The COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating effects both for the global sport community as well as for individual exercisers around the world. Due to a wide range of imposed measurements to prevent the disease, day-to-day physical activities for entire populations are restricted by physical distancing, cancelled tournaments, and closed gyms. Sweden has chosen to apply recommendations instead of restrictions, however, little is known about how individuals in Sweden reason around, and act out their personal sport participation. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to increase knowledge of how sport participation was motivated from a micro perspective during the first wave of COVID-19. The paper is based on a mixed-methods-study with data from a questionnaire (N = 1,141) and material from semi-structured interviews (N =90). The results indicate that respondents who were already active before the pandemic remained active or even increased their activity levels. To investigate this further, the interviews were analyzed with critical discourse analysis to uncover how respondents justified their continued/increased personal sport participation. These could be summarized as (discursive) strategies of perpetuation based on (i) specific contexts, (ii) scientific and (personal) experienced knowledge of covid-19, and (iii) trust in others’ ability to follow recommendations to prevent the spread. Accordingly, this study contributes with new knowledge of how sport participation in Sweden was motivated, and, from a larger perspective, how a pandemic may influence attitudes toward health and exercise in an advanced Western capitalist society.