Shuster into Sunday Battle for Olympic Trials Title

Jours before Tabitha Peterson’s East St. Paul, MN foursome repeated as U.S. Olympic Trials women’s champions, John Shuster faced his curling mortality head on—and decided he wasn’t going to let his 16-year Olympic run go quietly.

The Duluth, MN man who has represented U.S. men’s team curling at every Olympic Winter Games since Torino 2006 produced a masterful performance in the latter half of the second men’s playoff match to stave off elimination at the 2021 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Omaha, NE.

However, Shuster and his defending Olympic champions needed a break early in that second half. They got it in the sixth end when opposing skip Korey Dropkin of Duluth missed a slash double for four or five points—but missed by a fraction, giving up a steal of two.

Shuster went from being down 2-1 at the break into an abrupt 3-2 lead.

In the first half of the game, Dropkin third Joe Polo, a former Olympic medalist teammate of Shuster’s, had excelled, continuing his team’s strong play from the first playoff game.

Dropkin then scored a single in the seventh and made two fine throws in the eighth to force a blank. With his team’s positive body language back in full force, Shuster made a pick for two points in the ninth for a 5-3 lead coming home.

A crowded 10th end house left Dropkin with only a Hail Mary attempt, and Shuster stole a final deuce for the inflated 7-3 victory.

“That sixth end there, he had a shot to essentially send their team to the Olympics,” Shuster said with a shrug. “It was there to score four or five. That would’ve been the game.

“But, same thing, a half-inch away from the shot that makes it for him is the shot that gives us a steal of two.”

“I didn’t throw the greatest rock,” said Dropkin. “I wish I had that one back.

“The big thing is just to come back strong (Sunday) and play our hearts out.”

“Honestly, now we have the momentum going our way,” said Shuster. “We’re gonna start with the hammer (Sunday), so we’re gonna come out here and try to put a couple of points on the board early, and flip the script on what those guys did to us in the first (playoff) game.”

The final sudden-death men’s playoff takes place at 8:00 p.m. CT with live coverage on NBCSN and/or Peacock. The previous start time (5:00p.m.) was changed to accommodate television.