Zero medals at the Olympics in Italy had consequences for the Swedish men's ski team. Men's coach Anders Högberg left and, after criticism from skiers, national team manager Anders Byström also left.
Egil Kristiansen was recruited as the new men's coach and the new national team manager was former national team skier Niklas Jonsson.
Edvin Anger, who was clear that he wanted to see changes on the management side, views the changes positively.
It feels great, it's a different way of looking at training that I believe will yield results, he says.
900 training hours
Under the new leadership, there will be more training.
"Everyone is training more than we've ever done. I don't think anyone will get below 900 training hours this year," says Anger.
What do you think you will get out of a larger amount of training?
We haven't had that high a minimum level, you get that with more hours in the body. We probably need to be up there. It will increase the load on our bodies, it requires more from us athletes when it comes to taking care of rest, nutrition and so on. But so far I feel that this is the right way to go.
Egil Kristiansen has brought the training method with him from Norway, where he has led the Norwegian women's cross-country skiing team and the Norwegian national biathlon team.
We are going to lay a very good foundation this summer and a bit into September where we do a lot of threshold training. From what I have heard, threshold training in Sweden has been harder than I think it should be. We have taken small steps there, you can train a lot if you do it the right way, says Kristiansen.
“Not talking about last season”
Even though the riders are coming off a bad season, Kristiansen hasn't had to put much effort into building their confidence.
We don't talk much about last season. We've made some changes, you can't continue with something that hasn't worked. I've brought some things with me from Norway, where things have gone pretty well.
Despite everything, the new national team manager Niklas Jonsson has a positive view of the Swedish men's national team.
It's a young team, they're between 22 and 28 years old, no one has reached their peak yet.
Due to the age of the team, he also believes that it is important to look beyond the upcoming season.
We will do everything we can to be as good as possible there. But for this group it is also important to look a little further ahead, towards the Olympics in France for example.
World Cup podiums: 7 (7 bronze)
Best Swede in the overall World Cup: Edvin Anger, 13th place.
Best Swede in the distance cup: Gustaf Berglund, 20th.
Best Swede in the sprint cup: Anton Grahn, 10th.
Medals in the Olympics: 0. Best placement Truls Gisselman, 7th in skiathlon.
