ABSTRACT
It is appropriate to give an account of the development of sports in Iceland towards professionalism and how achievements of the national teams, in recent years, rest on those developments. The establishment of a successful sports tradition in Iceland did not happen all at once; it has developed in spurts, and to a different degree in different sports at different times. It has also been argued that accessibility to suitable sports facilities and the general quality of such facilities has been another important factor for Iceland’s achievements, especially in team sports. It took foreign influences and expertise to stimulate the Icelandic way of doing things and helped steer Iceland in the direction of more systematic and professional ways of approaching sports. Part of global sport politics, increased funding from the professional sports world has proved to be very important for Icelandic sports in recent years. The increased funding has helped to build better infrastructure, particularly in relation to coaches’ education and the development of sports facilities in Iceland.
