Lidingoeloppet

Story

Lidingöloppet is an annual cross country running competition held in Lidingö, Sweden. The 30 km run has about 15,000 participants per year and the shorter races several thousands, making it the largest cross-country event in the world. It is held the last weekend of September each year.The initiative to arrange Lidingöloppet came from Karl Axel Karlberg and Sven Gärderud but the original idea to have a large competition for the average jogger comparable with Vasaloppet for cross country skiers, came from the sports magazine journalist Sven Lindhagen. In the first competition 1965, the number of participants was 644. The number of competitors grew rapidly as well as professional runners and has during the last years stabilized around 30-35,000 participants. In the 2008 competition the number of participants was 34,475. It is a tradition that long distance runners studying at Bosön sports training and education center participate at Lidingö.