Think back to when the United States men’s curling team won its first Olympic gold medal. Now that Twitter has brought them back to our attention…
The United States men’s curling team seems like a bunch of fathers who were simply hoping to get away from their kids for the weekend but found themselves playing in the Olympics instead.
The majority of the same men’s curling team that won gold at the Olympics four years ago is making their way back to the Winter Games.
On Wednesday, the 2022 Winter Olympics will Begin for Team Shuster.
Team USA’s John Shuster, Tyler George, Matt Hamilton, and John Landsteiner stunned the curling world by taking home gold at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.
In 2014, the group known as “The Rejects” was no longer part of USA Curling’s elite programme. After shocking the world by qualifying for the Olympics, Team Shuster went 5-4 in group play, winning their final three matches to go to the semifinals. After prevailing against Canada in the semi-finals, the squad went on to overcome Sweden in the finals, 5–2.
It was the first gold medal ever won by an American team at the Olympics, and only the United States’s second ever.
The United States will be represented by three of the four players who made history in PyeongChang four years ago.
George, who retired from curling after the 2018 Games, has been replaced by Chris Plys, so that’s the only difference. For the 2022 Winter Olympics, George will be serving as an analyst for NBC on the sport of curling.
Team Shuster, Which Included Plys, Placed Fifth in Both The 2019 and 2021 World Championships.
In his role as skip for the United States men’s team, Shuster is back. Shuster is competing in his fifth Olympics and is the most decorated American curler of all time, having won a bronze medal with Team USA in 2010.
The “Shoostie” curler is now a household name in the United States and around the globe. The man from Superior, Wisconsin, carried a U.S. flag in the opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Before applying to the U.S. high performance programme following the Sochi Olympics, John Shuster had already won three Olympic medals and established himself as the most successful American curler in history.
He was Left Off the Roster.
Therefore, Shuster addressed two of the other rejected candidates about forming their own quartet. U.S. second baseman Matt Hamilton recalled, “He said, ‘Hey, let’s organise our own Team of Rejects and see what we can do.
After losing four of their first six group play matches, the squad was one loss away from elimination. Their next opponent was curling powerhouse Canada, which has never finished lower than second in the Olympics and has never lost to the United States.
On that very day, he saw a story on Facebook about the American speedskater Dan Jansen, who had to keep going back to the Olympics before he ultimately won a gold medal.
Final Words
The words of Shuster, “His story is my narrative,” ring true. After giving it some thought, I concluded that I didn’t want all of my Olympic movies to be of me failing 50 years from now when my kids are showing my grandkids — and maybe I’m dead and gone by then.
I can honestly say, “I’ve loved every second of it.”
