John Shuster Leads U.S. to Second Winter Olympics Curling Win

John Shuster’s extreme precision led the U.S. to their second curling victory on Friday.

The 39-year-old was dominant in the team’s 9-7 win over Great Britain, closing out the nailbiter effortlessly in the 10th end. 

Also representing the U.S. was Matt Hamilton, John Landsteiner, Christopher Plys and Colin Hufman at the National Aquatics Center in Beijing.

After a scoreless first end, the two teams traded points consistently until the sixth, when Great Britain took their first lead of the match at 6-5. The defending gold-medalists responded with confidence to regain the lead 7-6 from a takeout to finish the end.

In the seventh, Great Britain struggled with a hammer from the Americans and decided to settle with a single point to tie up the game, 7-7. From that point on the U.S. was unstoppable, closing out the last two ends after boxing in the Brits.

The Americans (2-1) are currently in third place in round-robin play. The top four nations with the most wins will advance and play for a place on the podium. 

The U.S. took their first loss of the 2022 Winter Olympics to Sweden (3-1), who currently sits in first place. Canada (2-0) is currently in second place. 

Team USA faces Norway on Saturday at 1:05 a.m. ET at the National Aquatics Center.