The centenary of the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm included an array of diverse events. By the use of Maurice Halbwachs' concept of 'collective memory,' this essay takes a critical look at a few of the major events and official accounts pertaining to the commemorations of 2012. Methods used are ethnographic observations, at events, and qualitative analyses of texts, videos and photographs from the official records on events. A number of recurring and salient tropes used during the centenary resulted in an overall merry picture of the 1912 Olympics. Investigations on collective memory in Sweden usually tend to focus on party politics, especially the era of the hegemonic Swedish Social-Democrats. According to these studies the influence of sports seems negligible. In this study it is argued that the collective memory of major sports events, like the 1912 Olympics, in Sweden work as influential mental structures that can both confirm and challenge conventional Swedish meta-narratives.