There will be a Swedish entry in the America’s Cup, it was confirmed yesterday, raising the list of challengers to two.

Artemis Racing, who were the first challenger to be eliminated in the 2013 Cup, has added Fredrik Lööf and Max Salminen, the Olympic gold medal-winners, to their crew and will hope for a good deal more luck than last year.

The Swedes’ ill-fated challenge in the previous campaign was marred by the death of Andrew Simpson, the highly decorated British Olympian, in a capsize during a training run on San Francisco Bay in May 2013.

Artemis, owned by oil billionaire Torbjörn Törnqvist, are the second team to announce their challenge, after Emirates Team New Zealand.

The full slate of challengers will not be released until next month, but it is understood that Luna Rossa Challenge, of Italy, Ben Ainslie Racing, of Britain, and Team France will join the contenders aiming to get a shot at Oracle Team USA, the holder.

Lööf is one of the most successful Swedish sailors of all time and a long-time friend and sailing foe of Iain Percy, of Britain, who is Artemis’s team manager and tactician.

Lööf and Salminen won gold in the Star class at London 2012, leaving the favourites, Percy and Simpson, with the silver.

The 44-year-old Lööf has sailed in six Olympics.

Besides the gold medal in London, he won the bronze medal in the Star class at Beijing in 2008 and bronze in the Finn class at Sydney in 2000. He has also won three Finn world championships, two Star world titles and was part of the third-place crew in the 2001-02 Volvo Ocean Race.

“I’ve been fascinated by the way sailing has been evolving over the last few years, with these new foiling boats and incredible TV production,” Lööf said.

“I was really inspired by Artemis’s last campaign and having a Swedish boat on the start line again, and being part of it this time, is very exciting.

“Winning the America’s Cup and bringing it to Sweden for the first time would be something very special.”

Artemis Racing also hired sailing coach Rod Davis, who is in his ninth America’s Cup campaign.

He won Olympic gold in the Soling class in Los Angeles in 1984 and silver in the Finn class in Barcelona in 1992. Overall, Artemis team members have won 11 Olympic medals, including seven gold.

The America’s Cup Event Authority, which is headed by Russell Coutts, the former champion sailor from New Zealand, has still to decide on which of Bermuda or San Diego will host the challenger semi-finals and finals, and the America’s Cup match itself in 2017.

San Francisco and Chicago were eliminated from what has been a protracted bidding process with so much at stake for the potential host.