For the seventh time, Sweden tried and failed to be host country for a winter olympics (svd.se). For various reasons, Sweden lost to Italy; one stated reason was the lack of enthusiasm on the part of Sweden’s population, perhaps in particular Stockholm’s previous city counsellor for sports who stated that Stockholm didn’t want to be a part of it (svd.se). It perhaps also didn’t help that OS athletes were supposedly supposed to use public transportation to get around, something that only just barely works for the native population. The Olympic Committee was also not convinced that Sweden’s businesses were absolutely committed to financing the spectacle. The Swedish games committee had only gotten ”letters of intent” to finance it, nothing more concrete.
It is also possible that Stockholm city council chair Anna König Jerlmyr breaking out in song in the middle of her presentation didn’t go over that well either. In her defense, though, it was only a single line from an ABBA song. It was cute. Perhaps too.
Sweden’s presentation was ”new” and ”modern” according to Stockholm’s current city counsellor for sports, but it must be surmised that the majority of the Olympic committee was not so into Sweden’s big ideas of what modern is.