Swedes prioritize participation in races
Svenska motionslopp* are filling up at an increasingly rapid pace. Probably close to 1.3 million will participate in all different exercise races during 2024, which is a growth of approximately 15 percent compared to last year. The growth is led by the major running and skiing races such as Vasaloppet, Göteborgsvarvet, TCS Lidingöloppet, and Adidas Stockholm Marathon, but smaller organizers are also caught up in the growth.
During the past month, Broloppet 2025 has reached its full capacity at record speed with 40,000 registered participants. Göteborgsvarvet and Vasaloppet have revised their forecasts, and soon they may need to turn away additional participants to ensure the quality of the races. Additionally, Stockholm Marathon may surpass the previous participation record of 22,200 runners. These numbers are promising for an industry that has previously been hard-hit by the pandemic.
- With the current growth rate, we will soon surpass the budget target and are assessing how many we can accommodate before we need to stop. We need to ensure both quality and safety for the participants, and there is a risk that we may not be able to accept everyone who wants to run Göteborgsvarvet this year," says Eva-Lena Frick, CEO of the Gothenburg Athletics Association, which organizes Göteborgsvarvet.
Johan Eriksson, CEO of Vasaloppet, faces similar challenges.
- At Vasaloppet, we have had to revise our previous goals and are working hard to meet the great interest in this year's edition of Vasaloppet's Winter Week. Hopefully, we will reach 60,000 participants this year.
It is not primarily previous participants who have returned, but interest comes, both within En Svensk Klassiker and Stockholm Marathon, to a large extent from a new target group, young people who have discovered the races.
- We see that the age group 18-30 is the fastest-growing group in registrations for Stockholm Marathon. This group is now almost as large as the 30-40 age group," says David Fridell, operations manager at Marathongruppen.
The clear growth in running and skiing races is not reflected in the same way across the entire recreational sports market. Cycling races and triathlons do not show the same growth, with a few exceptions. One contributing factor to this may be that many organizers have disappeared, and the uncertainty surrounding the increased fees from the Swedish Transport Administration has led many smaller organizers to choose not to plan and invest in organizing a race.
- At the beginning of the year, not knowing the costs of organizing an event on the road makes it difficult to motivate clubs and volunteers to invest their time and effort," says Staffan Movin, chairman of "Svenska Motionslopp."
For more information, please contact:
- Staffan Movin, Chairman of Svenska Motionslopp, 070-2107495
- Eva-Lena Frick, Göteborgsvarvet, 070-8209727
- Johan Eriksson, Vasaloppet, 070-3428389
- David Fridell, Stockholm Marathon, 070-2548576
About "Svenska Motionslopp" and sports events
"Svenska Motionslopp" is an important part of the Swedish sports movement and for Swedish public health. Collectively, the different races in Sweden motivate more than a million participants annually to train and exercise. From a public health perspective, this is a very important infrastructure. The unique aspect of Swedish exercise races is that they are primarily part of the Swedish sports structure and owned by associations. Any surplus benefits the association structure, while deficits drain club finances and lead to a weaker sports movement.
* Svenska Motionslopp is an industry organization for different exercise races and sports events in Sweden.
Read more about "Svenska Motionslopp"
2024-02-14