World Cup gold in curling goes to Sweden for thrillers.

Sweden defeated Canada in the World Cup final by 8-6. What we have achieved in recent years feels fantastic, says Niklas Edin. It was turned into a real shaker on the ice in Las Vegas in the USA. Before the tenth and decisive round, it was completely even 6-6, with Sweden with the important last stone.

When Canada failed with its last stone, two Swedish stones were closest, and the victory thus became Swedish. The match was very tough. It was a very difficult condition to play on. So I am very happy that we were able to fight as hard as we could, says Niklas Edin in the victory interview.

The opening was not the best for Sweden’s team Niklas Edin. Canada started the match with the hammer, and took the first point but then managed to steal two points from Sweden in the second.

“Hard Work”

However, Sweden managed to come back, first with a second, and then it was Sweden’s turn to steal a point, which meant equalized to 3-3 after the fourth round. After that, the teams took turns mostly to take their respective points to the final round. Sweden played defensively there, and Canada did not manage to put any real pressure.

Team Edin has thus taken four straight World Cup golds, a suite that began in Las Vegas in 2018. The team is also the first to win Olympic gold and World Cup gold in the same year. We have done very special things in recent years, it feels fantastic what we have achieved, says Edin and continues:

It has happened through hard work and talking about what we want to do out there, how we want to perform, keeping all focus on what we can improve, and putting all the negative aside. I think this match is a perfect example of that and that is the key to success in recent years.

Several Mistakes

Both teams made mistakes in the final, which Canadian skipper Brad Gushue explains with a lack of ice quality. I’m sure Niklas certainly agrees, it was the worst ice we have ever played on. As a Canadian who has to work hard to get here, it is quite disappointing to play on such bad ice, he says.

Nevertheless, he says that team Edin is a worthy winner, and congratulates the team on a fantastic year. They deserved to win, they missed fewer shots than we did, he says.