Anna Ellinor H*elborg (born 5 May 1989) is a Swedish curler who is the 2018 Olympic Champion in women's curling, and a former World Junior Champion skip. In November 2019, she became the first curler in history to reign as the simultaneous holder of the European Curling Championship gold medal, the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship gold medal, and the Olympic gold medal.

Contents

• 1 Career
  • 1.1 Junior career
  • 1.2 Women's career
• 2 Personal life
• 3 Grand Slam record
  • 3.1 Former events
• 4 Teams
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Career

Junior career

H*elborg made her international debut at the 2008 European Mixed Curling Championship, playing third for Niklas Edin, winning a bronze medal. In 2009, H*elborg played in her first World Juniors, skipping Sweden to a 6th-place finish. At the 2010 World Junior Curling Championships, H*elborg upset the Canadian rink skipped by Rachel Homan in the final by a score of 8–3.

H*elborg skipped Sweden at the 2013 Winter Universiade, leading her country to a 5th-place finish.

Women's career

H*elborg graduated from the junior level in 2010, beginning to skip a team on the World Curling Tour. In her first season after juniors, her team won the 2011 Glynhill Ladies International.

H*elborg skipped the Swedish national women's team at the 2014 European Curling Championships, leading her team to a 5th-place finish. This would be her first European Championship appearance.

In 2015, H*elborg's current team of Sara McM*, Agnes Knochenhauer and Sofia Mabergs came together. The following season, the team won two Tour *les, the 2016 Oakville OCT Fall Cl*ic, and the 2016 Stockholm Ladies Curling Cup. That season, the team also represented Sweden at the 2016 European Curling Championships, where they won a silver medal, losing to Russia's Viktoriia Moiseeva in the final. Later in the season, they represented Sweden at the 2017 World Women's Curling Championship, where they placed fourth.

H*elborg's rink was selected to represent Sweden at the 2018 Winter Olympics. In the lead up to the games, the team took home another silver medal at the European Championships, losing in the final of the 2017 European Curling Championships to Eve Muirhead's team from Scotland. A few months later at the Olympics, H*elborg led her team to a 7-2 round robin record, in second place behind the host Korean "garlic girls" team, skipped by Kim Eun-jung. In the playoffs, H*elborg knocked off the Muirhead-led British rink in the semi-final, before beating South Korea in the final to win the gold medal. A month later, H*elborg skipped the Swedish national women's team at the 2018 World Women's Curling Championship, falling to the Canadian team in an extra end in the final, to take home the silver medal.

H*elborg won her first Grand Slam in the lone women's Elite 10 in 2018, going undefeated through the tournament and defeating Silvana Tirinzoni in the final. A few weeks later, she won her second career Stockholm Ladies Cup. Then, at the 2018 Masters, H*elborg won her second straight slam, defeating Rachel Homan in the final. The following month, H*elborg and her team took home the gold medal at the 2018 European Curling Championships, her first gold medal at the Euros, defeating Swtizerland's Tirinzoni rink in the final. H*elborg lost the world final once again at the 2019 World Women's Curling Championship, this time losing to Tirinzoni. She was however victorious at the 2019 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship with partner Oskar Eriksson. The team secured the number one spot in the playoffs en route to defeating the Canadian pair of Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant in the final.

Team H*elborg began the 2019–20 season at the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard where they defeated Anna Sidorova in the final. They missed the playoffs at the 2019 AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Cl*ic after going 2–2 in the round robin. They defended their *le at the 2019 European Curling Championships. Down 4–3 in the tenth end of the final to Scotland's Eve Muirhead, H*elborg made a runback on her final stone to score two and win. In Grand Slam play, Team H*elborg were the most dominant team on the women's side, winning them the 2019–20 Pinty's Cup. They lost in the semifinal of the Masters to Tracy Fleury before winning the next three Slams, the Tour Challenge, National and the Canadian Open. The team was set to represent Sweden at the 2020 World Women's Curling Championship before the event got cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Canadian Open would be their last event of the season as both the Players' Championship and the Champions Cup Grand Slam events were also cancelled due to the pandemic.

H*elborg and her team won the first event of the abbreviated 2020–21 season, defeating Raphaela Keiser in the final of the 2020 Women's Masters Basel. Next, they played Team Wranå in the Sweden National Challenge in December 2020, where they lost 17–12. A "curling bubble" was set up in Calgary, Canada in the spring, which hosted a number of events, including the 2021 World Women's Curling Championship and two slams. Team H*elborg competed in both the 2021 Champions Cup and the 2021 Players' Championship, finishing 0–4 at the Champions Cup and reaching the semifinals of the Players'. The next week, the team represented Sweden at the World's. Through the round robin, H*elborg led her team to a 10–3 record, qualifying them for the playoffs. After defeating Canada's Kerri Einarson 8–3 in the qualification round, they lost a narrow 8–7 semifinal against the RCF, skipped by Alina Kovaleva. This put them in the bronze medal game, which they lost 9–5 to the Tabitha Peterson rink of the United States. On 4 June 2021 H*elborg and her teammates were selected as the Olympic Team for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Personal life

H*elborg is married to Mathias H*elborg (né Eriksson), and has one daughter. She comes from a family of curlers including father Mikael, uncle Stefan, brother Marcus and cousin Mio. She lives in Solna, a suburb of Stockholm.

Grand Slam record

H*elborg and her rink became the first women's team to win a career "Grand Slam" (winning all for 'majors') when she won the 2022 Players' Championship.

Former events

Teams

References

External links

• Anna H*elborg at World Curling Federation
• Anna H*elborg at Olympics.com
• Anna H*elborg at Olympedia
• Anna H*elborg at the Swedish Olympic Committee (in Swedish)