One day in 2018, Johanna Heldin’s cell phone rang on the way home from studying at the hospital in Uppsala. It was Anna Hasselborg who wondered if she wanted a spot on the curling team that had won Olympic gold in South Korea a few months earlier.
An offer that Heldin couldn’t refuse and this year she won her first championship at the European Championships in Estonia. Above all, she wanted to participate to see and learn.
– But we had a gastrointestinal problem in the team and I had to play the first three games. “It was a little nervous, but once the first game started it felt good,” she says.
In 2022, she was a reserve when Team Hasselborg won Olympic bronze in Beijing.
The heroine got hers In 2024 I acquired my license to practice medicine, but there were still no hours of service in this profession. Instead, she is a full-time professional curling player, although she doesn’t play as many stones as the others on Team Hasselborg.
As a backup, Heroine should be ready to step in, but that’s not her only function.
From her place in the stands, she keeps statistics on every stone played by her team, as well as their opponents.
During a championship, their work continues when the day’s games are over.
– In the evening you have the opportunity to test the ice on the course where you will play the next day, so then I test the eight stones that we will play with. Some stones can become shorter or longer even if you play them the same way, and it’s important to have that information, says Heldin, adding that there can be quite late nights and an early climb the next day.
Does that sound like an important task?
– Yes, I would say that. The matches are important from the first stone and when I found out that a stone goes two meters longer, you don’t want it because Anna (Hasselborg) plays the last stone in the round, says Heldin, explaining that the stones are numbered 1-8 and players are free to choose which two they want to play in each round.
Do you feel like you’re part of the team even when you’re not playing?
– Yes, I do and I think that my role is important from several perspectives, firstly because you contribute with facts, but also because as the fifth player in a rather small team you contribute to the group dynamic with additional energy. For us it’s also the case that I train with the team during everyday training and I know that that means a lot to the girls.
Heldin played other sports for a long time and only started curling at the age of 15, when a new hall was built at home in Uppsala. She played with several different teams until her cell phone rang on this day in 2018.
During the last The two years were entirely focused on the Olympics and she traveled with the team to all competitions, including those held in North America.
To get playing time, she played some competitions with the young Moa Dryburgh team, which took silver at the 2022 Junior World Championships.
When Lag Hasselborg became European champions in Finland before Christmas, Heldin had to play two games, which was planned in advance because they wanted to be well prepared for the Olympic Games.
However, it is planned that she will not play any games in Cortina.
“But you never know and I would be lying if I said I didn’t dream of playing in an Olympic Games,” says Heldin.
In the men’s Olympic team, the reserve is called Simon Olofsson. He tells DN that he is not expected to play in advance, but like Heroin, he is prepared.
Read more:
Doldisen in Lag Edin: “We know each other almost too well”
Competing in his second Olympic Games on home soil: “A privilege”
