Curling, Men

Since curling was reinstated as an official Olympic sport in 1998, the Canadian men had reached the final in every tournament, winning three consecutive gold medals (in 2006, 2010 and 2014), and had not placed outside of the top two in the World Championships since 2004. Having won the last two of their 36 World titles in 2016 and 2017, they, understandably, came to Korea as the heavy favorites. Canada could rely on an extremely experienced team from the province of Alberta with two-time World Champion Kevin Koe as skip, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert (both 2010 gold medalists and two-times World Champions), Brent Laing (three times World Champion) and even replacement Scott Pfeifer decorated with four World Championships.

Everything seemed to be on track, when Canada finished second in the round robin, winning six and losing three games. The three teams that beat Canada, however, were to be their opponents in the medal rounds: Sweden (convincing winners in the round robin with seven wins), the United States and Switzerland (both five wins). The third country with five wins, Great Britain, skipped by the young Kyle Smith, lost their chance after a 5-9 defeat in the tie-breaker against Switzerland. Niklas Edin, Sweden’s skip, was already an Olympic veteran with a fourth place in 2010 and a bronze medal in 2014, plus two World Championship titles and another three podiums.

In the semi-finals, Sweden beat Switzerland 9-3. When Sweden wrote four stones in the fourth end for a 6-1 lead, the game was over. The Swiss skip Peter de Cruz, from Geneva, had collected fewer honors than Niklas Edin, but was, after all, a two-time World Championship bronze medalist. The hard-fought second semi-final saw the United States as 5-3 victors over Canada. The eighth end proved to be decisive when the USA scored two points, the only end in which either team scored more than one.

While Canada’s defeat in the semi may not have come as a complete surprise, they also lost the bronze medal game, beaten 7-5 by Switzerland in a game which saw Canada always playing catch-up after Switzerland gained an early lead. For the first time since curling’s resumption into Olympic program, Canada had to go home without a medal. In the final, the US team built around skip John “Shoostie” Schuster, defeated the more fancied Swedes 10-7 to crown themselves as Olympic champions for the first time in front of about 3,000 spectators, including the US President’s daughter Ivanka Trump, and Sweden’s King Carl Gustav.

The match was very close up to the seventh end, after which the teams were tied at 5-5. In a disastrous eighth end for Sweden, after a double take-out by Shuster, the US team scored five points. Even though Sweden managed to make up two points in the ninth end, the No.1 ranked team had to settle for silver. Previously, the USA had medaled only once at the Olympic Games (bronze at Torino in 2006) and their last World title dated back to 1976, when it was held in Duluth, Minnesota. Shuster represented his country at the Olympics for the fourth time in 2018, After the 2006 bronze medal, the US finished a disappointing tenth and ninth in the next two Games. After 2014, Shuster formed a team with Tyler George, Matt Hamilton and John Landsteiner, who had previously played together in every World Championship since 2015.