US Curling Legend John Shuster Reveals He Was ‘Bribed’ by His Mother to Gain Interest in the Sport

The sport of curling is fun to watch. A game with basic rules of getting stones into the target area, it is one of the most-watched sports at the Winter Olympics. Moreover, people call it the ‘Chess on Ice’. With the increased fan following at the Winter Olympics, there are many legends to grace the game. One such person is John Shuster.

The iconic Shuster led Team USA to a gold medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. It was the first time that the USA won the gold medal in the curling competition. Earlier, he had won the bronze medal at the 2006 Turin Games. His story of success is inspiring.

John Shuster is an icon

While being a young kid, he used to follow his mother to the Curling Club in Chisholm, Minnesota. There, his mother tried to take him to attend his father’s curling matches. A parenting model for younger generations, his mother took him to the club to get some good popcorn and wanted him to experience the sport. Even though he did not take notice of the sport at that age, he went to the club to have a good time.

“My mom would take us to the curling club and we were bribed with Dr. Pepper, and they had the best popcorn at the concession stand there, and they had a pool table. So even if we weren’t necessarily watching curling, we had stuff to do, and it was interesting to go there,” said Shuster.

In those early years, his father never let him throw stones on the ice. Thus, he started watching the games and became intrigued with the sport. From there, Shuster developed an interest as he started practicing.

He soon started curling

After all those experiences, he saw a flyer at school that led to a curling competition. Determined to become a professional curler, the sensational Shuster then decided to try his luck in curling and soon after experienced success.

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“I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t think that’s that much higher of a level than what I’m already doing a year and a half in. And it was in that timeframe that I decided I was going to try to see if I could be a competitive curler moving forward,” said Shuster.

From there, he took part in five Olympic Games, nine World Nine Championships and became a mainstay in the sport. The sensational John Shuster will defend his gold medal in the upcoming 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

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