ABSTRACT
Today approximately two-thirds of all Swedish children participate in organized sports and most children encounter sports within the educational system, as physical education is part of the compulsory curriculum (Swedish Sport Confederation 2007). Outside school, children’s organized sports activities are connected to the sports movement, which is organized within the Swedish Sport Confederation, that is, Riksidrottsförbundet (RF). RF has a strong position in Swedish society and is to a large extent self-governing in relation to the government (Norberg 2002; Ministry of Culture 2008). However, it is still heavily dependent on public subsidies for activities for youth and children. In this chapter we will provide an overview of children’s involvement in sports activities
in Sweden, mainly from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. The aim is to explain and examine the way in which children and youth participate in sport, with a focus on physical education and the development of the sports movement. We will, in addition, outline the governance issues and policy related to Swedish youth sport. We will also identify and discuss several problems that have occurred in the running and administration of youth sports in Sweden. In this respect we will try to relate our discussion to gender, as sport has traditionally been connected to boys, men and masculinity. The chapter ends with a reflection on contemporary and future trends and possible directions in the development of youth sport in Sweden, in which we focus on the present amalgam of physical education and the sports movement.
