John Shuster

Career

Shuster began his international career playing lead for the Pete Fenson rink. He would play in his first Worlds at the 2003 Ford World Men's Curling Championship, where the U.S. would finish 8th. The rink returned to the Worlds at the 2005 Ford World Men's Curling Championship, where the team would lose in a tiebreaker game, after posing an 8-3 round robin record. The team would go on to play at the 2006 Winter Olympics, where they won a bronze medal. After the season, Shuster left the rink to form his own team.

Shuster would play in his first Worlds as a skip at the 2009 Ford World Men's Curling Championship in Moncton, New Brunswick, finishing with a 7-4 record and losing in a tiebreaker match against Norway to finish fifth. Shuster won the 2010 United States Olympic Curling Trials and represented the United States at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. After Shuster missed several crucial last-rock shots in three of the United States' first four matches in the 2010 Winter Olympics, U.S. coaches took the unusual step of benching Shuster and replacing him with alternate Chris Plys. Plys threw third rocks as skip, with Jason Smith throwing fourth rocks. In their first match after Shuster's benching, the U.S. won their first match of the tournament when they stole a point from France in the 10th end. Shuster returned to the ice in the next match, throwing third rocks against Sweden, whom the U.S. defeated. Plys returned to replace lead John Benton against world champion David Murdoch and Great Britain, but a 4–2 loss dropped the Americans to 2–5, all but assuring they would not qualify for the medal round.

After skipping the 2010 Olympic team to a last place finish, Shuster joined the Craig Brown rink as his third. For the 2010-11 season, Shuster formed his own rink with Zach Jacobson, Jared Zezel, and John Landsteiner. He then replaced Jacobson with longtime teammate Jeff Isaacson at third in the 2012–13 season. Shuster won his second World Curling Tour event as skip at the 2012 St. Paul Cash Spiel, defeating Todd Birr in the final.

After back-to-back bronze medal finishes at the 2012 and 2013 United States Men's Curling Championships, Shuster and his team were selected to participate at the 2014 United States Olympic Curling Trials by the national High Performance Program committee. Shuster and his team finished first in the round robin, and played Pete Fenson in the three-game final round, winning after the third game. Shuster represented the United States at the qualifying event for the Olympics, and succeeded in securing the final spot at the Olympics for the United States. He represented the United States at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, marking his third consecutive appearance at the Olympics. However, Shuster's rink got off to a slow start and were unable to recover, finishing in ninth place with a 2–7 win-loss record.

Shuster represented the United States at the 2015 Ford World Men's Curling Championship, again losing in a tie breaker match, settling for fifth place. Shuster would find more success at the 2016 World Men's Curling Championship, where he would win a bronze medal.

Personal life

Shuster is married to Sarah Shuster, and has two children. He is employed as a "Team USA Sales Associate" for Dick's Sporting Goods.