PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Gunde Svan and Thomas Wassberg wrote Swedish sports history in the 1984 Olympics.
But now Gunde reveals the truth about the fight with his teammate.
– You don’t need to remind me of that, he tells Expressen 40 years later.
They are two of our greatest skiing heroes of all time and together they were unstoppable on the slopes. We are of course talking about the legendaries Gunde Swan and Thomas Wassberg which brought great success to Swedish skiing in the 1980s.
Great Olympic success
The 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo became the big highlight for both blue and yellow skiing kings, where first Svan won Olympic gold in the 15 km, they won Olympic gold together in the relay and then Wassberg salvaged the Olympic gold in the five mile.
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Gunde took the Olympic silver in the five mile and was only seconds away from his national team colleague. But after the finish line he refused to celebrate the Swedish double, instead Svan went straight into the forest and cried in his solitude.
Gunde Svan in tears
It led to an infected quarrel within the national team and the then national team captain Åke Jonsson was not at all happy with 22-year-old Gunde Svan’s reaction.
– I don’t think you should run to the woods and cry because a teammate wins. I think he probably learned from that, because today he is not as selfish as he was before, it seems, Jönsson said in an interview a few years ago.
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40 years later, Svan now reveals the truth about what happened in Sarajevo in 1984 and why he got so angry after the five-mile.
– I… I was beaten. You don’t need to remind me of that!, he says in a new interview with Expressen.
– Partly, I was at the beginning of my career and had the ambition to also win the five-mile. I then felt that I was not given the conditions because I was not allowed to start in the last group because I was the one who had the greatest chance and so on. So it stung.
Wassberg’s answer
Gunde believes that the Swedish national team management did not give him the right conditions to go for the gold. After taking gold in 15 km and bronze in 30 km, Svan demanded to ride in the last starting group, to be able to adapt his ride to the competitors who started before.
But national team captain Jönsson would rather have 27-year-old Wassberg there with his experience from five-mile races and that resulted in a salvaged Olympic gold. But Svan, who was only 4.9 seconds behind, firmly claims that he would have beaten his national team colleague if he had been allowed to start after him.
– Actually, it’s not something to think about because it was the coach who decided that part, Thomas Wassberg said in an old interview.
Svan and Wassberg were able to bury the hatchet and became very good friends in the national team. Both have been extremely important to each other’s successful careers and to this day they are in close contact and see each other often.
– Yes, last summer. He dares to come back to “Fortet” (the TV program) several times. Although I tormented him years before, he comes again, sometimes anyway, haha. No, we have a fantastically good relationship, says Gunde in an interview with Sportbibeln.
Who is your favorite rider of Gunde Svan and Thomas Wassberg? Share the article and have your say!
READ MORE: Gunde Svan looks back on his incredible skiing career – the icon regrets it to this day: “Not so smart”
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