Athlete Bios
Curling
Shuster graduates college, captains own team
Last Updated: Friday, February 5, 2010 | 4:35 PM ET
New York Times for CBC Sports
John Shuster returned from the 2006 Olympics and put curling aside to finish college. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)If you ordered a beer at the Duluth Curling Club in Minnesota at any time in the last two years, there is a fair chance that a 2006 Olympic bronze medallist filled your plastic cup.
That bartender would be John Shuster, who managed the club bar and restaurant with Sara Marshall, now his fiancée. Shuster won his medal with the Pete Fenson rink, but left shortly after the 2006 Turin Games to finish college and form his own team. That difficult decision paid off when Shuster landed back in the Olympics skipping the first-time Olympians Jason Smith, Jeff Isaacson John Benton and alternate Chris Plys. All are in their 20s except Benton, who is 40.
"The Olympics were always a dream," Shuster told The Minneapolis Star Tribune. "But being the skip of the U.S. team, that was the ultimate goal."
Unlike many curlers, Shuster came to the sport late. As a 15-year old, Shuster learned to curl in a Sunday night junior program at a club in Chisholm, Minn., his hometown. (Chisholm is also where Moonlight Graham, who played in one major league baseball game and was portrayed in the film Field of Dreams, practised medicine. In fourth grade, Shuster's class wrote and produced a play based on Graham's life that Shuster still has on video.)
Two years later, Shuster was part of a state high school championship team, and in 2003 won his first national championship with the Fenson rink.
"I'm a bit of a perfectionist," Shuster said. "Just the fact that it seemed something that I should have been able to perfect, and couldn't necessarily perfect it, it really got me interested in throwing rocks.
"From the skipping aspect, I always wanted to see if I could outsmart somebody, too, like one of my parents when I was a little kid. I'm a competitor. Competing is very natural, and I love doing it. And curling is a great battlefield."
Shuster skipped a team to a national junior championship in 2004 before rejoining Fenson for two more national titles, in 2005 and '06. He set out on his own after the 2006 worlds, winning gold at the 2007 World University Games while completing his marketing degree at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.
At the Olympic trials, against a field that included the former national champion skips Craig Brown and Todd Birr, the Shuster rink advanced to the final. Then, facing fellow Duluth resident Tyler George with the Olympic berth on the line, Shuster overcame an early 4-1 deficit to win, 10-9.
A big Minnesota pro sports fan (especially the Twins), Shuster played basketball until discovering curling. Almost everyone in his extended family curls. Each Christmas Day, family members compete in a bonspiel for a homemade trophy of a brass bird they call the Shuster Rooster.
