Curling legend Thomas Ulsrud has died after a long illness with cancer. The world champion and Olympic silver winner from 2010 turned 50 years old.
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Elin Grødal confirms that her husband died on Tuesday. The couple has a son, Jesper Ulsrud (20).
– I think he was a completely unique guy. Always positive and optimistic. He cared about others and wanted everyone well. He did not have a single enemy. Dinner was always ready when I got home, as long as he was not out traveling with the curling, says Elin Grødal to VG.
– He died at home. He did not want to be in hospital, she adds.
Elin Grødal also says that the husband until his last day was one hundred percent sure that he would get well, and that he therefore would not tell the public about the disease. He was diagnosed with cancer a year and a half ago, in December 2020. The disease was discovered in connection with a routine check-up by one of the Olympics’ doctors, says Elin Grødal.
– It is incredibly sad and it seems very unfair, says Thomas Ulsrud’s close friend and longtime teammate Torger Nergård.
He says that he visited Thomas Ulsrud last time on Monday.
Thomas Ulsrud led Norway’s curling national team to World Cup gold in Beijing eight years ago. Four years earlier, he took “Team Ulsrud” to the Olympic silver medal in Vancouver. Then the team also got a lot of attention due to the style of dress.
Thomas Ulsrud, Torger Nergård, Christoffer Svae and Håvard Vad Petersson played in what was described as clown pants. It was actually golf pants. Then “Team Ulsrud”‘s different outfits became a controversial – and widely discussed – trademark. During the 2014 Olympics, the New York Times compared the Norwegian curling national team’s then habit as a twisted version of the clothing style in the film “Ocean’s Eleven” – and Ulsrud & co. became the main attraction of the American TV giant NBC.
However, their sporting success was never in doubt. With Thomas Ulsrud as boss, the team won a number of medals in international championships, before and after all the changes of clothes. Thomas Ulsrud brought home a dozen European Championship medals, five World Cup medals and an Olympic silver medal.
Already in 1988 he took the bronze medal in the junior WC.
After 6th place in the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018, “Team Ulsrud” was eventually disbanded. At the age of 46, he was Norway’s oldest participant in the Winter Games in South Korea.
However, Thomas Ulsrud did not give up. He tried his hand at mixed doubles and joined a national team consisting of him, Steffen Walstad, Markus Høiberg and Magnus Vågberg. In 2019, it became clear that “Team Minera” with Ulsrud as the ship would focus on the Beijing Olympics 2022. Two years ago, Thomas Ulsrud persuaded his former “Team Ulsrud” teammate Torger Nergård (47) to become part of the Olympic Games. made.
However, Thomas Ulsrud was not present when Nergård together with Steffen Walstad, Magnus Vågberg and Markus Høiberg – and Magnus Nedregotten as a reserve – played the Olympic tournament in China in February this year.
After undergoing an operation in May 2021, he told VG that his goal was to reach the 2022 Olympics. VG was also in contact with Ulsrud at the end of December five months ago. Then he had to start a new type of chemotherapy at Radiumhospitalet. He expressed strong optimism about the outcome of that cure.
His wife Elin Grødal says that he underwent a total of 26 chemotherapy regimens.
