A Tough Year For Sweden?

It struck me glancing at the results last weekend that I feel like Sweden has been having a bit of a sub-par year. Which might seem a little strange, given Johan Olsson’s recent return to form, but hear me out. Certainly, they’ve had some skiers with some great results. But I feel like overall they’ve struggled a bit. When I glanced at a summary of their men’s distance results, it seemed I might be imagining things:

But then when you look at some other categories, you see something different. For instance, men’s sprinting:

That’s a pretty consistent decline across the board. Of course, this comes after a fairly recent resurgence. And the explanation is pretty clear:

Hellner and Modin are simply not having a good time with the sprinting this year.

The Swedish women have had similar problems, beginning with distance events:

and continuing with sprints:

Related posts:

1. <Victims & Nemeses: Sweden Edition
2. <WJC/U23 Assessment: Finland, Germany and Sweden
3. <Sweden’s Men’s Sprinting