Two-time World champion, four-time European champion and Olympic bronze medallist Niklas Edin loves curling; because of that love the 30-year-old curler wants to make sure that others love the sport as well.
That鈥檚 why Edin - as well as second Kristian Lindstrom, lead Christoffer Sundgren and Team Rocque鈥檚 Laura Crocker 鈥� took some time Saturday afternoon to run a curling clinic for Yorkton and area junior curlers. 鈥淭his is something that I like to do and my whole team likes to do it as well and we contribute as much as we can to developing the younger curlers,鈥� said Edin during the curling clinic. 鈥淔ortunately or unfortunately we compete a lot so we don鈥檛 get that much time to do this kind of stuff, but we鈥檝e had these kind of lectures four times now with the Grand Slam of Curling this year.鈥�
Edin says that one of the main reasons he lends his time to assisting the youth in improving their curling skills is because he himself was without a mentor while growing up in Sweden. 鈥淲hen I grew up and started curling I really didn鈥檛 have a trainer or a coach, so I played the first five or six years of my career alone with my team and we tried to figure out stuff by ourselves while watching curling,鈥� mentioned the two-time Olympian. 鈥淚t would have helped if we had someone alongside with us, so it鈥檚 a lot of fun now that when we鈥檙e at this level we can go and help the juniors who are just starting out try to be better.鈥�
As for what they taught the junior curlers, Edin said it wasn鈥檛 all that much. 鈥淭his group, they were all pretty good already and had good coaching,鈥� offered Edin, adding they simply corrected some things they noticed during the mini-games they had the juniors play. 鈥淲e commented on and helped them with some technical stuff and tactical stuff and they were all really eager to learn.
鈥淚t was a lot of fun.鈥�
And while Edin and Co. enjoyed what they were doing, the junior curlers they helped are also enjoyed the experience of learning from some of the world鈥檚 best curlers. 鈥淚t was a great time. It was fun and we learned a lot,鈥� offered junior curler Jon Nagy. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really almost a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn from these kind of curlers and it鈥檒l help us in the future when we鈥檙e playing.鈥�
