John Shuster

John Shuster (pronounced /ˈʃuːstər/; born November 3, 1982) is an American curler and Olympic medalist from Chisholm, Minnesota. He received a bronze medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.^[1] After skipping the 2010 Olympic team to a last place finish, Shuster joined the Craig Brown team, as his third.

He participated on the American team at the 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2009 World Curling Championships.

Shuster won the 2010 United States Olympic Curling Trials and represented the United States at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.

At the 2009 Curling World Championships in Moncton, Canada, Shuster and his team finished in fifth place. They ended the Round Robin portion in a tie for the playoffs; however, they lost to Team Norway in the tiebreaker.

2010 Winter Olympics benching

After Shuster missed crucial last-rock shots in three of the United States' first four matches in the 2010 Winter Olympics, U.S. coaches took the unusual step of benching Shuster and replacing him with alternate Chris Plys.^[2] Plys threw third rocks as skip, with Jason Smith throwing fourth rocks. In their first match after Shuster's benching, the U.S. won their first match of the Games when they stole a point from France in the 10th end.

Shuster returned to the ice in the next match, throwing third rocks against Sweden, whom the U.S. defeated. Plys returned to replace lead John Benton against world champion David Murdoch and Great Britain, but a 4-2 loss dropped the Americans to 2-5, all but assuring they would not qualify for the medal round.

Teams

References