Zero Olympic medals was the culmination of a largely disastrous season for the Swedish men's cross-country skiers. Now the team hopes medal-hungry blue-and-yellow supporters do not have too high expectations ahead of the home World Championships in Falun.
You can't expect too much, considering what we had last year. We work very hard every day to get better, and I think we will. But the Swedish people can't expect gold and podiums every weekend, that's not possible, says Edvin Anger.
However, Anger hopes that he will be in better form for this year's championships than for the Olympics.
It will be the biggest thing in my career, I will probably never experience it again. The goal is to be in the best shape of my life in February and fight for the medals.
“Don't inflate expectations”
He is supported by the new men's coach Egil Kristiansen.
"It's important not to inflate expectations ahead of Falun. It's unrealistic that we're going to suddenly crush the Norwegians," he says.
But even though he wants to play down expectations, Kristiansen is clear that he still believes the men can win medals at the World Championships.
There are skiers on this team who can achieve very good results in individual races, absolutely.
Depends on the Russia issue
The new national team manager Niclas Jonsson is on the same track.
We definitely have skiers who can take a medal on a good day, but you have to be humble about the fact that we are nowhere near the breadth that Norway has, he says.
Have you set a medal goal for the World Championships?
No, we'll sit down soon and see what's realistic for both the men's and women's teams. But we won eleven medals in Trondheim and ten at the Olympics, so it's clear that we won't be aiming for three medals. But at the same time, getting the distribution we got then is very tough. There are many nations that want to do better this year than before. Of course, it also depends on what happens with the Russia issue, if they are in it will be much more difficult to win many medals.
2001, Lahti: 4 (2 gold, 2 silver).
2003, Val di Fiemme: 6 (2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze).
2005, Oberstdorf: 1 (1 bronze).
2007, Sapporo: 2 (1 silver, 1 bronze).
2009, Liberec: 1 (1 silver).
2011, Oslo: 3 (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze).
2013, Val di Fiemme: 4 (1 gold, 3 silver).
2015, Falun: 3 (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze).
2017, Lahti: 1 (1 bronze).
2019, Seefeld: 0.
2021, Oberstdorf: 0.
2023, Planica: 1 (1 bronze).
2025, Trondheim: 3 (1 silver, 2 bronze).
