Edin skips Sweden to gold

BEIJING Five-time world champion. Olympic bronze medallist. Olympic silver medallist.

And now, finally, Niklas Edin of Sweden has claimed the only major title missing from a career in which he’s established himself as the most decorated curling skip ever.

Four years after losing in the final to American upstart John Shuster in Pyeongchang, Edin led Sweden to the gold medal on Saturday, beating Britain 5-4 in the first extra-end men’s final in Olympic history.

“It feels so crazy, I almost had to ask someone before I came here: We have won, right?” said Edin, who in four trips to the Winter Games has finished — in order — fourth, third, second and first.

“God, it’s nice. It’s obviously been an incredibly long journey with pretty disappointing defeats,” he said. “It’s been many nice years and a lot of success, and to get this Olympic gold medal now is an extra tick.”

With the podium already set up, and Canada standing by to collect the bronze won Friday by ending the Americans’ hopes of repeating, Edin took advantage of the lastrock advantage in the first tiebreaker end and put his penultimate stone into the centre of the target area.

When British skip Bruce Mouat failed to knock it out on a ricochet, the Swedes had clinched it. They paused — it’s not polite to celebrate an opponent’s miss — and then let out a yell.

Alternate Daniel Magnusson and the coaching staff hurried down to the ice to join Edin and teammates Oskar Eriksson, Rasmus Wrana and Christoffer Sundgren in the celebration.

Eriksson, who won bronze in mixed doubles, is the first person ever to win two curling medals at one Olympics. The Swedish vice skip has four Olympic medals — the only curler in history with more than Edin.

The British took silver — their first medal of the Beijing Games, but not the gold that would have been the first for the sport’s homeland since curling returned to the Olympic program in 2002. Britain will have another chance against Japan on Sunday in the women’s final.