Winter Olympics: Men’s curling results
Regardless of the final score in Saturday’s men’s curling gold medal game against Sweden, Team USA was guaranteed to double the number of curling medals it had won in Olympic history.
Led by four-time Olympian John Shuster, 35, of Superior, Wisconsin, the U.S.A. won its first-ever gold medal in curling beating Sweden 10-7.
The match was a nail-biter into the 8th End, when Shuster completed the most important shot in U.S. curling history: a double takeout scoring five points giving the Americans a 10-5 lead going into the 9th End.
The Swedes scored two more, but could not recover in the 10th.
The U.S. had never won Olympic gold in men’s or women’s curling. In fact, Americans could lay claim to exactly one Olympic curling medal, a men’s bronze Shuster and Joe Polo helped win for the U.S. in 2006.
Shuster was nearly kicked out of the national program after the team’s poor showing in Sochi in 2014.
In addition to Shuster, this year’s Team USA consisted of Tyler George, Matt Hamilton, John Landsteiner and alternate Polo.
To reach the gold medal game, the squad beat three-time defending gold medalist Canada 5-3 in the semifinals on Thursday.
Sweden beat Switzerland 9-3 in the other semifinal to advance.
Switzerland beat Canada 7-5 in Friday’s bronze medal game.
The fourth-place finish ended Canada’s impressive run at the Olympics in men’s curling — having reached every Olympic final since the sport returned to the Olympics in 1998. The country won gold in 2014, 2010, and 2006 and silver in 2002 and 1998.
