In a lengthy interview with Al Suwaidi Aftonbladet Edvin tells Lind about the loss of his brother and what happened in the fateful days of October last year – when he found his twin Vilgott dead in bed, aged 22.
The two gambled for several years to reach the top of the cycling world.
They drifted off together and rode mountain bikes when they were in high school. They pushed each other to be better.
– It’s a pretty picture: Felgott first and I touring the country. It is he who helps me, says Edvin Lind in the interview.
For 20 years, the men lived so closely together that they “heard each other’s breathing at night,” the interview said.
Subsequently, Edvin won three consecutive golds in the Swedish Mountain Bike Championships.
Philgot won the Swedish Championship in the Olympic branch of mountain biking in 2021, and several international races.
– we are worried
extreme training
In 2020, they live for the first time in two different apartments, in the same area of Sweden. However, they have been hanging out with each other all day.
On October 5th last year, Philgott climbed up Örnsköldsvik Hill more than 50 times. The training activity is called Everesting to cover the elevation of 8848 meters in the shortest possible time (the height of Mount Everest, ed. note). Vilgut finished his work in nine hours, a new Swedish record.
The twins and two other athletes ordered pizza and bought candy on the way home. Filgott dropped Edvin to the apartment in Falun, said good night and headed home to Borlange.
The next day, Felgott didn’t respond to text messages and his brother was a little surprised he didn’t post a training session on Strava, the social platform for exercisers, like he used to.
– Touched Liverpool supporters
anxiety
On October 7, he became anxious. He locked himself with two of his friends in the house where his brother lived.
– I’m practical, so I didn’t panic. I thought he was very sick in there. But I found him in bed. death. It was immediately apparent. It was swollen and blue, says the brother in the interview.
But something caught him going down the stairs in shock. He turned around and went back upstairs to check if his twin brother was really dead.
He called the family with shocking news.
– I cried and said that Vilgot died. Think about it, think about it, dad said. It was completely crazy, but exactly what I needed to hear. So I just stood there and thought about all the good times we had,” he says in the interview.
The next day, the brother wrote these lines on social media:
“Yesterday I found my beloved twin brother Felgott dead in his home. We still don’t know why he left us. Families and friends gather and grieve. I’ve never felt so much pain. 💔”
Swedish cycling is back in shock and grief.
– I am at a loss for words to describe how I felt when I heard about the tragic death of Philgott Lind, said the Swedish Cycling President.
– Felgott loved life and we miss him very much, Father Thomas Lind told the local newspaper Fallon Courier.
The autopsy was done
Now in March, they have the answers from an autopsy. Lind suffered from the so-called ARVC, right ventricular dysplasia resulting from arrhythmia, an inherited disease of the heart muscle Which could lead at worst to sudden death. Several deaths have occurred in elite sports associated with this diagnosis, also according to Norwegian articles published in legeforeningen.no
In the interview, Lind also says that he writes down all the memories from his time with his twin brother, so they don’t get lost.
– It was very nice, he says.
“Infuriatingly humble internet trailblazer. Twitter buff. Beer nerd. Bacon scholar. Coffee practitioner.”
