U.S. delights in gold that few saw coming
GANGNEUNG, South Korea — For John Shuster, it wasn’t about the feel of the ribbon around his neck, or the surprising heft of the gold disc that lay on his chest. He had received an Olympic medal before, a bronze in 2006 as part of Pete Fenson’s team at the Turin Winter Games.
Shuster never forgot how it felt that night in Italy, standing on an Olympic podium and hearing a national anthem that was not his own. Saturday night, the curling skip from Chisholm, Minnesota, finally got his chance to sing.
After a stunning, improbable run to America’s first Olympic gold medal in curling, Shuster put his hand over his heart, waited for the music to start at Gangneung Curling Centre and belted out the words that had waited inside him for 12 years.
He delivered the biggest shot of a 10-7 victory over Sweden, a brilliant double takeout that scored five points in the eighth end to break a 5-5 tie.
Although it wrote a poetic ending to Shuster’s hard path to gold, he made it clear he was no soloist.
The U.S. won its second Olympic medal because of the harmony Shuster found with teammates Tyler George, John Landsteiner and Joe Polo of Duluth, Minnesota, and Matt Hamilton of McFarland, Wisconsin.
The best team he ever assembled shrugged off a 2-4 start to the Olympic round robin to win five in a row, ending its Winter Games with tears, hugs and a gold medal few saw coming.
“I was happy to get a chance to make that last shot for these guys, for all the shots they made through the course of this week and the course of this game,” said Shuster, 35.
“I can’t tell you how un-nervous I was, sitting in the hack to throw it. These guys, their belief and their hard work, gave me the confidence to sit in the hack and let it go.
“I wanted to sing my national anthem and stand on the top of the podium at the Olympics. From the day the 2014 Olympics came to an end, every single day was with this journey in mind.”
By the time he got to the end, it felt as if the whole world was with him. Ivanka Trump and U.S. presidential press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders showed up at Saturday’s game. So did King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
They saw the U.S. take it to a Swedish team ranked No. 1 in the world.
Sweden’s skip, Niklas Edin, had led his team to a 7-2 record and the top playoff seed. But even he sensed the Americans might finish off their run with the ultimate surprise.
“When they play well, they really get a good team spirit going,” said Edin, who routed the U.S. 10-4 in the round robin. “They had nothing to lose. We had everything to lose. The whole game, they played better than us.”