Sweden is not at war.
Nevertheless, Swedes in 2023 were exposed to threats and under attack because we were Swedes. It was the sky-high price for some people abusing the Swedish freedom of speech and for others (deliberately?) misinterpreting the reason why the Swedish social services took care of children.
The country that recently lay high up among the world’s nations that accepted refugees suddenly had a racist label attached to them. And the hatred against Sweden spread in the Muslim world.
This has nothing to do with sports.
But it was in sports that the victims of the situation that arose were there, and it was a sad and bloody consequence of where sports as a movement ended up. It has always been nationalistic. It has never been more political.
Swedish supporters are waiting to leave the arena. Outside, the terrorist is still at large. Photo: Christine Olsson/TT
I have always understood those who wanted athletes to take a stand and express opinions and run campaigns. But I have pointed out with the stubbornness of a fool that it opens the door for fanatics with completely different aims to also use sports as their stage of expression.
That’s what happened to three completely ordinary, innocent Swedish supporters on a dark Monday evening in October, hours before the Belgium-Sweden football match in Brussels.
One survived. His two friends died.
The three wore Swedish national team jerseys. That made the men living targets for the killer.
The match was meaningless. After the shots, everything related to sports felt pointless.
But the month after, Sweden’s men would play a football match again. In Baku, a group of Swedish supporters sat in a bar and all their strong emotions that were at the table said so clearly what sport is largely about.
Community.
– We have talked a lot, cried, looked at pictures and then we have cried more. It has been great, said Lisen Altis.
“I only felt after what happened in Brussels that I should not go on this trip,” Lisen Altis said in Baku. Photo: Thomas Karlsson
She was friends with the two victims Patrick and Kent and also with Pelle who survived.
In the bar in Baku, Lisen said:
– I only felt after what happened in Brussels that I would not go on this trip. Then it only took a couple of hours and I said: “Of course I’m going. I have to do it.” And I’ll be wearing my match shirt.
But she also said that which many did not even want to think. If the terrorist had been in another place, how many would have died?
Less than two weeks before the terrorist attack against Sweden and Swedes, I heard similar thoughts.
At Mälarhöjden’s IP stood KG Stoppel, then CEO and sports director of Djurgården hockey, and looked at the place where a young man had been shot dead.
Sweden is not at war.
But gang warfare is going on at home and it is taking its toll. At the “Myren” sports ground, there could have been more victims if the person killed had run into young people who were there for an ordinary match or practice in ice hockey, tennis, football or gymnastics.
Djurgården hockey’s sports director and CEO KG Stoppel at the entrance to Mälarhöjdens IP where a fatal shooting occurred. Photo: Roger Turesson
A failed integration is often pointed out as the main cause of the gang wars. A failed drug fight must weigh just as much.
If community is an important fuel for sports, drugs are the fuel for gang wars.
The death victim at “Myren” had the sports ground as his drug market. Earlier in the fall, some hockey youngsters had fled the sports field, through the woods, during their warm-up when they found themselves in the vicinity of a gun threat. At the time of the fatal shooting, children were only meters from the murder.
When I was with KG Stoppel a week had passed at “Myren”. There were memorial candles outside the changing rooms. A hollow was visible on the lawn where blood had flowed and grass had been dug away.
All around, laughing young people could be heard, children hurrying to practice. On the surface, everyday life seemed to be returning.
When Janne Andersson was back on Friends after Baku, it was not like any time before. It was the last game with the team, but above all, the two people who should have been in the stands but were no longer there were honored.
The relatives of Patrick and Kent cannot get their loved ones back, but some were at Friends when Janne Andersson was thanked and the victims of terrorism were honored.
Janne Andersson was moved when he was dismissed as national team captain after the EC qualifying match against Estonia. Photo: Christine Olsson/TT
For the men’s national football team A new national team captain awaits, a new year, new matches. It’s always like that in sports. Nowhere is the habit of moving on after a setback that can be perceived as heavy greater than in sports.
Only one participant can win a competition, only one team can take home a series. Everyone else must try to make next year something better.
2023-12-31 08:00:36
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