“Painful” Ulsrud Reunion Chapter II

As Norway prepares to battle Canada at the world men’s championship in Ottawa, new information and photos have come to light regarding Team Ulsrud’s recent reunion on the ice.

Thomas Ulsrud, the famed skip of Norway’s former men’s curling team, died of cancer last May.

As reported in late January, Ulsrud’s teammates reunited at the Bull Trophy event at Grindelwald, Switzerland and finished fourth.

We’re now learning—and seeing—more about that reunion, and the original reason it was planned.

The team of Torger Nergård, Christoffer Svae and Håvard Vad Petersson were joined by Thomas Due and Johan Hostmaelingen, who both played past roles on the squad.

A photo was snapped by Daniel Graf (below), the president of the Grindelwald Curling Club.

As other images show—this one was taken for The Curling News by Swiss world women’s champion Carole Howald—some of the famous pants were worn again, and looked resplendent.

The heartbreaking part of this? The team had planned the tournament as an attempt to boost their skip during his health battles.

When asked about the weekend, Vad Petersson’s initial response to The Curling News consisted of one word: “Painful.”

“Obviously it was great to meet up with the guys again,” he continued. “It’s insanely nice scenery up there. It’s scary how I’m the only one still capable of performing a decent sweep.”

The former lead is in Ottawa coaching Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller, who defeated Canada in their opening match.

Second Christoffer Svae also spoke to TCN.

“We had a plan to play the Bull Trophy with the old team as a reunion for us, and for motivation for Thomas to fight his way back (from cancer),” Svae said.

“Then when he passed away, we asked (more) former teammates to join us in his honour.”

The Nergård fivesome made it to the bronze medal game of the notorious funspiel, where they lost to Italy’s youthful Giacomo Colli.

As Team Colli were shorthanded, coach Diana Gaspari joined the squad on the ice for the weekend.

Gaspari skipped Italy’s women’s team to 11 appearances at the world and European championships, striking European silver in 2006.

“It was fun times,” said Svae, who recently travelled to Duluth, Minn. for the House of Hearts charity bonspiel.

“We have all won (the Bull Trophy) in the past, and it was great to be back there along with several players and teams we used to play against back in the days.

“It was a great weekend curling in a traditional bonspiel in stunning surroundings… and of sharing memories and stories.”

Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell is 2-0 heading into Sunday’s night’s world championship battle against the host nation, skipped by Brad Gushue (2-1).

The Norwegians, who finished 5-7 at last year’s worlds and 4-5 at the Beijing Olympic Winter Games, defeated USA’s John Shuster 8-5 to start their week. They followed that up by scoring a 6-2 victory over Korea’s Jeong Byeongjin on Sunday morning.

Gushue’s Team Canada struggled in an 8-3 loss to Switzerland before rattling off a key 10-6 win over Italy’s Joel Retornaz. 

The Canadians then scored an 8-2 win over New Zealand’s world championship rookies skipped by Anton Hood.

In honour of the Norway versus Canada tilt in Ottawa, Norway’s Canadian embassy is operating a display booth at “The Patch” party venue.