Surprise: U.S. curlers to compete for gold
GANGNEUNG, South Korea — John Shuster and his U.S. team will play for a gold medal against Sweden after a 5-3 semifinal upset over Canada, a country that has struggled at the Pyeongchang Olympics despite dominating the world of curling for years.
The U.S. victory Thursday was a remarkable comeback story for a team that had never beaten Canada at the Olympics and hadn’t made the podium since the 2006 Turin Games, when it won a bronze medal.
Just as remarkable was the loss for Canada, which has won the gold in men’s curling in the past three Winter Olympics. The Canadian women’s team, meanwhile, didn’t make even the semifinals, even though it is the defending world champion.
Shuster’s victory follows a particularly rocky Olympic path. After winning the bronze in Turin, he was benched at the 2010 Vancouver Games in the middle of the tournament because his performance was so poor. In Sochi, Shuster’s team finished in ninth place.
“It’s a pretty good story. This is just another step,” Shuster said. “I just decided that, 50 years from now, maybe I’m long gone, when my kids are showing my grandkids video from the Olympics, I don’t want all my videos to be me failing.”
The turning point in the semifinal game came in the eighth end. The teams were tied 2-2, and Canada had a distinct advantage known as the hammer, the right to throw the final rock of the end. Kevin Koe, the team’s “skip,” or captain, threw the stone too light and it came up short of the target known as the house. The U.S. had two rocks in the target, giving it a two-point steal and putting them ahead 4-2.
In the next end, Canada blew its chance to score two points with its final rock, when Koe threw the stone a bit too hard and it skittered out of the house. The Canadians had to settle for one point, bringing the score to 4-3.
In the final end, Shuster threw the last rock, which knocked the lone Canadian stone out of the center of the house, adding one point to the Americans’ score and sealing their win.
An elated Shuster pumped his fist in victory and the Americans whooped with joy. Vice-skip Tyler George ran up and down the arena holding up his index finger in a symbol of No. 1 as the crowd chanted, “USA! USA!”
Matt Hamilton said he planned to celebrate by going back to the athletes’ village and ordering a McFlurry.
“The U.S. has been waiting for something like this and needing a sort of spark,” he said.
The Canadians will play for a bronze medal against Switzerland, which fell 9-3 to the Swedes in another semifinal.
Short-track speedskating: Dajing Wu of China won the men’s 500 meters, Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands took the women’s 1,000, and Hungary was the winner of the men’s 5,000-meter relay.
Biathlon: Belarus won the gold in the women’s 4x6-kilometer relay, finishing in 1 hour, 12 minutes, 3.4 seconds.
Nordic combined: Johannes Rydzek crossed the finish line with an overwhelming 52.7second advantage as Germany joined Finland as the only countries to win three gold medals in Nordic combined in one Winter Olympics. Defending champion Norway was second, followed by Austria, which was first after the ski jump.