Sport in Sweden
Some current internationally acclaimed football players from Sweden include Emil Forsberg, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Victor Lindelöf.
Historically acclaimed football stars include the trio of players known as Gre-No-Li, who still enjoy legendary status for Italy's Milan.
The Sweden men's national football team has seen some success at the FIFA World Cup, finishing second when they hosted the tournament in 1958, and third twice, in 1950 and 1994.
In 1979, Malmö FF reached the final of the 1978–79 European Cup (now known as the UEFA Champions League), but they lost 1–0 to Nottingham Forest in Munich.
The men's national hockey team has won the World Championships eleven times, and Olympic gold medals in 1994 and 2006.
Famous Swedish NHL hockey players include Peter Forsberg, Mats Sundin, Nicklas Lidström, Markus Näslund, Daniel Alfredsson, Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin, Börje Salming, Henrik Zetterberg, Nicklas Bäckström, Henrik Lundqvist, Johan Franzen, Niklas Kronwall, Patrik Berglund, Thomas Steen, Bengt-Åke Gustafsson, Håkan Loob, Mats Näslund, Kent Nilsson, Erik Karlsson and Pelle Lindbergh.
In 1999, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, one of the best basketball players in world history, bought the club M7 Borås and played several games there.
Both Jerebko and Taylor are sons of American basketball players who settled in Sweden after finishing their professional careers in the country, and Taylor left Sweden at age 17 to play both high school and college basketball in the U.S. Jerebko has played ten seasons in the NBA, first with the Detroit Pistons (2009–2015), Boston Celtics (2015–2017), Utah Jazz (2017-2018), and Golden State Warriors (2018-2019), where he made the 2019 NBA Finals with an injured Warriors team, but were defeated by the Toronto Raptors in six games.
Two other Swedish athletes won gold medals in the 2004 Olympic Games: heptathlete Carolina Klüft and triple jumper Christian Olsson.
Electronic sports are also gaining momentum in Sweden since the launch of StarCraft II with Swedish national televisions covering Dreamhack events throughout the year.
Notable names are Jonathan "Jinro" Walsh for his performances South Korea, and Marcus "Thorzain" Eklöf and Johan "NaNiwa" Lucchesi for being two of the top non-Korean players during 2011-2013.
Emil "HeatoN" Christensen and Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg were two of the foremost players in the history of the game, both of whom later became involved in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team "Ninjas in Pyjamas".
Nine have been selected to the European team at the Ryder Cup: Joakim Haeggman, Per-Ulrik Johansson, Jesper Parnevik, Robert Karlsson, Jarmo Sandelin, Pierre Fulke, Niclas Fasth, Peter Hanson and Henrik Stenson.
Fasth and Parnevik (twice) have been runner-up in the British Open, which Stenson won in record-breaking fashion in 2016, shortly before securing an Olympic silver medal.
In addition to Sörenstam, Liselotte Neumann, Helen Alfredsson and Sophie Gustafson (four times) have won the Ladies European Tour Order of Merit.
1's in singles, Björn Borg (eleven Grand Slam titles), Mats Wilander (seven) and Stefan Edberg (six), as well as two former World No.
Other famous Swedish athletes include the heavyweight boxing champion and International Boxing Hall of Famer - Ingemar Johansson; Olympic gold medal-winning fencer Johan Harmenberg; and multiple World Championships and Olympics medalist in table tennis - Jan-Ove Waldner.
Other popular Swedish table tennis players include Mattias Falck, Jörgen Persson and Truls Möregårdh.
Arne Borg, Gunnar Larsson, Anders Holmertz, Stefan Nystrand, Therese Alshammar, Anna-Karin Kammerling, Emma Igelström, Lars Frölander and Sarah Sjöström are some of the renowned swimmers, who have been successful in Olympics and/or World Championships.
Sweden has also been internationally successful in equestrian (Malin Baryard, Rolf-Göran Bengtsson) and speed-skating (Tomas Gustafson).
In cycling Sweden has the 1971 Giro winner Gösta Pettersson, two-time Giro runner up Tommy Prim, 1982 Vuelta podium finisher Sven-Åke Nilsson, 2004 Paris–Roubaix winner Magnus Bäckstedt and 1976 Olympic road race champion Bernt Johansson as well as several other top professional cyclists including current riders Emma Johansson, Thomas Lövkvist, Gustav Larsson, Fredrik Kessiakoff and Emilia Fahlin.
Arguably the most famous fighter out of Sweden is Alexander Gustafsson, who is rapidly approaching a title shot in the light heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
