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What happened to Swedish Downhill: The Glory Days
This is the story about how the little country in the North became one of the strongest nations on the Downhill World Cup circuit.
There was a time when seeing Swedes on Downhill World Cup podiums was as normal as spotting Aron Gwin, Greg Minnaar and Rachel Atherton up there today. To many it was considered strange if Swedish riders weren’t fighting it out for the top spots with the likes of Nicolas Vouilloz, Anne-Caroline Chausson and Steve Peat, even occasionally scoring a double-Swede podium. The 90’s were a time when riders such as Tommy Johansson, Malin Lindgren and Johan Engström put fear, and seconds, into its competitors on the world stage. But in a time before viral slideshows and race recaps only being a click away, how many still know about these incredible Days of Glory. How many know just how good the little blue-and-yellow country up in northern Europe was at racing down a hill?
It is time for a recap. It is time to throw it back over 25 years and catch up with some of the biggest names of the sport, at the time, to find out what it was truly like to be on top of the game in a time when Downhill racing was just kicking off. This is the story of Swedish Downhill racing at its best.
Note: this is part of a multi-article series on Swedish Downhill racing trying to recall its highs and lows:
- Part 2. What happened to Swedish Downhill: The rise of Freeride
The 2021 Downhill World Cup season kicks off in Leogang, Austria on the 12-13th of June. Watch all the action LIVE on Red Bull TV!
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A time before Google
In the era before the Internet had properly taken off, before you could Google every single race result and watch World Cups on RBTV live on your smartphone, Swedes were kicking ass on the Downhill World Cup circuit. Although big at the time, due to its lack of Internet fame, this incredible success saga has gotten slightly lost on the newest generation of riders.
“Ha-ha, yea you can’t really Google my name and come up with anything”, says Malin Lindgren, one of the biggest stars of the sport back in the days. She was up against some of the biggest names in Downhill history such as Anne-Caroline Chausson and Missy Giove. Two giants with whom Malin shared a podium at the 1997 World Cup in Kaprun. “It was my first elite podium in Downhill and I remember that I raced with a broken foot. I’d had a huge crash in practice and knew something was wrong, but I decided to ignore it - funny what a little bit of adrenaline can make you do”.
Malin raced professionally for Scott for many years.
© Stephan Bögli/Scott USA
That was not the first or last big podium – or crash – Malin would have. Together with an ever-growing bunch of fast Swedish riders, she had begun climbing the world ranks since the early 90’s. By the second half of the decade most of the riders were fully-fledged signed professional athletes. “We became a strong and powerful national team –we had fun together and raced all over the world”, Malin remembers.
Spitting out talents
As hard as it is to wrap ones head around today, this was an era when Sweden practically spitted out talents on the World Cup scene, much like we see the British, French and Americans do today. “Back then it felt like it was us and the Brits against the French and the Italians”, Tommy Johansson, one of the pioneers within the race scene, remembers. So does Johan Engström: “We were both riding hard and partying hard back then. It was a fun time to be on the World Cup circuit.”
Most of today’s YouTube friendly riders have at some point stumbled upon an old race clip of riders in tight lycra, narrow handlebars and with barley any suspension, sending it down old-school tracks faster than many would on today’s over-performing Enduro bikes. It is as impressive as it is mind-blowing.
Scroll to 6:00 to see Tommy racing his way into 3rd at the 1992 World Cup in La Bourboule.
“I don’t think people understand how gnarly the tracks were back then. I mean we were racing steep, natural trails and high-speed fire road sections, going as fast as 80 km/h on the most rickety bikes without any real protection”, Tommy remembers with a slightly worried laugh. “We just lowered the saddles on our XC bikes, put on somewhat wider tires and went for it. Protection didn’t really exist so people used football or hockey gear”.
Setting the pace
To understand how the Swedish scene grew so strong we have to take it back to the start of the 90’s – to the very beginnings of Downhill World Cup racing. The first UCI-sanctioned Downhill World Championship was held in 1990. Just like any new discipline it attracted riders from all over. “We were an eclectic bunch of people, kind of similar to what we saw at the start of MTB Enduro today”, Tommy says. “I remember cyclocross riders being especially good the first couple of years, as they had both the fitness and skills from riding in mud with skinny tires all winter, but eventually the courses got too gnarly and a lot of the BMX and motocross riders became better”.
Malin was one of the riders who slowly, but surely, transferred over from XC to Downhill. “I hadn’t really thought about racing Downhill until a rider told me that he’d seen me practicing the XC track at the 1991 World Championships and thought that I would do well in the Downhill race the following day. I decided to go check it out and it looked like real good fun”. The stranger was of course right, Malin was a natural at Downhill. With a background in BMX, XC and cross-country skiing she had the fitness, endurance and skills needed and quickly took a liking to it: “I liked the speed – I wasn’t scared of going fast.” After coming 3rd at the 1992 Junior World Championship in Bromont on a hardtail, beating a field full of full-suspension bikes, Malin decided to get a “proper” bike and do it full-time.
Malin was introduced to BMX by Tommy and his sister and quickly took to it.
© Malin Lindgren
Tommy also quickly put all of his focus into the new race format and raced his first World Championship in 1991. It didn’t go to plan however and he would have to wait another 3 years before having the World Championship run of his life. Instead he got his chain stuck halfway down the course, even after building his own chain device, and whilst trying to get it undone, he caught the cantilever brake with his knee and unknowingly undid his back brake cable. That was his race over, but at least he and his custom painted Troy Lee Design helmet (with a very special-looking Flybane design) made a full-page photo in MBUK.
He would get redemption the following year, having one of his best seasons finishing 3rd in the World Cup overall. Tommy and Malin were setting the stage for Swedish riders to come.
Collecting World Championships medals
1994 would be a distinguishing year. During the World Championships in Vail Tommy finished 2nd, grabbing a silver medal that still today stands unbeaten. “After Tommy’s silver medal you kind of expected Swedes to do well internationally”, Kalle Bern remembers, a local rider that raced and organised Swedish races back in the late 90’s. “It might seem crazy now, but at the time it would be strange if no one did well at a World Cup”.
Tommy is the only Swede to have won an Elite World Championship medal in the discipline. Of course there has been others, like Malin and Tobias Westman’s 3rd spots in Juniors in ‘92 and ’97, as well as Oliwer Kangas 5th spot in Juniors in 2010, that have been very impressive. But taking a glance at the overall 1990-2018 Elite World Championship results table and seeing that one Swedish flag colourfully distinguishing itself from the crowd of French, American, Aussie and UK flags is an impressive sight. One that no one has managed to replicate.
The rise of the Swedish scene
During this time, the scene at home was growing stronger and stronger. Downhill was becoming popular and had gotten its own race series that was run by the Swedish Cycling Federation and organised by different MTB clubs all over the country; Kungsberget, Husqvarna, Vallåsen and Sollefteå were just some of the venues that would be hosting races for years to come. Up to 6 or 7 races were held each year and there would be over a hundred participants at every round. Pretty huge considering there isn’t even a National Downhill Series any more.
“I still remember my first race - I had finally turned 15 and could enter one in Vallåsen. I think we must have been about 25 boys in the 15-16 year old category at the time”, Ragnar Sylwan remembers, one of many racers who would go on to explore the race scene outside of Sweden. “It was a big deal back then, people came from all over Sweden to race.”
The rise of Johan Engström
One rider coming from far up north was Johan Engström. “I had to nag my parents for ages to be allowed to go race the Swedish Championships. It was a long drive down from Piteå and my mum really didn’t understand why I wanted to go race so badly”, he says. Little did his mum know that Johan was to become one of the most successful Swedish Downhill racers of all time and that the 1994 Swedish Championships would be a deciding moment for his future career. It would be the race where him, and his best friend and riding buddy Jan Lundman, would get to know Tommy Johansson.
Tommy still remembers riding down behind the teenagers that day, as he’d asked them to show him the track: “I couldn’t believe how fast they were going, I had to try to keep up with them in certain sections. I was so stoked about these two young talents that I was laughing out loud the whole way down”. All three of them went on to win their respective category, only 3 seconds apart.
That summer Tommy invited Johan and Jan down to Stockholm for a “training camp”, teaching the exited, but untrained, teenagers basic skills in BMX and dual slalom, practicing and racing until the sun went down. “I think Tommy considers us to be his first students”, Johan says when he remembers that summer almost 25 years ago. “Jan and I had never been on a BMX track or even practiced any basic skills before - we’d just been trying to go as fast as possible down the local hills. We were embarrassingly bad in the beginning, but worked hard and soon started getting the hang of things”. Tommy on the other hand was scratching his head at how these two, without seemingly much skill, were going as fast as they were: “We definitely all learned some new skills that summer”, he confesses. “They helped me get faster too”.
Becoming the greatest
The golden era of Swedish Downhill had arrived. Whilst Tommy had to eventually retire due to a huge crash on Mammoth Mountain in 1995, Johan and Jan went on to challenge the biggest names in the world. “I ended up 2nd in one of the Dual Slalom World Cup races in ‘95 and then Scott called and asked if I wanted to ride for them fulltime. I said “hell yes” and quit high school, ha-ha”, Johan says.
Scroll to 15:53 to see Johan riding his way into 2nd at the 1998 World Cup in Les Gets.
He would go on to take 2nd, 3rd and a bunch of Top 10 spots the following 5 years, making himself one of the most successful racers of that time, and eventually swap to the famous Volvo Cannondale team, becoming teammates with stars like Anne-Caro Chausson, Cédric Gracia and Brian Lopes.
Johan remembers the glory days: “We had good salaries, exciting races and pretty wild parties. Then Shaun Palmer came on to the scene, turning everything upside down – in a good way”. Palmer demanded higher pay so everyone got bumped up the ladder, and instead of lycra the riders started wearing baggy MX clothing. Johan also recalls, with a chill, how fast they were riding and how much they were risking – even back then: “The riders on today’s circuit are going insanely fast and are putting it all on the line, but so did we back in the day. The tracks were different of course, but so was the equipment. You pretty much had to risk your life if you wanted to win – although I obviously didn’t see it like that back then…”.
Peaking in the late 90’s
With Johan and Malin in the lead, Swedish Downhill was truly peaking in the second half of the 90’s. Malin went on to sign with Scott in ’97 and, a while later, so did Kristian Eriksson - a guy who came in and wiped the floor with everyone for three years and then disappear just a quick as he’d arrived. He finished off by scoring a podium at the 2000 Leysin World Cup and then vanished from the international race scene. Just like that.
Malin was one of Scott's riders in the late 90's.
© Stephan Bögli/Scott
Out scoring impressive results was also Jan Lundman and Tobias Westman. Together with the others they formed the strongest Swedish race squad to date, peaking at the 1999 Kaprun World Cup when Johan came 2nd, Jan 4th and Kristian 11th in Elite. “It was a special moment”, Johan says proudly, “not just because I was part of it, but because we’ve never had three Swedish riders in the Top 11 again”. He pauses. “And maybe we’ll never will”, he says with a hint of sadness.
The beginning of the end
1999 was a milestone year in many ways. Reaching a crescendo on the intentional race scene at the World Cup in Kaprun, it was also the year when Sweden got to host the Downhill World Championships in Åre. Both Johan and Tommy remember it as a huge event. Tommy, although semi-retired, had been preparing for two years and Johan was keen to show the home crowds what he was capable of. Unfortunately Tommy punctured a couple of corners in and Johan crashed halfway down. It was Kristian who placed best amongst the Swedes in 6th, just of the podium, and Malin in second best with an 8th.
The pressure was on at the World Champs in Åre 1999.
© Patrik Wall/Nya Cyklisten 1999
“Of course it was bitter when you had been preparing for so long”, Tommy says, “but it’s the name of the game when it comes to Downhill”. Sadly it would become more than that, as from here on Swedish results would decline, and even with a few golden moments from Kristian, this was the end of the great era of Swedish Downhill. In 2000 all the pros suddenly quit, and a vacuum that would become impossible to fill, was created. “In a year we went from having 5 pros on the world circuit to none”, Tommy recalls.
“It was never a joint decision to all quit at the same time, we never even spoke about it - it just happened. I have asked myself afterwards if it was fair to the sport”, Malin admits. “I had to quit because my thumb never recovered from multiple breaks, so I couldn’t hold on any longer, and I also didn’t get along with the new team manager. It felt a little sour since Red Bull approached me about sponsorship the same year I decided to quit so I had to turn it down”. Johan also recalls retiring: “I was suffering from old injuries and I was over living in a suitcase. I had my peak, I got to ride and have fun with some of the best, and it was time to settle down”.
The vacuum
And just like that, Sweden went from hero to zero. Whilst there were still riders fighting against the international race clock, no one got the results needed to become a full time pro. It would take year’s to fill the vacuum left by the Swedish Pro riders’ sudden retirement at the end of 2000. The golden era was over, but the shimmer of its greatness still remains. Sweden had been a nation topping charts for almost a decade; during a time when Downhill was developed into what it has become today.
Team Sweden in the early 90's - Malin and Tommy on the right.
© Ville Nordin
And at home, the Swedish Downhill scene was far from dead. The 90’s had made sure it would be a nation to count with for years to come. A bunch of up-and-coming riders were in the making, the Swedish Downhill Cup was flourishing, grass root races in Stockholm grew bigger than expected, the first High School for Downhill riding started up and the great era of “hucking” was about to commence.
But more about that next time. Stay tuned.
