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The Old Country Newsletter – Swedish-American Gold & A Potential VP
Your Weekly Newsletter from Sweden
Philip Gustavsson
August 09, 2024
Good morning – and varmt välkommen tillbaka!
It’s Friday, August 9th.
And – we are back! I hope you have had a great summer so far!
This week, the newsletter contains stories about the Olympics, burglaries, unemployment, and migration rates. It also features a new segment called Your Weekly Swede-ish (I’m quite proud of that one). Here, you’ll get to read about someone who has been on every front page in both the U.S. and Sweden during this past week …
I hope you’ll enjoy the read after a few weeks break. As always: have a wonderful weekend!
Philip
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Take care of your life! Take care of it! Don't waste it! Because now is your time on earth!
My personal favorite book series of all time is The Emigrants, by the Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg. Through the four books in the series, we get to follow the triumphs and tribulations of early Swedish immigrants in America. In the first book, "The Emigrants," we meet Karl Oskar, Kristina Nilsson, their three children, and eleven others who set out from Småland in 1850, seeking a better life away from poverty, religious persecution, and social injustice.
By clicking here, you can learn more about the books and order a copy for yourself. Beyond getting your hands on an incredible book, it is also a great way to show support for this newsletter, as a few cents of each sale will help support our work.
Statistics you didn’t ask for
As stated in the previous newsletter, during this summer’s absence, I have been enjoying the Swedish wilderness. More specifically, I have climbed Sweden’s highest mountain, Kebnekaise, and hiked on parts of the renowned Kungsleden.
Kungsleden, or "The King's Trail," is a stunning 440-kilometer hiking trail in Lappland, known for its breathtaking landscapes, including vast mountains, lush valleys, and daylight throughout all hours of the summer. It passes through Abisko National Park and areas inhabited by the indigenous Sámi people, offering rich cultural experiences and diverse wildlife encounters. Accessible year-round, the trail features well-maintained huts for rest and is suitable for both novice and seasoned hikers.
Armand Duplantis Defends Olympic Gold and Breaks World Record in Pole Vault
Attribution: Jessica Gow/TT
Armand Duplantis, the Swedish-American pole vaulter who grew up in Louisiana but competes for Sweden thanks to his Swedish mother, was the favorite at the Olympics – and he didn't disappoint. Duplantis won the men's pole vault with ease and then went on to break the world record.
Few athletes in the world are as dominant as Armand "Mondo" Duplantis. He has proven this time and again throughout his career, and tonight was no different.
At the Stade de France, Duplantis cleared 5.70, 5.85, 5.95, and 6.00 meters with ease on his first attempts. By the time the bar was raised to 6.00 meters, he had only two competitors left: American Sam Kendricks, who cleared 5.95 meters on his first try, and Greek athlete Emmanouil Karalis, who saved his remaining attempts for 6.00 meters after failing his first attempt at 5.95 meters.
After Duplantis cleared 6.00 meters, it was clear to most that victory was in sight. Karalis couldn't clear the height, and Kendricks failed on all three of his attempts. With his second consecutive Olympic gold secured, Duplantis raised the bar to 6.10 meters and broke the Olympic record set by Brazil's Thiago Braz in 2016.
Not stopping there, Duplantis set his sights on the world record height of 6.25 meters. After narrowly missing his first two attempts, he cleared the bar on his third try, sending the Stade de France into a frenzy. This marked the ninth time Duplantis has broken the world record since first setting it in February 2020 with a jump of 6.17 meters in Torun, Poland.
The celebration that followed was electric. With all other competitions concluded, the entire audience remained to watch Duplantis. He leaped, bounced, and sprinted to his girlfriend, Desiré Inglander, in the stands for a celebratory kiss. Looking into the TV cameras, he pointed to the "Sverige" text on his shirt and shouted, "Who's like us? Sweden is on top!"
With this victory, Duplantis becomes only the third pole vaulter in history to win two Olympic gold medals, joining the ranks of Bob Richards (1952 and 1956) and Yelena Isinbayeva (2004 and 2008).
In other news
📊 Sweden is experiencing its highest unemployment rate in a decade, with June marking the worst month for business bankruptcies since 1996. The unemployment rate for the second quarter is at 8.3% and expected to rise to 8.4%, with 5,872 companies going bankrupt in June alone, a 38% increase from the previous year; this has affected 14,675 employees in the first quarter of 2024.
🧪 Police have confirmed 52 burglaries or attempted burglaries using nitric acid to break locks in Stockholm this summer, though the crimes have declined since mid-July, possibly due to media coverage deterring the perpetrators. Authorities hope to prosecute several suspects believed to be part of a foreign theft ring responsible for the crime wave.
🏊♀️ On a "Super Sunday" at the Olympics, Swedish viewers were glued to their TVs to watch Truls Möregårdh win a silver medal in table tennis and Sarah Sjöström secure a gold in the 50-meter freestyle. Sjöström's event attracted nearly 1.2 million viewers, making it the most-watched event of the day, while the Olympics continue with key events like athletics and handball finals in the final week.
Would you like to feel closer to Sweden? A perfect way to do that would be to have a look at Swedish broadcasts, either current or past. SVT Play is an online streaming service provided by Sveriges Television (SVT), the Swedish national public television broadcaster.
To watch it, one has to be in Sweden – or have access to a VPN provider that can connect to a remote server located in Sweden. Like NordVPN, which sponsors this segment of the newsletter.
By using NordVPN, you can access what SVT Play has to offer – including current news, documentaries about emigrants, live broadcasts from nature events, and much more – by simply connecting to a server in Sweden. Follow the link here to get 74 % off for your first two years and three months (!) of usage. By doing so, you also help support the distribution of this newsletter.
Sweden's Asylum Seekers Plummet to Historic Lows
Sweden, whichwelcomed a record number of migrants in the mid-2010s, is now experiencing its lowest asylum rates in decades, marking a significant shift in the nation's immigration landscape.
Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard announced on Thursday that the number of asylum seekers in Sweden has dropped to a historic low. While other European countries continue to grapple with rising asylum numbers, Sweden has bucked the trend.
"We've seen a clear downward trend," Stenergard said. "While the EU as a whole saw an 18% increase in asylum applications from 2022 to 2023, Sweden has experienced a steady decline."
In 2023, only 12,500 people applied for asylum in Sweden, the second-lowest number since the turn of the century. This year is shaping up to be even lower, with the first half of 2024 seeing a 27% decrease in applications compared to the same period last year.
The years between 2014 and 2017 were a pivotal period for Sweden. The country experienced an unprecedented influx of asylum seekers, primarily from war-torn Syria. This surge sparked a heated national debate about integration, welfare, and Sweden's capacity to accommodate so many new arrivals.
Word of the week
UTFLYKT [OOT-flykt]
Your Weekly Swede-ish
Tim Walz’s: From Runkarp to the Vice Presidency?
In just a few months, Tim Walz could become the Vice President of the United States. If that happens, it would mark a remarkable journey from the modest farmlands of a small Swedish village to the heart of global politics.
Recently, Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for President, selected Tim Walz as her running mate. Walz, currently the Governor of Minnesota – a state with renowned and deep Scandinavian ties – has strong Swedish roots of his own.
Those roots trace back to Småland, a historically poor region in southern Sweden. In the late 1860s, during a period of severe poverty in Sweden, a young couple from the Södra Ljunga area emigrated to North America in search of a better life. Johan Peter Salomonsson, born in Runkarp – which is quite an unfortunate name in modern Swedish, but I’ll spare you the details – in 1842, and his wife Inga Maria Christersdotter, left for America in 1869.
Tragically, Johan Peter, who is Tim Walz’s great-great-grandfather, passed away at just 30 years old, only a few years after arriving in the United States. However, his legacy continued through his son, Charles G. Samuelsson, who would go on to marry Jenni Matilda Peterson. Their daughter, Myrtle Samuelsson (later Walz), became Tim Walz’s grandmother, making the democratic nominee for vice president a quarter Swede.
Interestingly, around the same time that Tim Walz’s great-great-grandparents emigrated from Södra Ljunga, another Swedish emigrant from the nearby village of Kånna, John Lind, made his way to America as well. Lind, like Walz, would eventually rise to political prominence in Minnesota, serving as the state’s governor. This remarkable parallel between Johan Peter Salomonsson’s descendant and John Lind highlights the enduring impact of Swedish immigrants on American history, particularly in Minnesota, where their contributions have shaped the state’s identity.
With Walz potentially rising to one of the highest offices in the U.S., the humble village of Runkarp is now linked to a significant chapter in American history.