CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Anna Hasselborg and her Swedish women's curling team are back for their third Winter Games and are on the hunt for a third Olympic medal, but this time they are travelling with a much larger entourage.
The team, who won gold at the Pyeongchang Games in 2018 and followed that up with a bronze medal in Beijing in 2022, have had major life changes in the past Olympic cycle.
Three team members, including Hasselborg, had pregnancies following the Beijing Games with a rough spell following on the ice as they dealt with line-up changes, though they have been picking up form and won a third European Curling Championships title in November.
"This is our 10th year together as the same team and it's our third Olympics so it's pretty cool to experience this with your best friends and also your family. We're basically family now," Hasselborg told Reuters.
"We have the husbands and kids and the mothers and fathers around and it's going to be so much fun to share this experience with them. And the last four years have been a long journey towards these Olympics. It looked a lot different in the past.
"Then it only was the four of us. Now I think we're a circus, our team! I'm playing for them (family), and I'm playing for my team. It's so amazing to be able to share this experience with my kids and my husband, but also my teammates' kids and family."
Hasselborg acknowledged the challenge of balancing motherhood with being an elite curler, describing it as a journey of relearning what her priorities were.
"Sports is a very self-centred thing you do and when you become a mom, nothing is self-centred anymore. It's all about your kids and finding that balance," she added.
"Allowing yourself to be self-centred when it matters here on the ice and be out there, and then to step off the ice and be a mother. It took me a while to find that balance but I think we're finding that now at the right time.
"It's life. I wouldn't want to have it any other way. So even if I would be a few percent less (in terms of performance), I wouldn't take that away because my kids are the number one, but it's cool that I can still continue with my passion."
Sweden beat Japan 8-4in their opening game of the women's competition on Thursday.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
