ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we argue that the field of elite-level sport in Norway comprises two important dichotomies: first, an ascetic view of elite-level sport versus a more playful attitude, and second, a standardized elite-level system versus a more pluralistic one. The emergence of an elite sports field in Norway can largely explain this structure. The reception of the footballer Erik Mykland’s ‘non-elite’ lifestyle outside the football field in the 1990s acts as an empirical case and a starting point for the discussion. To explain this case, we apply Bourdieu’s ‘feel for the game’ analogy, highlighting the difference between the feel for the game in itself and the feel for the game for itself, and emphasizing morality as an important feature of the elite sports field. Erik Mykland had a feel for the game for itself as a high-class footballer, while not a feel for the game in itself, that is the elite sports field in Norway and its moral connotations. We further argue that this in a way separates Norwegian elite sport from some of the other Nordic countries, and thus that it is not relevant to talk of one Nordic model for elite sport.
