On Thursday, Sweden's junior team landed back on Swedish soil after their gold-medal win in Minnesota.
It was Sweden's first World Junior Championship (WJC) gold in 14 years and the biggest blue-and-yellow hockey success since Tre Kronor's World Championship gold in 2018.
The years since the World Championship gold in Copenhagen have been marked by uncertainty for Swedish ice hockey and a lack of golds at the senior and top junior levels.
The Swedish model has been questioned.
“Believe in what we do”
American Mike Helber - who has lived in Sweden since 1992 - believes those question marks can be replaced by exclamation marks.
We Swedes are very good at questioning our models. Now we know that it works. Of course we should question things and make them better. We should not be cocky in the wrong way, but we must believe in what we do.
This is proof that a small country of 10–11 million people can compete with the USA, which is ten times larger, and with Canada, which is five times larger, says Helber, strategic sports director since the fall of 2024 with the mission of making Swedish ice hockey the best in the world.
The strong team cohesion at the WJC, which was highlighted by several players, is something that could also be a success factor at the Olympics.
“Incredibly good job”
Tre Kronor have little time together before the Olympics, but most of the team played together in the Four Nations last winter and several players have been at recent World Championships.
Sweden is extremely good at this and Swedish players are humble. From what I've heard about, for example, Gabriel Landeskog - that he is a fantastic leader... I don't know him at all, but there are small, small things, and I think that can be decisive. I saw Jack Berglund in the WJC, who did an incredibly good job as team captain, says Helber.
When asked what the WJC gold means for Swedish ice hockey, he highlights the interest, but above all the sports high schools around the country.
"The sports high schools in Sweden are unique in the world in the way they create training time during the day for young people. We will protect that one hundred percent," says Helber.
Mike Helber did not go home to Sweden with the team, but will instead travel to the Women's U18 World Championships, which start on Sunday in Nova Scotia, Canada.
The hopes?
I hope we can compete with really all countries. Canada and the USA are the best, but we are currently aiming to be the best in Europe in everything we do. It's from our U18 girls all the way up to Damkronorna. I hope we can show that here, he says.
