was centrally governed, whereas the confederation’s strength was the pyramidic form of sub-organization, with a huge influence on and control of the local community. This change in organization can also be observed, rather illustratively, in the diverse responses to Zorn’s competitions in 1907 and 1909. In 1909, the machinery of the Sports Confederation as well as the local officials were more talented and convincing. In this respect, the rapid organization of an alternative local – and modern – ski competition on the same day as Zorn’s naturalistic competitions, which also attracted a lot of skiers, is pretty illuminating. Thus, the Zornian events were encapsulated by a too muscular opponent, and Zorn’s rebellion was over when his participants were suspended.

The intensity of the Swedish Ski Federation’s actions, in regard to the triviality of the Zornian Events, is still remarkable and the explanation must be found beyond the dispute on amateurism versus prize money, and the federation’s idealistic pathos. To a large extent, the Ski Federation was a novel and insecure sub-organization, conceivably eager to demonstrate strength and drive as a way to receive legitimacy. The virtue of amateurism appeared as a symbol of the sport movement, to which individuals were expected to submit in order to demonstrate loyalty to the Ski Federation and the Sports Confederation (cf. Mathiesen 2004; cf. below). This can, reasonably, explain the storms of emotion which Zorn seems to have caused among the sport officials, particularly in light of the media coverage of his rebellion concerning prize money or fairness and equipment.

Analysis and conclusion

A historical resumé, based on the experience of over hundred years of inclusion/exclusion processes, will present the suppression of the Zornian Ski Competition and the naturalistic forms of competition as assured and more or less unquestionable. It is not surprising, at all, that these forms fade into oblivion or become a nostalgic – and obscure – part of the modern rationalization of sport, popping up – contentedly – in some sport historians’ yearbooks. Still, the narratives as well as the experiences surrounding, for instance, the Zornian Ski Competitions work efficiently to provide an insight into and inspiration towards capturing similar events and processes in contemporary society. This concluding section will tackle this boost – and request – in three different but interrelated themes or aspects.

(A) As our intermediary reflection indicates, the organizational skills of the Sports and Ski (Con)federations were rapidly developed and empowered between 1903 and1908 and thus became recognized and authorized. We have seen that the first Zornian event, in 1907, could pass fairly unnoticed. In contrast, both the Swedish Ski Federation and the Local Ski Federation (in Dalarna), being parts of the Sports Confederation, were established and rigorously organized after the competition in 1908. Both these organizations were strict and faithful supporters of the rules of amateurism and made common cause by the use of their organizational position to stop the following event in 1909 (af Klercker 1933).

Thus, the main reason for the Sports Confederation’s hegemonic position should not, initially, be related to an ideological impregnation supporting amateurism and voluntarism and Gemeinschaft. On the contrary, the basic power and progress of the Sports Confederation rest on its supreme organizational abilities – and pyramid structure – and not on ideology. Still, in the wake of its organizational progress and dominance, the confederation also had the possibility to adapt and transform an essential conservative ideology – acquired implicitly from the Swedish Ski Association – into a common dogma, on the surface of a popular – and ‘participational’ –movement (i.e. the sport movement).

In this hegemonic perspective, Zorn’s operations had no real option, despite his fiscal and cultural capital. During this period, the organizational ‘capital’ was more relevant and material for generating control and dominance. The organizational rationality of the Sports Confederation had the quality and power, in the concept of Mathiesen (1989), to rule out and preclude the vision of Zorn’s naturalism in favour of a sportification process, as well as ruling out prize money, due to its organizational support of amateurism. In practice, the Ski Federation used a common strategy, described by Mathiesen (ibid.), by ruling out as well as encircling athletes to the movement by disciplinary pressures. This form of ‘encapsulation’ (ibid.) as an organizational strategy smoothly ruled out Zorn as well as the pre-modern forms of sport. Yet, part of his visions was, in a sportified manner, encircled and incorporated into Vasaloppet at its start in 1922.⁷ According to Mathiesen (1989, 2004), for an alternative (social) movement – or an alternative event – it is hard to avoid being either ruled out or encircled and encapsulated, or both – particularly in a hegemonic context, such as the rational machinery of the Sports Confederation with its vast organizational ambitions and motives.

(B) Nearly a hundred years after the Zornian event, the Sports Confederation and the Auto Sport Federation stood on opposite sides, contesting in a rather similar manner, with comparable ‘genealogical structures’ but in a distinctive contextual and historical setting and, thus, with both related and dissimilar ‘archeological’ manifestations. The question of amateurism is evidently not an issue anymore, due to the professionalization and commercialization of sport. However, the organization and authority of sport still constitute a potential and recurrent question, which could be mirrored in a) the Zornian opposition and attempts of – pointless – ‘counter-power’, and b) the Sports Confederation’s encapsulation of Zorn’s ambition through determined organizational skills. In fact, the Sports Confederation and their sub-organizations have obtained a monopolistic position in regard to the right to organize publicly supported sport competitions. By the financial support of the State and the legal confirmation by the Swedish Association Law’s patronage of non-profit organizations, the confederation has developed – particularly at the time of the progress of the Swedish Welfare State – a hegemonic culture, embodied in the sport movement and the Swedish Sport Model.

In the Motor Sport Case, as mentioned, an individual actor – an entrepreneur – tried to organize a motor sport competition independently and against the will of the Motor Sport Federation.⁸ As in the case of Zorn, the federation tried to stop this competition, by exclusion and encapsulation, illustrating its mixture of self-confidence, monism and self-governance, based on tradition as well as on its monopolistic position and the cultural hegemony. In contrast, the Motor Sport Case had emerged in a different legal context with a strong focus on EU Law and Competition Law. In the words of Mathiesen (1989), these laws acted as a ‘counter-power’, able even to confront the Sport Model and the monopolistic structure. Thus, the Swedish legal system rejected the Swedish Auto Sport Federation’s autocratic position and regarded its actions as being too dominant and violating free competition. This organizational principle, which has shaped the Swedish sport movement for centuries, was thereby regarded as a vehicle of inclusion/exclusion, which limits fair and reasonable competitions. This was the first time that the Swedish legal system (i.e. the Swedish Market Court [Marknadsdomstolen]), tested the organization forms in Swedish sport. Needless to say, Anders Zorn would have applauded this rebuke.

Consequently, due to societal changes (cf. below), we can nowadays observe a softly and moderately retreating organization with regard to organizational dominance, accompanied by a cultural hegemony and acquiescence. In support of the observation of this movement’s power, dominance and acquiescence, Sport Plc⁹ was introduced as an organizational attempt at handling – as well as ‘encapsulating’ – the internal commercial development within the pyramidic organization, without surrendering to the market, and to the interest and ambitions of SHL in particular (cf. Backman and Carlsson 2019).

(C) Genealogically, the Sports Confederation’s hegemonic position in Sweden has basically been generated by organizational skills – i.e. rationalistic ‘capital’ – and not essentially by sport policy, ideals and virtues or future visons. However, after nearly a hundred years of hegemony and popular acquiescence, the confederation has become increasingly challenged as the sole organization form of sport, as a result of the impact and new patterns of consumption. As a post-modern organization, the confederation seems to lack a strong and guaranteed control of the origins and progress of novel present-day or future sports. In a society characterized by pluralism, mobility, flexibility and less loyalty, the role and impact of an organization such as the Swedish Sports Confederation will probably decline. It will, thus, consequently cease as a monopolistic organization, and its hegemonic culture might be abolished. Sports turn up increasingly in new market forms as well as being temporarily organized on, for instance, the Internet.

Going back to Zorn, we can observe several tendencies in the progress of current (post-modern) sport having some resemblance with Zorn’s values and position. First of all, there seems to be a renaissance of naturalistic competitions. Most of them are still rather ‘sportified’, such as BMX competitions in the forest. Another more naturalistic example is parcour (Angel 2016). A further interesting innovation – beyond Huizinga’s thesis – is STIHL Timber sports with its mixture of naturalism, sportification and ‘eventification’.¹⁰ Thus, commercial actors such as Red Bull challenge the traditional concept of sport through arranging spectacular events taking place after the World Cup, like Zorn’s ‘entrepreneurial patronage’. In addition, Red Bull has, in a jumble of commercialism and the use of history, picked up and branded the tough Nordenskiöld Ski Race, which originated in 1884.¹¹ Besides, ordinary competitions between sport clubs have, recently, disappeared, following the logics of Vasaloppet, in favour of teams like ‘Team Serneke’, sponsored by Serneke, a construction tycoon.

For several sports, entertainment is consequently their prime value, a value also boosted by Zorn in the way he designed his competitions. In this ‘eventification’, entertainment per se appears more appealing than the excitement of, e.g. ‘the uncertainty of outcome’. Examples of this are exhibition games in various forms. Some new sports, such as snowboard, seem to abandon rational concepts and focus more on aesthetics. Still, new forms of sports, such as competition on rowing machines, rely both on the rational conception of sport and on the ‘equipmentification of sport’.

The progress of sport in our contemporary (post-modern) society seems, in this respect, to be pluralistic and rather heterogeneous and thus hard to handle in a single – monopolistic – organization and organization form.

The intention of this essay, by starting with the ‘Zornian Events’ and its encapsulating – and vanishing – due to the early Swedish sport movement and its organizations’ ambitions and organizational rationality, was to shed light on the origin of a hegemonic culture and the Swedish Sports Confederation’s monopolistic position in Swedish sport. Zorn’s rebellion and its responses direct attention to the conflict of values (e.g. naturalism and amateurism) as well as to the progress of power relations and the sportification process. By introducing the Motor Sport Case and its legacy (in a post-modern context), the analysis receives a current context with differences as well as similarities to the Zornian events, which also points towards the soft and gradual abolition of the hegemonic culture in Swedish sport, as well as of the dominance of the Sports Confederation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Swedish Market Court’s (SMC) MD 2012:16 (2012-12-20); Swedish Competition Authority (SCA) 709/2009 (2011-05-13). This case is related to EU Law and the Swedish Competition Law, which has challenged the general and traditional organization of sport in Sweden, due to the impugn of the (implicit) monopoly of the Swedish Sport Confederation/ Swedish Auto Sport Federation (cf. Hettne 2013).

The circumstantial in the case was that the SCA received a complaint in 2009, from a private person who had started a business, which in addition to the Swedish Auto Sport Federation (SASF) has organized and insured motor sport events. This organizer was also a member and licensees in the SASF. Due to this auxiliary business SASF regarded his activity and the member as disloyal and reported him to The National Sports Committee, RIN [Riksidrottsnämnden], the judicial body of the Swedish Sport Confederation, in order to reprove him. In turn, he felt interrogated and reported the SASF to SCA. The central issue to consider is whether the Swedish sport movement and its organization – the sports monopoly – could be excluded from the Competition regulations, because of the ‘sporting exception’. SCA detected that SASF’s rules of restrictions, and their association, were legally to be seen as anticompetitive, and dominant, limiting fair and reasonable competitions and markets. Thus, SCA forced SASF to change those rules, which deals with the possibility for SASF to restrict licensees (members) to participate in competitions that were not sanctioned by SASF.

SASF appealed to SMC. In the SMC’s decision, it is stated that the associations in SASF, in light of the Competition Act, are to be viewed as corporations and companies; they conduct economical activities and business, albeit being legally formed as non-profit associations. Thus, SMC reinforced SCA’s arguments and decision.

In sum, SASF’s restriction rules could not be justified by a reference to the sporting exception, nor to other legitimated aims. Consequently, the rules were unlawful, by the reference to Swedish competition regulation as well as the EU Treaty of Lisbon.

2 Gustav Vasa became the king of Sweden in 1523-1560. Of course, this historical escape, by Gustav Vasa, and the following pursuit, stand as the classical origin of Vasaloppet, which has since 1922, attracted more than a million of participants – amateurs as well as elite skiers, with a continuously developing ‘peak’ (cf. Larsson von Garaguly 2016).

The legend of Gustav Vasa’s escape on skies supported the status of skiing as a national sport (Sörlin 1995). Hence, Zorn’s works contributed largely to the national narratives of skiing as well as Gustav Vasa. He has immortalized the old king in both art and sculpture, with and without skis on his feet.

3 For instance, in 1906, Zorn was one of the organizers of the first competitions among musicians in regard to folkloristic music. The Zorn Price is, currently, still one of the most prestigious awards among folkloristic musicians.

4 Prize money was, as a matter of fact, rather common before the formation of the Swedish Sport Confederation in 1903. For instance, the legendary artic explorer, Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, was after his journey to Greenland impressed by the skiing skills of the Sami. Thus, in 1884, he organized a skiing competition, with a distance of 200 kilometers. The prize money was as high (200 SEK) as the race was long (A. H. 1884).

5 ‘Traditionalistic’ works more beneficially as the proper concept, then traditional, due to the fact that Zorn essentially fabricate the past and the traditions, in step with, and in conflict with, the modernization of skiing, as well as society as a whole. This is also captured in his paintings. Thus, ‘the invention of tradition’ (Hobsbawn 1983), in light of folk costumes and midsummer dances, seems to accelerate in accordance with the escalation of industries in society.

6 The Swedish Ski Association had as a subject to expand the interest in skiing, to provide equipment for school-children and to initiate more ski clubs. In the early 1900s these kinds of values are shadowed in the operations of the Ski Federation by rules and instructions, such as officials’ duties at competitions, types of required judges, distinguishing sections are to be included in the championship, to regulations for secretaries and press representatives, prize judges as well as starters and timers. In other words, the Ski Federation had a profound ambition to ‘sportify’ skiing competitions by establish standardized rules.

7 Cf. note no. 2. For instance, the two compulsory control stations, Evertsberg and Oxberg, are also similar locations in Vasaloppet.

8 Cf. note no. 1.

9 Sport Plc/Ltd is, in Swedish sport, a ‘hybridic’ legal alternative, with the attempt to combine, in a novel association form, the ideals of non-profit organizations with the logic of the market, by introducing shares/stocks in the system, and at the same time restrict the influence of the market, by legally defining the non-profit organization’s majority to become at least 51 percentage (cf. Backman and Carlsson 2019).

10 Huizinga (2004) argues that sport origin from play, due to an increasing seriousness. Timber sport has a different direction, deriving from serious work to become a sport.

11 Cf. note no. 4.