“We know each other almost too well”

When Lag Edin makes his Olympic debut against Italy, Christoffer Sundgren begins his third Olympics as a curler – a sport he didn’t actually want to start. Although his parents were enthusiastic curlers at home in Sveg, he himself preferred another sport than ice hockey – hockey.

But then a classmate took him to the curling hall – and he was hooked.

– What surprised me was that it was so difficult. “It was the challenge that appealed to me,” says the 36-year-old, who recently arrived in the Olympic city of Cortina.

As Niklas Edin When he reorganized his team in 2014, he installed Sundgren as number one, responsible for the first two stones in each round.

Often it is the skipper’s two keystones that decide whether there is a point, but without a good opening everything becomes that much more difficult.

– I would describe my role as a very tactical role that sets the tone for the entire round. If I underperform, we have to chase and it’s difficult to get anything out of it, he says.

Poor performers do it he rarely. Sundgren is one of the best in the world in his position and is an important reason why Niklas Edin’s team comes to the tournament in Cortina as reigning Olympic champions with seven World Cup and eight European Championship gold medals.

The seasons following the Beijing gold were not quite as successful as before, but in December the team showed form in Finland with another European title.

“In a way it feels good that sometimes we have slightly worse times, so we know the difference between a fully motivated team and one that behaves a little indifferent,” says Sundgren, adding that he, Edin, Rasmus Wranå and Oskar Eriksson know each other inside out after more than ten years together.

“We know each other almost too well, if you can,” he says.

Do you ever get mad at each other?

– It happens, otherwise it would be strange. “It depends a little bit on which side you wake up on,” he says, explaining that he enjoys being able to curl full-time.

Sundgren is educated Civil engineer, but doubts he will do so when his active elite career is over. He plans to continue curling.

– At the moment I find curling very interesting and how we can advance the sport in terms of the market. A lot of people watch curling and we’re a much bigger sport than many others here in the Olympics, but somehow they still manage to generate more interest, says Sundgren.

He has plans to develop a website with statistical data, something he says is underdeveloped in curling.

And how long do you think you will play on this team?

– We haven’t really talked about what to do after the Olympics. That will have to wait until afterwards. “I think it would create a very strange feeling if you go to the Olympics and know that someone is withdrawing,” says Sundgren.

Read more:
Competing in his second Olympic Games on home soil: “A privilege”