ROYAL SPORTSMEN

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 27, 1 August 1923, Page 14

ROYAL SPORTSMEN

SWEDISH KINGS AND PRINCES AS

ATHLETES

WHAT THEY HAVE DONE AND ARE DOING.

Many Kings of Sweden have 'been famous as sportsmen, great fighters, and fearless hunters. From Swedish history we learn that the old kings were usnalfer, JJ rst a£hlete s.of the land, states Ine limes. ' One of them very long ago—so the tale goes—was known to be able to jump his own height clad in his heavy armour, and to swing his sword as deftly with his left hand as his right. The originator of modern Sweden, Gustavus ,Vasa, was an excellent skirunner, and Sweden's ■ best-known ski competition, "Vasaloppet," takes its name from him, the run being over a distance of fifty-six: English miles, which was the length of a journey which he made on ski in the beginning of the sixteenth century. The boy hero, Charles XII., is regarded as one of the most fearless men known to Swedish history. As a boy his favourite 1 pastime was to hunt bears with a large wooden fork; and later, dnnng.his many struggles against neigh■bovring cpuntries, he was one of the most enduring men in the army. Sports and Swedish Kings, both in Saga and history, have always been associated. Now modern customs have taken away the roughness of former times,' and sport no longer consists in tracking down bears with wooden forks or jumping in heavy armour. But King Uustaf is an enthusiastic lawn tennis • player, and, as. Crown Prince, won the national championship iri the doubles. On his regular visits to the Riviera he goes in keenly for his favourite recreation, and when the English visitor hears of a certain "Mr: G." among the participants, he will know that this unpretending pseudonym is the norn de gurre on the lawn of the present Swedish King. Crown Prince Gustaf, who recently visited his father-in-law, the Duke of Connaught, has long been an active figure among Swedish athletes, and he enjoys an immense popularity. English sportsmen who were in Stockholm at the Olympic Games in 1912 wilt remembeo him, and the late Crown Princess Margaret, standing on the football ground of the Stadium greeting the teams, to the accompaniment of the rapturous applause of the crowds in the galleries and stands. At twenty-seven yearsi of age the Crown Prince gained the distinction of winning the Swedish so-called "Idrottsmarket," an honour conferred on those who successfully fulfil a certain number of tests in different branches of sports. He was the first Royal person to acquire this honour J™ 1 «» order to, celebrate the occasion tna badige was offered him in gold a special distinction which does not come in the ordinary way to sportsmen without their going through the tests ei°-ht years in. succession, or after havTn" passed their thirty-second year. The Crown Prince, however, refused to accept this act of courtesy to his Boyal title, and sportingly went through with his yearly tests until his thirty-second year .was passed. One of the brothers jO f the Crown Prince it will be remembered, Prince Wilhelm, only recently returned from an exploration and hunting- expedition to Africa.. Prince Wilhelm, when a captain in the Swedish Navy, won great repute as an expert in the noble art of self-defenoe. He is an expert, by the way,.also an another noble art, liavin" in. recent years written - poetry, which: has secured for him W "well-earned seat of honour among; young Swedish poets. Inere the artistic vein in the Bernadotte Dynasty, as in the case of the Kings brother, Prince Eugen, the Fainter-Prince," becomes manifest. But that is another story.