The U.S. men's curling team poses for a photo.
John Shuster and the U.S. men’s curling team captured the attention of the world with their unexpected gold medal win at the Winter Olympic Games PyeongChang 2018.
Now Team Shuster, which includes two members of that team, is gunning for another title. Shuster, Matt Hamilton and John Landsteiner, who competed together last year, along with Chris Plys and Korey Dropkin clinched a spot in the playoffs at the World Men’s Curling Championship in Lethbridge, Alberta, on Friday.
After a loss to Sweden in the morning, they learned they were playoff-bound prior to their game against Norway on Friday night. Their spot was clinched when Sweden beat Italy.
The only thing left to settle was whether or not they’d be the fifth seed with a win over Norway or the sixth seed with a loss.
The 8-4 victory gave the U.S. the fifth seed. The Americans will face No. 4 Japan on Saturday.
The U.S. finished round-robin play with an 8-4 record.
After losing the first match of the tournament to the Netherlands, the Americans strung together victories against South Korea, Germany, Scotland and Russia. The streak came to an end against Switzerland when their opponents scored four points in the ninth end to take the victory, but they came back with wins against Italy and China to improve to 6-2. They lost to Canada but kept themselves in the playoff hunt with a win over Japan.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
