Peja

As so many of these nights do, this night ends with a curling story.

As I was leaving the cross-country sprint course, I again ran into Swedish curling skip Peter "Peja" Lindholm. The 35-year-old, as I've often mentioned, is a three-time world champion, but I guess there's a difference between winning a world championship and an Olympic gold medal. In Salt Lake City, Peja placed fourth, the only skip to advance to the semifinals without winning a medal. This time, his Olympics ended with a 3-6 record in the round robin, tied with the Germans and ahead only of the winless Kiwis.

He was fired up that the Swedes took two medals in the men's sprint, and he was excited for tonight's hockey game, since he knows most of the guys on the Swedish team. But someone had pebbled his face with sadness, and there were not enough brooms in the world to sweep it away. (Now presenting, the Official Awful Metaphor of these Games.)

Anyhow, Peja was bummed. I asked if it seemed unfair that his world success never translated during the Olympics.

"It's up to ourselves, we didn't play that well," he said. "We have been trying to do this for four years, and we really, really failed. That's a tough feeling. It's because we've been taking this too seriously, like we had a lot more pressure on us than we actually had. It's like a fantasy, the pressure. I was too weak when I was playing. Afterward I realized it was too much pressure. It's like my battery was 55 percent."

Lindholm used to be a project manager for an information systems company, but he's been a full-time curler in recent years. He's not yet sure about retirement; he said he needs to get some distance from this week's events before he can make a decision.

His wife and three children were supposed to come to Turin, but after things began going poorly, Lindholm told them not to bother. He'll go cheer for some more Swedish athletes, and then he'll go home.

"I decided I'm going to feel big when I'm leaving," he said. "Like, 'Ok, I can take this as a man.' I'm still enjoying life and the Olympic Games."

And he was definitely smiling and laughing, and he was carrying a beer, but still, it was like the U.S. lugers all over again. He just seemed so glum. You wanted to say, "Dude, it's just curling, it doesn't really matter, go have some fun." If Peja were in today's medal round, some American pizza parlor owner or British beef farmer would not be, and they would be at some snowboard or cross-country race, drinking a beer and looking sad and talking about failure.

Like one of the Kiwi Curlers said the other day, "Somebody's got to be last and somebody's got to be first. There's no shame."

Now let me try to give away an Asahi Shimbun pin, in which five sushi rolls are arranged to look like the Olympic rings. It's pretty fantastic. So I'm gonna make this challenging.

Sasha Cohen finished fourth in Salt Lake City. She is leading going into Thursday night's free skate. Who was the last female figure skater to win gold at the Winter Olympics after finishing fourth in the previous Olympics? Send your well-researched, footnoted answers here.

By Dan Steinberg |  February 22, 2006; 6:50 PM ET
Previous: Cheerful stuff | Next: If a car blows up in Turin...

Posted by: Natalie | February 22, 2006 09:10 PM

Posted by: Jack Esteve | February 23, 2006 02:08 PM

Name:

Comments: