You might say this season has turned out to be the Garden of Edin for Sweden’s men’s curling.
Skip Niklas Edin and his team from Karlstad are the kings of the world, although their coronation at home has been on hold.
The skip, known for his spiked hairdo, and teammates Sebastian Kraupp, Fredrik Lindberg and Viktor Kjall have been on the road like a travelling show. It’s part of a concentrated effort by the Swedish Curling Federation to give them as much international exposure as possible to prepare for next year’s Winter Olympics.
That schedule has had them playing primarily in Canada by choice because that’s where the men’s world championships took place almost two weeks ago in Victoria, B.C. Edin’s team prepped for the worlds at the Victoria Curling Classic, winning the event and the $25,000 victor’s purse.
Now they are in Toronto competing in the $100,000 Players’ Championship at the Mattamy Athletic Centre, which began Tuesday and continues through to Sunday. It’s the final Grand Slam event on the 2012-13 World Curling Tour schedule. Edin’s team has easily had the most grueling schedule of any squad, playing in 12 tournaments in four separate countries, beginning in Switzerland in August. They came into the Players’ fifth in the WCT money rankings with $55,815.
The WCT events helped give the squad valuable competition that contributed to its success. In December, the foursome won the European Curling Championships in their hometown, then followed that up four months later with the win at the worlds, the first time any team had ever accomplished that feat.
“It was a dream come true, of course,” he told sportsnet.ca about the win in the worlds. “It’s not the final dream, but it’s such a huge step along the way. It was something we needed to do to have a fair chance at winning the Olympics, which is our ultimate goal. This is our last event of the season. I won’t step back on the ice until August. We need that break.
“We’ve got a lot of games under our belts this season,” Edin added. “We’ve been in Canada six times in 12 events this season. We’ve gone home in between, but this is our longest-ever stretch away from home. It’s going to be great coming back home as well, seeing all our friends and family. But we’re trying not to focus on that now though because we’ve got a big event here. There’s lots of money on the line and points and we’re trying to finish the season in a good way.”
Edin had great expectations for the worlds last year, only to have them dashed a couple weeks before the tournament because of a flair-up of a chronic bad back that precluded him from playing. Kraupp skipped the team to a bronze medal. Edin had surgery and his back held up well.
“The back is close to 100 per cent healthy,” he said. “I just need to be careful. It’s going to stay there for the rest of my life. I need to be aware of it and be careful about my movements, hold back on my regular training, not do too much or jump and land awkwardly, but other than that it’s fine.”
It was the missed opportunity last year that provided the spark he needed this season.
“It was a huge motivation for me (at this year’s worlds),” he said. “I think we had a good chance last year, but when I got injured two weeks before worlds it changed everything for our team. We needed to switch positions and bring in another alternate. We had a new coach going into that as well. It was really tough for the whole group how to handle that situation. We picked up a medal, which was good for our team, but coming back this season and winning the gold that was huge for us.”
Edin’s win at the world’s was Sweden’s first since 2004, the third championship won by Peja (Peter) Lindholm since 1997. Lindholm is now the head coach of the Swedish men’s team and his support of Edin, despite the back problems, clearly paid off with the victory this year.
Besides the win at the worlds, Edin also received the Colin Campbell Award from his fellow competitors as the most sportsmanlike curler in the tournament. Edin’s easy-going style has made him popular on the WCT. He beat Canada’s Brad Jacobs 8-6 in the final, ending Canada’s run of three consecutive championships. As disappointing as the loss was for Jacobs, playing in only his first time in the tournament, he played well and did not disgrace himself on the world stage. The fact other countries are putting valuable resources into their curling programs has lessened Canada’s dominance.
Although Canada is the overall leader in curling, Sweden is stepping up as major contender. It sits second overall in gold medal victories with six, which is a pittance compared to Canada’s lead with 34, but for this year at least Edin and his team are the kings of the men’s curling world.
Soon they will return home to celebrate their achievement and sit back and relax.
They have earned it.
If they were able to come home with the Players’ Championship, it would be the ultimate triple.