Guide to the Sunshine olympiad

Inbunden bok. Klocktornet Media AB. 2018. 512 sidor.

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For more than three years, the author and historian Åke Jönsson has studied what happened when Sweden was awarded the Olympic Games in 1912 and how Stockholm Stadium came into being. It was the Central Association for the Promotion of Athletics, headed by Viktor Balck, which ensured - through their intensive and idealistic efforts - that the Olympic Games ended up in Stockholm and Sweden. It was also the Central Association that initiated and completed the construction of the Olympic arena: Stockholm Stadium. Åke Jönsson has systematically ploughed through over 20 linear metres of archival material about the Olympics, a task he describes as follows: "By turning sheet after sheet, reading and scrutinizing, day after day, it has been possible to reconstruct the Olympic Games in Stockholm in 1912. In detail upon detail, a picture has emerged of a gigantic organizational effort, painstaking but also in many cases amazingly forward-looking". Åke Jönsson's labour has resulted in a unique book of more that 500 pages, describing in words and pictures the Fifth Olympic Games of 1912 in a way that has never been done before. The actual competitions are not the central focus of the book, which concentrates instead on the run-up to the Games, from application to arrange the Olympics to the construction of the Stadium by the Central Association, through constant financial difficulties, how the competitions were organized in practical terms, how regulations were established, how suitable venues were selected for the competitions, and how the Swedish Olympic troop was prepared. With this "Guide to the sunshine Olympiad". Åke Jönsson has created a standard work which offers entertaining and well-informed reading to anyone interested in history and sport.