Curling to get to the gold mine

The night he won gold at the Winter Olympics in February, Tyler George slept with the medal next to his pillow. He wanted to make sure it would still be there in the morning.

Nearly a year later, he still has barely let the medal out of sight, in large part because he has not been allowed to let it out of sight.

“I know that if I show up without that thing, they’ll send me home,” George said.

This is what happens when you are part of the first American men’s curling team to win an Olympic gold medal.

As invited guests at hockey games, golf tournaments and parades across the country, the members of the team have found that just about everyone wants a look at those medals. George and his four teammates — John Shuster, John Landsteiner, Matt Hamilton and Joe Polohave —appeared at award shows, state fairs, countless learn-to-curl events and at least one Broadway production (“The Play That Goes Wrong”). Their medals have been kissed by dozens, caressed by hundreds and worn by thousands — literally thousands, they say. 

They did not expect their victory tour to last quite so long, not that they are complaining. But there was something charming and inspiring about their Olympic experience, which they capped with victories against Canada and Sweden to clinch the United States’ first gold in curling, the ice sport played with brooms and smooth granite rocks. And so the invitations keep coming — as long as they remember to bring their medals with them. Landsteiner, 28, wonders if their medals have been the most widely travelled and heavily handled of any from the Pyeongchang Games. Among the luminaries who have tried them on: Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers; Nick Faldo, the three-time Masters winner; and Alfonso Ribeiro, the actor best known for his role as Carlton Banks on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”.

The team became a big story at the Olympics after it bounced back from a slow start to defeat a series of curling behemoths in the medal round. By the time the team staged its upset for gold, it was the middle of the night back home in Minnesota, where George grew up learning the game at the Duluth Curling Club.

While golfing in the BMW Charity Pro-Am in May, Hamilton and Shuster broke out their gold medals to use as ball markers before putts, though Shuster was the only one who was heckled.

“Awfully humble, aren’t we?” a woman shouted from the gallery.

But that sort of reaction has been the exception. Through all their experiences — meeting Jack Nicklaus as special guests at a golf tournament in Ohio, dropping pucks at NHL games, riding on the curling float at the National Cherry Festival — the team members have found that their gold medals have a gravitational pull all their own.

“When you hand it to an adult for a couple seconds, they’re like a child again,” Hamilton said. “They’re captivated by it.”

George said he enjoyed being able to share it with so many people, and in so many unconventional ways.”It is the world’s greatest coaster,” he said.

George and his teammates often receive appearance fees — they need to make a living, after all — but Hamilton said he thought their success at the Olympics would have generated more revenue from mainstream sponsors. Curling, however, remains a fringe sport in most of the United States, despite their best efforts. And the process of negotiating a movie deal — another big aspiration — has been fraught with challenges, though they are optimistic that their story could be coming (someday) to a big screen near you.

George announced in May that he was stepping away from competition, citing fatigue. He actually had felt burned out a couple of years ago, he said, but the Olympics were an unfulfilled goal. He now travels the globe as an ambassador for USA Curling.

On occasion, George thinks back to the night that changed his life: the team’s 10-7 victory over Sweden at Gangneung Curling Centre. During the match itself, George did not allow himself to entertain the dream of winning gold until it was practically assured.

“Because it would have been too much pressure if we’d thought about what was ahead of us — the places we’d go and the people we’d meet,” he said. “None of us had any idea.”

© 2019 The New York Times