Sweden Finishes Just a Hundredth Behind Finland: "The Bronze Tastes Sweet"
TRONDHEIM – Calle Halfvarsson fell ill, and his replacement, Oskar Svensson, made an early mistake by choosing the wrong skis during the qualifying round. When the final began, the strap on the ski pole got loose. Despite all this, the Swedish men's team managed to secure a bronze in the sprint relay at the World Ski Championships.
The Swedish men's head coach, Anders Högberg, started the day with the news that Halfvarsson had woken up with cold symptoms. At 7:00 AM, Oskar Svensson was informed that he would take the first leg of the sprint relay.
Things didn’t start well. A wrong ski choice left him well behind in the qualifiers. However, his teammate, Edvin Anger, managed to secure Sweden's place in the final with his qualifying performance.
"I lost my pole right at the start, the strap wasn’t securely fastened, but luckily I managed to catch the pole and get it back on. But I lost a few meters there. So, it was a bit nerve-racking, to be honest," Svensson recalls about the dramatic moment.
Högberg, standing nearby, remembers the tension:
“Then, you think, ‘This is just one of those days where everything goes wrong,’ but it didn’t turn out that way.”
Little by little, both Anger and Svensson worked their way up through the field. Norway, with Erik Valnes and Johannes Høsflot Klæbo claiming their fourth gold in Trondheim, was out of reach. However, behind them, there was a fierce battle for the remaining medals.
Anger had shown he was in good form. How nervous was Oskar Svensson about being thrown into the race last minute?
“It adds extra pressure, you realize you can't mess it up, that I need to send him off in a good position. So, it’s incredibly relieving to manage that," he explains.
On his final leg, Svensson overtook several teams and passed Finland, France, Italy, and the USA, leaving Edvin Anger in a strong position just behind Finland and Italy. Anger used his top speed in the final uphill stretch to catch Federico Pellegrino.
"I knew I couldn’t finish fourth again today. So, I just used that energy and pushed hard," Anger says.
At the finish line, Finland's Lauri Vuorinen crossed just a hundredth of a second ahead of Sweden’s 22-year-old Anger.
“Winning a medal means everything; whether it’s silver or bronze, it doesn’t matter – this bronze tastes really, really good,” says Edvin Anger, reflecting on his first-ever World Championship medal.
It was also the first World Championship medal for both Anger and Svensson, as well as the first for the Swedish men’s team in Trondheim.
"It means everything," Anger adds.
Högberg, visibly proud of his team, sums up the rollercoaster of emotions:
"There was hope and despair throughout the day. It’s tough to step in as a reserve, but Oskar did a fantastic job. We are so proud."
