Author of the article:

Ken Warren

Published Apr 06, 2023?????Last updated 8?hours ago?????4 minute read

Team Sweden skip Niklas Edin during draw 15 against team Italy. PHOTO BY MICHAEL BURNS /Curling Canada Olle Moberg is committed to discovering excellence at Sweden’s highly celebrated curling academy way, way up north in Ornkoldsvik, near the Arctic Circle. During the past four years, for eight to ten hours a week, Moberg, 20, has been on the ice, aiming to follow in the footsteps of his idols — famed Swedish skip Niklas Edin and third Oskar Eriksson — who developed their elite games in that same curling environment. So, when Edin delivered what has been widely hailed as the greatest shot in the game’s history Wednesday, Moberg was in awe. Just like the rest of the curling world. “It’s so creative,” said Moberg, who was back attending the world curling championships at Ottawa’s TD Place Thursday with 15 of his curling-mad classmates. “You want to go home and try it yourself to see how difficult it really is. “At first we started laughing because, it’s like, ‘What is this, how can he make this work?’ And then when it got close, we realized, this is really, really close. And then all of a sudden he made it.” In a sport where there has been a tried and true standard way to push the rock down the rink — a slight clockwise or counter-clockwise flick of the wrist, depending on what spin is required to curl the rock — Edin turned convention on its head. Athleticism and physics all tied into one with a magic “spinner” of a shot. Sweden was facing a seemingly impossible situation on his final shot of the 10th end, down 7-5 to Norway. Norway owned the shot rock, closest to the button, and the only Swedish stone in the house was nestled a few inches behind Norway’s stone. Somehow, Sweden needed to score two to tie the game. “Start the car,” TSN’s Russ Howard said, when first asked about what options Edin had. Before Edin let go of the rock, he first spun the handle back towards him and then twisted it rapidly. On its way down the ice, the rock spun 53 times as it cleared a pair of guards and then lightly struck Norway’s rock. In turn, Norway’s rock bounced off the existing Swedish rock and moved several inches further away. The rock that Edin threw also changed direction and slid to the back of house, giving Sweden the two points it needed. When the rocks settled, Howard labelled it as the greatest shot he has ever seen. Comparisons to other sports are difficult, but maybe “The Michigan” in hockey — where players grab the puck on the end of their sticks behind the net and proceed to throw the puck into the net lacrosse style — comes closest to describing how innovative the shot was. A thousand things had to go right along the way, including judging exactly how much more curl a rapidly spinning rock would have as it slid down the sheet. It was such an astounding, never before seen effort, the Norwegian players celebrated along with the Swedes, pumping fists, even with the game suddenly tied 7-7. “We’re such great friends with them,” Norwegian skip Magnus Ramsjfell said Thursday. “When I watched him throw it out like that, I was thinking deep inside, I was hoping he was going to make it because it was such an incredible shot.” Norway went on the win the game 8-7 in an extra end, but when fans left TD Place Wednesday and arrived again on Thursday, “the shot” was still on the tips of tongues.

It wasn’t lost on the other teams here, either.

“Unbelievable,” said Canadian third Mark Nichols. “It’s an amazing shot. You’ve seen Nik and his team try (unique) shots like that in games, but for him to make that at a world championship, it’s certainly one of the best shots I’ve ever seen, if not the best shot I’ve ever seen.” Edin didn’t pull the shot completely out of thin air. When you spend thousands and thousands of hours at a curling rink, nothing is off limits. When he’s not curling, Edin is also famous for the amount of time he spends at pool halls, working on his snooker game. Somewhere in all that came the idea to try the shot amid the intensity and pressure of a world championship. “(Edin) said it a week before we left for Canada, maybe I should start practicing those spinners,” said Eriksson, who has also experimented with a similar type shot in Grand Slam competition. “He said ‘it might be good to be able to throw them if we’re in trouble.’ “I played one when Niklas was injured. But basically you only have to throw them when you’re in deep s—. You try to stay away from them, but if you’ve got nothing else, you may as well try it.” Considering how much air play and attention the shot has received, there’s no doubt that every player at their local curling club wants to give it a whirl. Good luck with those results. “You’re going to see lots of kids go out and try and do that now,” said Nichols. “But Nik is one of the best in the world, not because he can make that shot, but because of all the other shots he can make. This is not going to revolutionize the game. It’s an unbelievable shot, but you’ve got to get really good at all the other ones to be able to make that kind of shot.”