History Made at U.S. Men’s Olympic Curling Trials

It finally happened.

A U.S. men’s team has captured the Olympic Curling Team Trials title without the name “Shuster” involved.

Team Danny Casper defeated Team John Shuster 7-4 last night in Sioux Falls, SD and will represent USA at the Olympic Qualifying Event in Kelowna, B.C. starting Dec. 5.

Casper, Luc Violette, Ben Richardson and Aidan Oldenburg will need to grab one of the last two berths available in men’s fours curling if they hope to compete at the Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games in February.

They’ll be accompanied by Tabitha Peterson’s crew, who made short work of Team Elizabeth Cousins with two straight playoff series wins in Sioux Falls; Team Peterson will also need to finish top two at Kelowna.

Everyone in U.S. curling – world curling, to be honest – knew the setup going into Sunday’s men’s finale.

Shuster, who has won Olympic gold and bronze in his stellar career, had been on every U.S. men’s Olympic curling team since 2006 – a span of 20 years, encompassing five Games in total.

In the previous two Olympic Trials, his squad had lost the first game of the best-of-three final series and had to kick, scratch and claw two straight wins to keep the streak alive.

Shuster lost his first 2025 playoff game to Casper, which required a third straight Trials magic act. He won the first must-win battle on Saturday, but finally fell on Sunday in Sioux Falls.

The first hint that U.S. curling things might be different came in the seventh end, when Shuster scored a single to trail 5-4.

Casper had scored deuces in the fourth and sixth ends to build the lead, and Team Shuster weren’t responding with two counts of their own.

The eighth end marked yet another pair for Team Casper, and all they had to do was close it out. They did.

Casper wasn’t really in the heir-apparent conversation until the 2023 men’s nationals, where he finished second to Shuster (his squad also captured a Grand Slam title a few months later).

Korey Dropkin, Shuster’s fellow Duluthian, was first expected to take over the Olympic mantle; his team finished third in Sioux Falls and he himself will be at the Games in Cortina, playing mixed doubles with Peterson third Cory Thiesse.

Casper is just 24, calls New York’s Ardsley Curling Club his home, and has battled a recent diagnosis of Guillain-Barré syndrome – a neurological condition that saw him miss a pile of games last season.

He’s also known for skilled trash-talking. He does this to his friends, but casual observers might assume arrogance.

During the seventh end of Saturday’s game, Shuster third Christopher Plys said something to Casper that was unintelligible on the player microphones. Casper’s reply was quick: “Yeah, you got something to say? You’re not even winning.”

Casper has but one previous experience wearing the red, white and blue – a hometown appearance at the 2023 World University Games, where he and his mates won silver.

Violette and Richardson have been teammates since their 2017 junior season. Lead Oldenburg was a new Team Casper recruit for 2024-25.

Shuster was backed by Plys, Colin Huffman and Matt Hamilton. Longtime Shuster lead John Landsteiner retired in the off-season.