Two days before his Olympic debut, it sounded like things had come undone for Edvin Anger. The Swedish medal hopeful in cross-country said he was starting to see the light after a tough winter, and that in recent weeks "everything had gone in the right direction."
After the collapse in the men's relay, in which Sweden finished last, the 23-year-old admits that it wasn't entirely true.
But it's clear that you have to believe in it, Anger says.
Has it felt like everything is going to hell?
There was some hope after Goms. But it's clear those were false hopes.
Breaking out of a disadvantage
Edvin Anger came third in the classic sprint in Goms, Switzerland, in the last World Cup competition before the Olympics. But once in Italy, nothing "went right".
Anger finished 37th in the opening skiathlon after an early fall. He made it to the quarterfinals in the individual sprint. He was the worst-placed Swede, 42nd, in the 10-kilometre freestyle. And then the fiasco in the men's relay on top of that.
Nevertheless, he has been selected for, and is ready to run in, Wednesday's sprint relay together with Johan Häggström.
It's hard to say how bad I am. But the only thing I've been able to do this year is ski reasonably well in the sprint, but it hasn't worked out over the distance, Anger says.
While the Swedish women's team is the favorite for Olympic gold in the sprint relay – Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist took silver and bronze respectively in the individual sprint – the blue-yellow men's team is not.
Can't get my pulse up.
Edvin Anger is exaggerating, of course, but still says:
We don't have high expectations for ourselves. But if we come second to last, that's good, right? It can't get any worse, I don't think so anyway.
The 23-year-old has had trouble performing at his best in competition all winter, not getting his heart rate up high enough. This is especially frustrating because he was feeling better than ever before heading into the season.
When I'm in shape and everything works, I'm not shaky. Then I'm very stable and have a high minimum level. But now I'm ten steps below my minimum level and can't get out. It's like the handbrake is on all the time.
Regardless of how things go during the remainder of the Olympics, he intends to get to the bottom of the problems after the season.
My job is to ski fast and now I'm not doing that. So then I have to do the work to get back.
