With the exception of the 1904 St. Louis Olympics, Sweden has competed at every Olympic Games and every Olympic Winter Games. Sweden has been one of the more successful competing nations at the Olympics, placing second in the medal rankings of 1912, 1920, and 1948.

In total, the Swedes have won a total of 679 medals, 212 of them gold. Swedish athletes have excelled in many sports, particularly cross-country skiing (84 medals, 32 gold), wrestling (86 medals, 28 gold), and athletics (84 medals, 20 gold). However, the most successful Swede at the Olympics was a canoeist:Gert Fredriksson collected six golds, one silver and one bronze between 1948 and 1960. Three Swedish athletes have won nine medals overall, but with less golds than Fredriksson: cross-country skiersSixten Jernberg andCharlotte Kalla (four and three golds, respectively) and sport shooterAlf Swahn (three golds).

The Swedes are one of the top countries at the Winter Games, with 176 medals and 65 gold medals coming at the Winter Olympics. As aforementioned, Sweden’s best Winter sport/discipline has been, by far, cross-country skiing. They have also excelled in speedskating, Alpine skiing, biathlon, and have always had one of the top ice hockey teams.

Stockholm, Sweden hosted the Games of theVth Olympiad in 1912. Stockholm also hosted theEquestrian Games of theXVIth Olympiad in 1956 when Australia was unable to hold the equestrian events in Melbourne because of the country’s strict quarantine laws. Sweden also bid to host the 2004 Olympics (Stockholm), and the Winter Olympics of 1984 (Göteborg), 1988 (Falun), 1992 (Falun), 1994 (Östersund), 1998 (Östersund) and 2002 (Östersund), but these bids all failed.