In an interview with TT, the chairman of the Swedish Ice Hockey Association speaks out for the first time about the Olympic loss and says the association never considered removing national team captain Sam Hallam from the World Cup in Switzerland.
Tre Kronor aimed high, but fell heavily in the quarterfinals against gold-medal-winning USA after extra time in Milan. This after a group stage in which Sweden only came third.
The performance at the Olympics is disappointing for me. I actually went back as late as yesterday in the calendar and looked, and we came seventh overall at the Olympics. So that's the worst result in modern times.
In the weeks that followed the debacle, the federation closed itself off and those responsible hid behind the fact that the Olympic evaluation was underway and therefore did not want to comment.
A mistake, Anders Larsson admits.
We should have at least explained why. There's a lesson to be learned there.
“Not on the agenda”
The website Hockeynews stated that there was criticism from the players of the team management - for example, that the best Swedish NHL scorer Filip Forsberg only received one shift in the Olympic opener against Italy - and that the association considered dropping Sam Hallam from the World Cup in Switzerland. It would have been his last tournament before his contract expires and he is replaced by the returning Rikard Grönborg.
Anders Larsson strongly denies the report about dropping Hallam.
The question of whether Sam Hallam will be a member is decided by our board and it has not been on the agenda there. We have a contract with Hallam until the end of this season, so that question has never been up for discussion at the board.
The evaluation of the Olympics was completed last week together with SOK (the Swedish Olympic Committee).
The players have been given the opportunity to answer a survey, an analysis has been done and of course our national team manager (Anders Lundberg) has interviewed players, not all of them, but several. Both those who played a lot and were influential and those who didn't play that much. It's clear that when you do an analysis of this kind, some information and things that need to be looked at more closely come to light. But nothing that is in any way alarming or that highlights any major cracks or that type of information.
Hoping for revenge
So what needs to change?
I wish there were some easy buttons to press, but I want to believe that the team now at the World Championships under Sam Hallam's leadership can really get some kind of revenge. I think about how after Nagano 1998 we clenched our fists and the players went to Zurich, where we are going again this year, and took home the World Championships gold.
The federation admits that Swedish ice hockey needs a success for Tre Kronor's men. And to achieve the euphoria that the men's national football team created by qualifying for the World Cup, only gold counts.
It's a great success for football that is not negative for us, but sport can really, especially in these times, be the necessary glue that unites us and makes us happy and gives us something to look forward to. We are far from where we want and need to be to take these extra steps in popularity, says Larsson.
Facts: Tre Kronor's latest championship
Current world ranking: 7.
Latest championships, Olympics 2026: 7, World Cup 2025: 3, World Cup 2024: 3, World Cup 2023: 6, World Cup 2022: 6, Olympics 2022: 4, World Cup 2021: 9.
Upcoming World Cup: Played in Switzerland (Zurich and Fribourg) May 15-31.
