Sweden, Niklas Edin maintain world curling dominance by winning 8th championship
Sweden the victors as Ogden-hosted worlds conclude
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- Sweden’s Rasmus Wranna celebrates after defeating Canada at the 2026 World Men’s Curling Championship at the Weber County Ice Sheet in Ogden on Saturday, April 4, 2026.
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- Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson, left, walks alongside as Rasmus Wranna, right, sweeps the curling stone during a game against Canada at the 2026 World Men’s Curling Championship at the Weber County Ice Sheet in Ogden on Saturday, April 4, 2026.
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- Team Sweden walks out for the medal ceremony at the 2026 World Men’s Curling Championship at the Weber County Ice Sheet in Ogden on Saturday, April 4, 2026.
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- Canada’s Colton Lott, left, and Ryan Harnden, right, sweep the curling stone during a game against Sweden at the 2026 World Men’s Curling Championship at the Weber County Ice Sheet in Ogden on Saturday, April 4, 2026.
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- Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson prepares to deliver the curling stone during a game against Canada at the 2026 World Men’s Curling Championship at the Weber County Ice Sheet in Ogden on Saturday, April 4, 2026.
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- Canada’s E.J. Harnden looks on during a game against Sweden at the 2026 World Men’s Curling Championship at the Weber County Ice Sheet in Ogden on Saturday, April 4, 2026.
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- Swedne’s Christoffer Sundgren looks on during a game against Canada at the 2026 World Men’s Curling Championship at the Weber County Ice Sheet in Ogden on Saturday, April 4, 2026.
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- Canada’s Colton Lott delivers the curling stone during a game against Sweden at the 2026 World Men’s Curling Championship at the Weber County Ice Sheet in Ogden on Saturday, April 4, 2026.
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- Sweden’s Niklas Edin delivers the curling stone during a game against Canada at the 2026 World Men’s Curling Championship at the Weber County Ice Sheet in Ogden on Saturday, April 4, 2026.
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- Fans cheer on Sweden during a game against Canada at the 2026 World Men’s Curling Championship at the Weber County Ice Sheet in Ogden on Saturday, April 4, 2026.
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- Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson, left, walks alongside as Rasmus Wranna, right, sweeps the curling stone during a game against Canada at the 2026 World Men’s Curling Championship at the Weber County Ice Sheet in Ogden on Saturday, April 4, 2026.
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- Team Sweden walks out for the medal ceremony at the 2026 World Men’s Curling Championship at the Weber County Ice Sheet in Ogden on Saturday, April 4, 2026.
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- The 2026 World Men’s Curling Championship trophy rests on a table surrounded by cheese at the Weber County Ice Sheet in Ogden on Saturday, April 4, 2026.
OGDEN — There were a lot of negative thoughts after Sweden and skip Niklas Edin finished ninth out of 10 men’s teams at the 2026 Milan Games back in February.
“I think we had kind of a monkey on our backs going into this week,” Edin, the 2022 Olympic gold medalist, said. “We had to kind of prove to ourselves that we can still curl at a high level.”
Edin and Sweden reasserted themselves as the kings of the curling world after defeating Canada 9-6 in the gold-medal game Saturday in the 2026 World Men’s Curling Championship at the Weber County Ice Sheet.
It is Edin and Sweden’s eighth world men’s championship in 13 years. The victory extends Edin and Swedish third Oskar Eriksson’s record of winningest curlers at men’s worlds. Teammates Christoffer Sundgren and Rasmus Wranå are right behind with seven and six gold medals, respectively.
The most anyone else has is four.
Ahead of the nine-day tournament, Edin said his team worked to get into a good mindset.
“We kind of tried to refocus and practice pretty hard and did a few changes here and there and we came in really motivated,” Edin said.
Aside from a tough day Tuesday, where Sweden dropped two games to Canada and Switzerland, Sweden finished the 12-game round robin in first place with a 10-2 record. In the semifinal, they defeated the United States 8-6 to reach the gold medal game.
In Saturday’s gold-medal game against Canada, Edin said it was important to stay in the driver’s seat throughout the game.
“The key was kind of to stay ahead against a team like this,” he said. “They’re really good at defending a lead and so are we.”
Starting the championship game with the hammer, Edin said his team wanted to score 2 early. That way, the Canadians would need to score just to keep pace.
In his postgame interview, Canadian skip Matt Dunstone acknowledged that the Swedes had an answer for everything the Canadians threw at them.
“We couldn’t get much going against a team that’s making every shot,” Dunstone said. “They showed today why they are eight-time world champions.”
The first end set the tone for the rest of the game. Facing two Canadian yellow rocks with his first stone, Edin opted to draw to the top four-foot ring to sit shot buried under a guard.
Dunstone tried to tap the Swedish shot stone back, but was only able to push it to be second shot after Dunstone’s shooter rolled to sit shot on the right eight-foot.
With the hammer, Edin threw a double takeout that included the Canadian-shot rock, leading to a score of 2 for the Swedes.
Asked about his initial draw into the house instead of hitting the two Canadian stones in the rings, Edin said he liked that shot because he prefers establishing his draw weight early and his team would always have a draw to score one if the Canadians were able to tap his shot out.
“For me, it’s an absolute no-brainer,” he said. “I want to draw it in that situation every time.”
Sweden took the lead and never looked back. Edin acknowledged Sweden made a couple mistakes in the second half of the game but continued to maintain their scoring advantage.
Canada and Dunstone, making his first worlds appearance, refused to surrender, drawing within a single point after scoring two in the seventh end to make the game 6-5.
After Sweden scored two in the eighth and Canada responded with a single in the ninth, the Maple Leaf needed to score two in the 10th end to stay alive.
In his first skip rock, Dunstone attempted to draw on top of the Swedish shot stone at the top of the four-foot, which was partially buried. It overcurled and ticked a Swedish front stone before stopping in front of a Canadian stone just next to the Swedish shot rock.
After Edin took out one of the Canadian rocks, Dunstone attempted to run his rock in the top eight-foot into the Swedish shot stone but he missed, allowing the Swedes to score 1 and secure the gold medal.
Despite the loss, Dunstone said he was proud of his team’s phenomenal performance during the week. Canada rattled off 10 straight wins including playoff victories against Italy and Scotland.
“We pushed hard to get to this event for a while now,” he said. “The experience was everything and more and proud of the way we carried ourselves and, broader, the results we put together.”
Dunstone hopes to return to the world stage soon. Next year’s team will be without second E.J. Harnden, who previously announced his retirement from competitive curling after this season.
For Edin and his team, Edin said it felt amazing and unreal to have claimed eight world championships. After winning the first couple of titles, he said the team felt it was possible to set the record for most world curling titles. Thirteen years after winning the first championship, Edin said mounting challenges included younger teams playing well, the increasing importance of sweeping and a Swedish team that may have reached its peak.
“We just have to keep kind of never missing, I guess,” Edin said. “As long as we do that, we still have a chance but it feels like it’s getting tougher out there.”
Medals and more
Following the gold-medal game, the three medalists — Sweden gold, Canada silver and Italy bronze — were honored.
In addition to every team member and coach receiving a medal, they received a miniature curling stone, a large metal belt buckle from the local committee and a huge slice of cheese from sponsor Le Gruyére AOP.
There is typically no prize money awarded at this event.
Ryan Olson is lead designer for the Daily Herald and Standard-Examiner. He is also a part-time curling instructor for event organizers, the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, but was not involved in the event aside from teaching schoolchildren. Ryan can be reached at rolson@standard.net or on Bluesky at bsky.app/profile/quesoguapo.com.
