Sebastian Samuelsson pushed Sweden out of medal contention in the mixed relay.
Then he was mocked by Norwegian gold medalist Johannes Thingnes Bö.
– It’s karma, he says.
Sweden was in a good position and had a big shot at the medals in the Biathlon World Cup’s opening competition. Sebastian Samuelsson drove Sweden’s last stretch, and had just laid down for his prone shooting. A good round would have given Sweden a super position to win medals, maybe even gold.
Huge flop last round
But it wasn’t even close. Samuelsson had three misses out of five, and also missed all three extra shots, which meant three penalty rounds. Samuelsson normally has an extremely high minimum level, and on television both experts, commentators and coaches were in shock. Nobody understood anything.
Björn Ferry called the whole thing “terrible” and “a meltdown”. Afterwards, Samuelsson said that there must have been something wrong with the rifle, as his mistakes were so gross that it cannot be explained in any other way. Samuelsson was close to tears when he met SVT immediately after the race. But at the same time, there were significantly happier faces in the Norwegian camp.
READ MORE: Sebastian Samuelsson’s first words after the nightmare – and unexpected explanation: “Must be a screw loose”
The mockery of Sebbe
Sebastian Samuelsson and Johannes Thingnes Bö have had a little psychological battle before the championship, and it was Bö who secured the gold for Norway through a solid final round. Then he couldn’t help mocking Samuelsson.
– It was Sebbe who was going to win gold today… I didn’t see him, and I haven’t seen him yet, I don’t know if he’s still out in the penalty round…, he says in SVT.
It is not the first time that they both mock and psych each other out, and now Bö believes that Samuelsson got it right.
– He talks a lot, so maybe this was karma.
Worth adding is that Bö probably did not have information that there might have been a fault with Samuelsson’s weapon when he spoke to SVT.
READ MORE: The Swedish giant critic against Russia – now puts his foot down and says what everyone thinks about Russian skiers