curling

The Duluth Curling Club is putting on a couple of events to help raise money for Olympians and for the Junior National Team. Each is a spaghetti dinner and social to help with costs for competitions in Detroit and Bemidji for the Junior National Team and a send-off for the Olympians.

Olympian John Shuster came in to talk about what it takes to go to the Olympics. The Olympic committee takes care of the athletes very well. The families of the Olympians are on their own. This is where the curlers need your help.

Over the past week, Olympic Curling hopefuls were competing in Omaha, Nebraska for a chance to represent the USA at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. It is exciting to say two Duluth based teams will be going to the games.

Team USA men's curling has had a great year. They won a bronze medal by defeating Japan in the 2016 World Men's Curling Championships, which earned them points to qualify for the Olympics in 2018. It was the first time since 2006 they earned a medal. USA men's curling team was given Athletes of the Year and Team of the Year awards for 2016.

Norma O’Leary and the rest of the Women's team got another victory over Italy 7 to 3 to stay unbeaten at 3-0 in Karlstad, Sweden, at the 2016 World Senior Curling Championships, and The Men's team is fairing just as well beating the Czech Republic 7 to 2 to also go unbeaten at 3-0.

It was a hard fought battle but the US men's curling team looked sharp for most of the tourney eventually beating Japan, again, to take the bronze medal. It was their third game in a row after losing to Denmark, and beating Japan in the first round of play.

John Shuster still doesn't look comfortable with the Ice. He isn't missing these huge shots, but it looks to me like he is not confident with the curl yet. It's been hard to keep up with him. He is playing at a normal hour, but when I got up at 4 in the morning, he was in the third end.

WCCO did a great story on John Shuster and the USA curling team, but in order to get some of the coolest shots the photojournalist used small cameras to get interesting points of view. Then he put it all together.

I heard from John Shuster, he is excited to be in the Olympics. This year is different. The first time, he won a medal and there was all the excitement that comes with that. The second time, not so fun. Dead last and frustration from the showing he had and the benching.

John Shuster and his team thrilled us with the American Curling matches to qualify for the next round to make it to the Olympics. Then he beat world teams to become an Olympic entry. Now he needs your help. It costs a lot of money to get to the Olympics, both for the team and for the families.

John Shuster Rink representing the USA secured the last available place in the men's curling competition at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games by beating the Czech Republic 8-5 in the second playoff held in Germany.

Duluth's John Shuster Rink, Team USA Curling, won their tiebreaker game today against Korea. Korea started the week strong and Team USA did not. They fought through some games and became 5 and 2 and wound up with a tie for first, because of match outcomes they wound up playing Korea to have a chance to play on and qualify for the Olympics.