The rivalry between Gunde Svan and Thomas Wassberg was sometimes brutal.
Once Gunde got tired – and it ended with tears in the forest.
– I gave everything, Svan has said about the incident.
It’s no secret that Gunde Svan and Thomas Wassberg were great rivals during competitions when both were at their best. While there was a lot of friendship on the side of the tracks, and that they both looked up to each other, it was unmistakable that both hated to lose, and it was often between the Swedish duo that the competitions were settled.
“He cried in the forest”
Wassberg was the older of them, the one who took things a little as they came. Gunde Svan was the opposite, the younger and hungrier, the one who never left anything to chance. They are both still considered to be Swedish skiing’s greatest ever. But during the 1984 Olympics, the rivalry was possibly going too far. Gunde Svan had won gold in 15 kilometers, while Wassberg wasn’t even there.
When it was five miles, Svan demanded to ride in the last group, so that he could get times to go, but the national team chose Wassberg instead.
Wassberg, who had the advantage of going in the last group, won gold, with a margin of less than five seconds down to runner-up Gunde Svan. Afterwards, Gunde was so frustrated that he disappeared.
– It was not possible to talk to Gunde that much because he went out to the forest and cried, Åke Jönsson, former national team captain, has said.
– And I didn’t really understand what it was until ErikÖstlund came and told me that Gunde was so pissed because he didn’t get to start in the last starting group. And then he didn’t want to talk to me about anything afterwards… unfortunately.
“I gave it my all”
For Gunde Svan, the frustration lay in not getting appointments.
– I didn’t get any appointments! That thing was wrong from the beginning and I felt that with what I have performed so far I should have been allowed to choose the group, but that is history now, says Svan.
He continues:
– I gave it my all, says Gunde Svan, I couldn’t have gone that much faster, but I could have found out how I was doing and in five miles you can probably pick up four more seconds, even though you think you took everything.
Thomas Wassberg believes that it is not “that important anyway”, to have appointments. Gunde Svan himself does not remember the forest incident.
– I do not know. I sure did. It’s hard to be straight and correct at a time like this. A lot of people thought I would be so happy for my silver, but actually I wasn’t, I was quite disappointed and had a hard time hiding it and it shows in the interviews I did right after. In hindsight it was a good performance, but… I had intended to take it.
No matter what, you can’t complain about the winner’s skull… Gunde Svan and Thomas Wassberg – what legends!
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