"Gliding is a lot of fun", is Anna Hasselborg's first answer when she is asked to describe why curling fascinates her so much.

But that's just the funny version of numerous thoughts on her favorite sport.

Because curling means a lot more to the young Swede than merrily sliding on your knees over the ice after a game piece.

Achim Dreis

sports editor.

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Curling is a mind sport, a strategy game.

It is often called “chess on ice”.

And Anna Hasselborg, 32 years old, 1.72 meters tall, young mother of a two-year-old, is a grandmaster in her field.

The 2018 Olympic champion from Stockholm describes herself as a very analytical person.

"I think a lot.

I'm studying the game.” She did her master's degree long ago: in Pyeongchang 2018 with a final victory at the Olympic Games against the Kim team from South Korea.

At that time, Anna Hasselborg and her teammates were the "party crashers" who abruptly stopped the hosts' triumphant advance.

And they are currently preparing to reach for precious metal: "We are ready to defend our gold medal," said Anna Hasselborg before the Beijing Games.

And then delivered: The Swedes finished the preliminary round with a 7:2 victory in second place behind Switzerland.

They defeated South Korea 8:4 in the last preliminary round game and threw the Olympic silver medalist out of the current competition.

Anna Hasselborg is the skip of the Swedish national team, the woman who thinks out tactics and gives the instructions on where her team-mates should place their stones.

She herself always plays the two final stones;

then when it matters.

Because it is settled in each end, as the rounds are called, after the last throw.

He has to sit in order to refine what has been built up in all the other moves before.

"We are a family"

Of course, the 32-year-old cannot be pinned down to the role of the star.

"You're nobody without a team," she says with determination.

Johanna Heldin, Agnes Knochenhauer, Sofia Mabergs and Sara McManus form "Team Hasselborg" with her, but they are more than a sports team: "We are a family", says Anna.

"We make each other stronger."

And they obviously get along well: the Swedes became junior world champions at a tournament in Switzerland back in 2010 – and three of the team still play together, alongside Anna Hasselborg, Agnes Knochenhauer and Sara McManus.

They fit together "like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle," they say themselves.

Her real family is also addicted to curling: father Mikael was second at the World Championships in 1985 and remembers that Anna was always there when she was very small.

There are photos of her in the family album where she can hardly look over the tile, but is proudly holding a small broom in her hands.

"I was born in the curling ring," she says today, exaggerating just a bit.

Her brother Marcus also played in the national team, and he too was successful: "And I wanted that too," says Anna about her motivation.

She has long been the most successful of the family, and her older brother also knows why: “She sees the game from the tactical side.

She has her nerves under control.

And she's strong when she needs to be strong.” That includes her willpower.

Two years ago, Anna gave birth to a little daughter, and of course this experience tops everything.

But she tries to combine both: "Being a mother and having success as an athlete." Her husband Mathias does everything in his power to support his wife in her ambitions: "She's doing a great job," he says.

Also at Pyeongchang 2018, Team Hasselborg had recorded seven wins and two losses in the preliminary round before advancing to the final after beating Eve Muirhead's Scotland team for Great Britain in the semifinals.

This Friday (1.05 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Olympics, on ARD and on Eurosport) there will be a new edition of the duel between Anna Hasselborg's Swedes and Eve Muirhead's Scots.

"We wanted to be the best version of ourselves," Hasselborg says of her Olympic ambitions.

This succeeded in Pyeongchang.

Not only were they successful, "we also had so much fun," the captain recalls.

"It was the best time of my life." The new edition is to follow in Beijing, but regardless of how it ends, Anna Hasselborg is already certain: "Curling is everything for me," she says.

"Curling is my life."