Niklas Edin skips Sweden to long-awaited Olympic curling gold

Five-time world champion. Olympic bronze medallist. Olympic silver medallist.

And now, finally, Niklas Edin of Sweden has claimed the only major title missing from a career in which he's established himself as the most decorated skip in curling history.

Four years after losing in the final to American upstart John Shuster in Pyeongchang, Edin led Sweden to the gold medal on Saturday, beating Britain 5-4 in the first extra-end men's final in Olympic history.

"It feels so crazy, I almost had to ask someone before I came here, `We have won, right?"' said Edin, who in four trips to the Winter Games has finished — in order — fourth, third, second and first.

"God, it's nice. It's obviously been an incredibly long journey with pretty disappointing defeats," he said. "It's been many nice years and a lot of success, and to get this Olympic gold medal now is an extra tick (mark)."

With the podium already set up, and Canada standing by to collect the bronze it won Friday by ending the Americans' hopes of repeating, Edin took advantage of the last-rock advantage in the first tiebreaker end and put his penultimate stone into the center of the target area.

When British skip Bruce Mouat failed to knock it out on a ricochet, the Swedes had clinched it. They paused — it's not polite to celebrate an opponent's miss — and then let out a yell.

Alternate Daniel Magnusson and the coaching staff hurried down to the ice to join Edin and teammates Oskar Eriksson, Rasmus Wranå and Christoffer Sundgren in the celebration.

"The pressure and the monkey's off our back," Edin said. "We've done pretty much everything correctly, and now we needed the result to get the receipt that what we're doing has worked."

WATCH | Edin leads Sweden to men's curling