A picture from 1912. The arena looks similar today, almost 100 years later.
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Stockholm Stadium – a classic arena
Stockholm Olympic Stadium is a classic sports arena. Over the years, no less than 83 world records in athletics have been broken in the beautiful brick fortress. No other arena in the world comes close to this figure.
The Stadium was built between 1910 and 1912 on the initiative of the Swedish Central Association for Sport especially for the 1912 Summer Olympic Games which were held in Stockholm. The architect was Torben Grut.
The main arenas which were built for the Olympic Games in Paris 1900, St Louis 1904 and London 1908 had all been temporary arenas intended only for the Games. Originally something similar was planned for Stockholm, a temporary wooden arena, costing 300,000 crowns which would be financed be a lottery for the whole of Sweden organised by the Central Association.
The plans changed however and Torben Grut was commissioned by the Association to create a permanent stadium in cement, stone and brick.
Over the years a number of major sports events have taken place at Stockholm Stadium; Ice hockey World Championships, Swedish bandy finals, national football matches, equestrian World Championships, etc
In June 1956 the Olympic equestrian events took place at Stockholm Stadium. The Olympics were held that year in Melbourne but quarantine regulations made it impossible to take horses to Australia.
For almost one hundred years, track and field athletics has been one of the dominant sports in the Stockholm Olympic Stadium. The arena has hosted great athletics meetings, a series of national matches and many Swedish Championships. In 1958 the European Athletics Championships were staged in this beautiful arena.
Today, Stockholm Marathon and DN Galan are the major events which take place in the world’s finest athletics arena..
The Stadium is the homeground of Djurgårdens ’allsvenska’ (first division) football team.
The Olympic Stadium was renovated in 1990 and the concrete north stand which was built for the 1958 European Championships demolished. In its place a new grandstand was built in the same style as the original.
A complete list of all 83 world records broken at Stockholm Stadium can be found here.
The finish of Stockholm Marathon is in the Olympic stadium.
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