STOCKHOLM 1912

My olympic adventure takes me this time to familiar place for all us Finnish people - Stockholm, Sweden.  My visit took place during the Easter weekend so I had a lot of time to visit the 100 year old venues. The venues had spread all over the city so the Stockholm's public transport became very familiar to me.

The city of Stockholm had prepared itself in 2012 for the 100-years celebrations so the public knowledge about the games and the venues was very good.  Local museums had organized special events of the centenary and in 2012 the Stockholm marathon was run exactly the same route as it was run in 1912.

Organizing committee had proposed only four events in the games - athletics, fencing, rowing and gymnastics, but the IOC didn't accept this so there were 13 sports in the games. Only boxing was removed as it was illegal in Sweden due to being violent sport.

OLYMPISKA STADIUM

The building of the Olympic stadium were started on 1910 and they were finished in January 1912. As an interesting detail I can mention the expences of the stadium in modern money - 1,2 million English Pounds. In present day you cannot build a single stadium with this money.

The specialty of the stadium was the length of the track - 389 meters.  Due to this the goal was located to the further of the front straight.  The goal is still located on this spot and sometimes this may cause confusion amongst the athletes when they don't know the location of the goal.

During the olympic games 1912 stadium hosted athletics, equestian, football, gymnastics, wrestling, cycling and tug-of-war events.

The Stockholm stadium is the second oldest active Olympic stadium after the St Louis' stadium. The olympic stadium in Athens is older, but it hosts events randomly.  For us Finnish people the Stockholm stadium has become very familiar with bi-annual athletics meeting between Sweden and Finland.  Internationally the stadium is familiar for Diamond League meeting every summer.

The stadium is also the home of Stockholm's football team Djurgarden.

ÖSTERMALM'S SPORT GROUNDS

Ostermalm's sports center was built next to the olympic stadium.  In the center a field for athletics and three part sports hall was built.  The venues hosted the fencing and inner tennis competitions.  Also the endurance competition of the equestriasms three days competition was held in Ostermalm.

Of the sports center only the athletics field and the fencing hall remains.

DJURGARDEN

Not very many visitor in Stockholm does know that they are walking on an actual olympic venue. The Swimming stadium 1912 was located in the center of Stockholm at the area where the sightseeing and archipelago boats leave now.

For my big surprise, not very many local know about this.  The site was very easy to find according to old photograph and there are still the same buildings that you could see in the old pictures.

The swimming stadium of Djurgarden hosted the swimming, diving and water polo events of the 1912 games. First time in the olympic history also the women participated in the swimming competitions.

DJURGARDEN VIKEN

The rowing venue of the 1912 games was located in the bay of Djurgarden so that the start happened by the bridge leading to the Skansen and the goal was located by the building of the present Chinese embassy by the Kaknas tower.

As the competition was held in the natural venue, only two boats could compete on the course at a time.

 

RÅSUNDA

Just outside Stockholm city center of Solna is former Sweden's national football team's stadium of Rasunda.  The old stadium has now been demolished and the present stadium is located on this spot.  Some of the football matches were played in Rasunda.

Next to the stadium there was a field where the Trap and deer shooting competitions were held. This field is still called Skjutsfaltet - in english shooting field.

KAKNAS

The rest of the shooting competitions were competed in the Kaknas on the field next to the Kaknas observation tower.  The fields are now used by the Stockholm football team Djurgarden as the training venue.

 NYNASHAMN

Outside Stockholm, about one hour train ride is located coastal town of Nynashamn which hosted the sailing events of the 1912 Olympic games

Nynashamn is now known specially as the harbor for international cruise ships as they are too big to come to the city center of Stockholm.  There is a direct train connection from Nynashamn to Stockholm.

The sailing events were held in front of the harbor and the spectators had a very good opportunity to see the competitions from the shore.

TRANEBERG

 

Traneberg football stadium hosted the first ever official football match in the Olympic history. The game was between Finland and Italy and the result was something that you don't hear very often as Finland won 4-3.  The first ever goal scorer in the olympic history was Finland's Jarl Ohman

The old stadium was eventually demolished and the only thing remaining now is a memorial sign on the wall of the children's park's service building.

DID YOU KNOW ?

* Pierre de Coubertain competed in the art competition winning the gold medal in the literature with his poem "Ode to the sports"   However he competed as an alias, but I think nobody had any objections to his winning

* RMS Titanic was supposed to be in the games as a floating hotel for the spectators, but the history decided differently

* The longest marathon competition took place in Stockholm as Japanese runner Shizo Kanakuri didn't finish his run but the organizers forgot to mark him as Did Not Finish.  The organizers noticed their mistake in 1977 when Mr Kanakuri was invited to Stockholm to finish his race in front of cheering spectators.  Mr Kanakuri's result was officially marked in the record books as  65 years, 8 months, 6 days, 8 hours, 32 minutes, 20,3 seconds

* The Stockholm Olympic games are the first olympic games where there are still live pictures in the archives.