There is a new face for American curling after a bid at history came up short more than three months before the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics officially start.
A team led by 24-year-old Danny Casper beat a team featuring John Shuster, who had represented the United States in the past five Winter Olympics, in the U.S. Olympic Trials final in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on Sunday, Nov. 16. Casper’s team moves on as the U.S. representative for men’s curling at next month’s Olympic Qualifying Event.
Shuster, 43, was attempting to become the first curler to participate in six Olympic Games as part of a 20-year run for U.S. curling. He won a gold medal for the United States at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics and a bronze medal during his first Olympic appearance at the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy, after curling was reintroduced to the Olympics in Nagano in 1998.
Shuster’s bid appeared on track after going a perfect 6-0 in round-robin play at the U.S. Olympic Trials, and his team handed Team Casper its only two losses before the best-of-three final. But Casper’s team won the opener, 7-6, before Shuster’s team responded with its own 7-6 win. Casper’s team, which also features Luc Violette, Aidan Oldenburg, Ben Richardson and Rich Ruohonen, then took Sunday’s decisive third match, 7-5.
The result was immediately dubbed a ‘changing of the guard’ for U.S. curling on the match broadcast.
Casper and company still have work to do to qualify for the 2026 Olympics. Ranked No. 8 in the world, they must finish in the top two at the Olympic Qualifying Event in Kelowna, Canada (Dec. 5-18) to secure a berth in February’s Games.
If Casper can pull off another upset, his Olympic journey would be a memorable one. The Briarcliff Manor, New York native missed a portion of the 2024-2025 curling season after being diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Syndrome, an autoimmune disease that has caused Casper to struggle to walk and use his hands at times during competition, according to his U.S. National Team biography.