PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Thomas Wassberg and Gunde Svan are two of Sweden’s foremost sportsmen of all time.
By many, Svan was described as a perfectionist, while Wassberg was more the opposite during his skiing career.
But how is it, really?
During the 1980s and early 1990s, the ski tracks were dominated by Thomas Wassberg and Gunde Swan. Together they collected a total of 18 gold medals from the WC and Olympics during those years, of which three of these were salvaged via relay victories where both participated in the Swedish team.
Each others opposites
Off the track, the two riders were portrayed as very different. There, Gunde Svan was the one who was seen and heard, while Thomas Wassberg was the more withdrawn and silent of the two. Svan was the perfectionist who took his time when he showered, weighed his rods and left nothing to chance.
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Wassberg was described differently. He was the skater who didn’t care much about details, and who at the same time felt no fear of experimenting and trying new things.
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Wassberg’s answer
But there are other approaches to how it actually was. The Norwegian skiing icon and the Swedes’ great rival Oddvar Brå describes it in a different way.
“You could get the impression of a person who didn’t take things too seriously, who was indifferent to cross-country skiing and let chance prevail. It didn’t fit. No other Swede, not even Gunde Svan, was as perfectionist as Wassberg”, he writes in his book “Et skiløperliv”.
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Thomas Wassberg himself, however, is somewhat questioning the Norwegian’s claim.
– I don’t know what he bases it on, he has previously said according to Expressen.
“Wassberg tested poles and boots, and moved the bindings on the skis. He tested the tension curve and felt familiar with most things that can affect during a ski race,” writes Oddvar Brå further in his book.
But Wassberg firmly asserts that it was Gunde Svan who was the more perfectionist of the two.
– Yes, I think so. Gunde was more of a perfectionist, but I was also a bit careful sometimes, he says.
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