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SLAM! Sports 2001 in Review A LOOK BACK INTERACTIVE ALSO ON SLAM! 
| Monday, April 9, 2001 Sweden's Lindholm returns to winner's circleWhen Randy Ferbey was unable to qualify for yesterday's final, there must have been a lot of gnashing of teeth at CBC headquarters. Without Canada in the final, this is sure to be a ratings dud. In any event, Sweden's Peter Lindholm re-established himself as one of the top skips in the world with his 5-3 win over Switzerland in a fairly interesting final. "It's unbelievable,'' said Lindholm. "We've worked so hard and now we've achieved it again.'' Lindholm has built an impressive record since winning the 1997 final. He also added silver medals with runner-up performances in 1998 and last year lost the final to winner Greg McAulay of Richmond, B.C. "We've been thinking about this every year,'' Lindholm said about his incredible five-year run. "It's just fabulous. We're working so hard. I don't work in the off-season so I can play. You can't just relax. You have to keep developing yourself. To win this is amazing.'' This week, he won nine of 11 games after finishing first overall with a 7-2 round-robin record and proved to have the best team. Sweden has also won the unofficial countries title as Anette Norberg took a silver in Saturday's women's final, establishing itself as one of the top curling nations on earth. It's the country that has also produced four-time women's world champ Elisabet Gustafson. Lindholm's win was the fourth for Sweden, moving them into a second-place tie with the U.S. Although still far behind Canada's 29 men's titles, it appears the Swedes take their curling seriously. Lindholm is a frequent visitor to Canada, where he hones his skills. "It helps very much because Canadians are so consistent in their game,'' said Lindholm. "We play very good teams and that's the reason we keep going.'' Markus Eggler of Switzerland knew he'd lost to one of curling's greats and one of the handful of European skips to win two titles. "They are the world champions now and they have to be the best right now,'' said Eggler. "He has experience and he's great.'' You can be sure Lindholm will carry his work ethic back to another world championship, where he'll try to tie the European record of three wins held by Norway's Eigil Ramsfjell. |