United States Wins First-Ever Curling Gold On John Shuster's Fiver

A brilliant eighth-end hammer delivery by U.S.A. skip John Shuster turned a 5-5 nailbiter into a 10-5 lead that the Americans held onto through the final two ends en route to beating Sweden 10-7 and claiming their first-ever gold medal in curling, and only the second medal ever for the U.S. in the sport.

The Americans pounced on uncharacteristic mistakes by the Swedes and did just well enough on draws to stay even through the first seven frames before narrow misses by their opponents set the stage for Shuster’s heroism—part of which was set up by his own sweeping to curl an additional stone into the house early in the end. Eight years ago, these pages called Shuster “ the choking captain of our choking team of choking curlers.” Chokers no more! The Americans strung together five straight wins to claim gold: