Outstanding Service and Olympic Achievement Honoured

During the medal games of the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2021 in Lillehammer, Norway, two special ceremonies took place, with World Curling Federation President Kate Caithness CBE inducting two new members into the World Curling Hall of Fame – Mike Thomson and Sweden’s double Olympic champions, Team Anette Norberg.

Mike Thomson, inducted as a Builder, led the World Curling Federation in its formative years with great professionalism and regard. He became the World Curling Federation Secretary General in 1994 and served until his retirement in 2010. Before this appointment, he fulfilled this role as a staff member of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club [now Scottish Curling], when the two organisations were one.

During his tenure, he worked to ensure a successful return to the Olympic Winter Games for curling – in Nagano, Japan, in 1998 – and that curling would remain a staple of the Olympic Winter Games in future years. In the lead up to the 2006 Games in Torino, Italy, he was at the helm to oversee wheelchair curling’s debut at the Paralympic Winter Games.

Sweden’s Team Norberg (skip Anette Norberg, with members Eva Lund, Cathrine Lindahl and Anna Maria Svard, nee Le Moine) were inducted as Athletes.

They claimed multiple gold medals during their seven-year run together between 2003 and 2010, beginning with European Championships gold in three consecutive years — 2003, ‘04, ‘05 — and once again in 2007. The team also won their first World Women’s Curling Championship in 2005 in Paisley, Scotland and successfully defended their title in 2006 in Grande Prairie, Canada.

At the Olympic Winter Games 2006 in Turin, the foursome defeated Switzerland to win Sweden’s first Olympic gold medal in curling. Then, at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010, they became the first team to win back-to-back Olympic Games when they stole the win in an extra end against Canada.

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