Niklas Edin takes a look at DN photographer Jonas Lindkvist’s telling image from the award ceremony after the Olympic curling tournament in Pyeongchang 2018. He slowly shakes his head and states:
– It is a picture that says quite a lot.
It was the gold medal he had longed for for so long.
But it hangs around the neck of the American final opponent John Shuster instead.
Even if we were to win an Olympic gold, I will probably always feel that I could have had two.
Some stones in a 13-year career as a full-time curling player lives on forever. As that American in the third round of the Olympic final that Edin, at the lead 2-0, saw early on failed, but it was unfortunately so unlikely to fail that it hit a guard, became completely perfect, meant two American points, they got Swedish favorites out of balance and cost them the Olympic gold.
– After the match, I was told that we had won 45 of 46 matches when we had the lead with 2-0 after two rounds. It did not make the whole thing easier to digest, says Edin.
Nor that John Shuster’s American team after four losses in the first six Olympic matches was calculated, but came back and got everything right and also had a portion of flax in the final. It was a new “Miracle on ice”, a sequel to the American Olympic triumph in ice hockey in 1980.
– It is not possible to be wrong about which medal Niklas Edin and his teammate Oskar Eriksson would have preferred to have at the Olympics in Pyeongchang 2018, but the gold ended up around the American John Shuster’s neck.
Photo: Jonas Lindkvist
Niklas Edin settles down in an armchair in Håkon’s hall in Lillehammer. An Olympics has also been arranged here. It’s halfway into the European Championship tournament and one of the world’s most decorated curling players, with five World Cup golds and seven European Championship triumphs, is fully focused on salvaging his eighth.
But thoughts are increasingly going to Beijing and the Olympics, which will be the fourth for the farmer’s son from Sidensjö outside Örnsköldsvik. The results curve points straight up. He notes that fourth place in Vancouver could very well have been a bronze and that millimeters separated his team from the final in Sochi. And so it was that loss almost four years ago.
– I probably have not come across it yet. And even if we were to win an Olympic gold, I will probably always feel that I could have had two. That’s just the way it is. At the same time, it must be said that we have won many even finals. Our result in the European Championships is improbably good, says Edin.
No, the gold loss in South Korea did not make Edin and his teammates Oskar Eriksson, Christoffer Sundgren and Rasmus Wranå (reserves Henrik Leek and Daniel Magnusson) to despair. On the contrary. The team has continued to develop and with five World Cup titles, three of which in a row, Edin is unique.
– Winning an Olympic tournament can be a bit of a coincidence if you have a really good week, but five World Cup golds can never be a coincidence. At the same time, an Olympic gold is something very special and that is the title I miss, says the curling king, who grew up in a hockey-crazy area and with Peter Forsberg as a youth idol.
– Niklas Edin trains more fitness training than curling technique today – this is how the sport has developed.
Foto: Javad Parsa/TT
Men ice hockey was not among the five sports he practiced in organized form as a young man. There was orienteering, football, tennis, table tennis and cross-country running. He first started curling when he was 14 years old. The television broadcasts from the Nagano Olympics in 1998, when curling debuted as an official Olympic sport, got him hooked.
At the same time, he was struck by how underdeveloped the sport was when it came to the physical. Edin’s new thoughts on the sport have contributed to the curling players taking over the gym and now have an impressive width over their shoulders.
– Today I train 70 percent physique and 30 percent curling, says Edin and is sure that curling will follow in the footsteps of, for example, golf and tennis and that the players of the future will be even bigger and stronger.
Sweeping with the highest frequency requires strength and condition. The one who sweeps best has the most opportunity to control the stones.
There must be something fundamentally wrong when there is no prize money for championships in an Olympic sport.
The clock is ticking, 36 years is not the age for a curling player, but after four disc herniation operations and one in the ankle this spring, the fitness training is not as easy as before.
The thoughts of what happens after the active career come from time to time. One of the world’s best curling players of all time has not become rich in his sport. The European Championship week in Norway means in practice that he goes back financially, even if the expenses on site are covered by the Swedish Curling Association and the Swedish Olympic Committee and there is a bonus for a medal. The rent for the two-room apartment at home in Karlstad must still be paid.
– Those who are officials here at the European Championships have paid, but not us players. There must be something fundamentally wrong when there is no prize money for championships in an Olympic sport. I’ve always wondered where the money goes? says Edin.
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– image 1 of 2 Photo: Joel Marklund / Bildbyrån
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– image 2 of 2 Photo: Carl Sandin / Bildbyrån
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The prize money on proffstouren makes the business go around, but the pandemic has canceled competitions and Niklas Edin has continued to cycle at home in Karlstad instead of getting a car.
Should he fulfill his dream and take Olympic gold, he is not sure he will continue.
– Honestly, if I quit today, I know that tomorrow I would get a lot of coaching offers where I would earn five times as much as I do as a player, says Edin.
In the next breath, he announces that curling is the most fun he knows and he is fascinated by the list of suite of European Championship medals that DN presents.
– I knew it was long, but not so long. It is quite fantastic that there has been a medal in every single championship, he says and wonders which sport can boast of a similar suite.
The regrowth on the men’s side is not as good as among the ladies. There are many who want Niklas, regardless of what happens in Beijing, to continue investing in Milan / Cortina 2026.
It was to be his fifth Olympics. As many as John Shuster come up to in Beijing. The American finished Olympic earlier this week.
Think about getting a chance for revenge.
What if Shuster gets a glimpse of Edin’s medal this time?
– Swedish cheers when Sweden won European Championship gold in 2019. Sweden has a unique suite of European Championship medals.
Photo: Jonas Ekströmer / TT