Over a hundred years of Swedish Olympic success in wrestling has resulted in 86 medals – 87 if you include Ara Abrahamian’s returned bronze from Beijing 2008 – of which a whopping 28 are gold.
But in Paris this summer, there will be at most one more Swedish wrestling medal – Jonna Malmgren is the only one to have qualified.
It is clear after this weekend’s competition in Istanbul, which was the last chance to qualify.
“I suffer with them”
– I suffer with them. I myself did not qualify for the Olympics last time and thought it was tough. And I know how hard they have trained for this. You train in a group where everyone wants the same thing, and that was to go to the Olympics all together, says the 22-year-old from Hörby.
– At the same time, I have to focus on my planning and continue with my training, even if it feels sad that we can’t do this together.
As a viewer, you are used to seeing many Swedish wrestlers at the Olympics – do you think it is remarkable that there will be only one this time?
– Yes, because we had many potential Olympians, many who had the chance to qualify. But the qualifiers are very tough now that the places have become fewer. It’s really sad that I was good when many were so close.
In the clip above, you can hear more from Jonna Malmgren: “Maybe you need to evaluate how Swedish wrestling is really doing”.