As he prepares for his fifth Olympics, curler Niklas Edin finally has the freedom to savour the experience of competing at the Winter Games rather than being haunted, as he once was, by the pursuit of gold.

Over more than a decade, the Swedish skip climbed the podium step-by-step over four agonising Olympic cycles, finishing fourth at Vancouver 2010, taking bronze in Sochi in 2014 and silver at Pyeongchang 2018.

Then came Beijing almost four years ago, where at last he and his team struck gold and the elusive medal was his, lifting a weight off his shoulders heading into next year's Milano Cortina Olympics.

"In a small sport like curling, at the end of the day it's all about winning the Olympics. If you can do that, you've had a successful career. And if you can't, there's a shadow over

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