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.