Stefan from Karlstad is Coach for the Swedish National Team in Athletics

Text: Katarina Averås  Photo: Øyvind Lund

Nowadays, he's the captain of the Swedish athletics team, but he talks enthusiastically and lovingly of his parent club.

"I felt as though someone had selected me personally. I tried out athletics and loved the whole thing straight away. Looking back, I realise that it was hard for me to resist the power that the club had even back then."

Stefan was quick and had staying power. Until juniors, he was one of the eight or ten best Swedish mid-distance runners. He won medals in the Swedish championships for both young people and juniors.

"It was important to perform, but there was something else which I really liked – the boundless camaraderie. Here, boys and girls trained together, and people met up and spent time together no matter what their ages. This wasn't at all like with football, where people just got to know the guys in their own team.

"Our idols ran on the same tracks that we used. They said hello to us, got changed in the same changing rooms, and we went on training camps together. It was amazing. Some of them competed in the Olympics."

At the age of 15, this leopard started to change his spots, switching from competing to training, and at the age of 17 he became an ordinary member of the board at IF Göta.

"Those were fantastic years. Being a sports manager for kids aged 12 to 15 is a huge responsibility. I realised that at that time, I was the most important person in their lives. They listened more to me than they did to their parents or schoolteachers. I also did some growing myself, as a person, in my leadership."

In 1991, he was offered the chance to become an administrative director at IF Göta, the same position which is referred to as head of sports nowadays. Göta has become a club to reckon with as an arranger of major events. The Karlstad Stadslopp race, various different races for ladies, the Tjurruset race. And then the Götagalan, which returned in 1999.

Anyone devoting all their waking hours to their work will eventually get tired, even people who love their jobs. After 15 years as administrative director, this is what happened to Stefan. He started to think about finding a new job. And that was when he took over as club manager at Karlstad Golf Club, a job which brought him a breath of fresh air.

That's where the tale of Stefan the Athlete could have come to an end. But no. The world of athletics which he'd tried to leave enticed him back again by offering him the job of captain of the Swedish national team.

"That's when the same thing happened to me that happened when I was ten. There were people in athletics who believed in me. Of course, I was flattered. And once the idea had taken root in my mind, that was it. I was in - again!"