Edited sentence: , his popularity rose to the skies in Sweden.After the first race he was just number 22, but still managed to win totally after the second race.As he strongly disliked the commotion and excitement, his victory caused, and expressed this by saying "It just to race", he gained a unique popularity.As many of the slalom and gigant-slalom competitions were aired on working hours, but as especially the second races just took some 15-20 minutes, schools, offices and factories simply took a brief break in order to watch Stenmark on the TV.. By time Swedish commentator Sven "Plex" Pettersson learned to know Stenmark and managed to make him less hostile to the media.But during his active years, Stenmark was a man of few words.He went home like no one before or after him, in the North, in Stockholm and in the South.Not just as a sportsman, but as a person.Stenmark got a huge medial and homey breakthrough in entire Sweden in December 1974, through his amazing victory at Italian Madonna di Campiglio slalom World Cup competition.initially against his wishes, he became a huge celebrity of a rare kind