Americans go for gold after beating Canadians

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — With their Thursday afternoon practice over, John Shuster and his teammates returned to the Olympic Village to watch a little hockey. The U.S. men’s curling team knows several of its counterparts on the women’s hockey team, and they were eager to see whether the Americans could break Canada’s 20-year stranglehold on the Olympic gold medal.

When the U.S. beat Canada in its favorite ice sport, it made Shuster feel like anything was possible.

Hours later, his team made the U.S. 2 for 2 against its northern neighbors, taking down Canada in its secondfavorite ice sport to win a place in the Olympic gold-medal game.

The 5-3 semifinal victory at Gangneung Curling Centre sent the Americans to Saturday’s championship game against Sweden, the first time the U.S. will play for Olympic gold in curling.

Shuster, of Chisholm, Minnesota, and his teammates, Tyler George and John Landsteiner of Duluth, Minnesota, and Matt Hamilton of McFarland, Wisconsin, will bring the U.S. a second Olympic medal in curling. Its first came in 2006.

The upset continued a remarkable roll for Shuster, whose team was left for dead last Sunday after staggering through two losses that dropped its record to 2-4 in round-robin play. The hockey team’s breakthrough, and his own desire to improve on his ninth- and 10th-place finishes in the past two Olympics, have him eager to finish the job.

“I think I just decided that 50 years from now, when my kids are showing my grandkids video from the Olympics, I didn’t want all my videos to be me failing,” Shuster said.

Before this week, Canada’s men had never lost to the U.S. at the Winter Games. The Americans have now beaten them twice in four days, compounding the country’s curling misery. Canada’s women failed to make the playoffs after a poor start, marking the first time they will finish the Olympics without a medal since curling was added in 1998. The men play for bronze on Friday.