Team USA’s John Shuster curls a stone during the men’s round robin curling competition between the USA and the Russian Olympic Committee at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, Feb. 9, 2022.
It was anyone's match up until the very last moment, but the U.S.' Team Shuster got its 2022 Winter Olympics off to a strong start against the Russian Olympic Committee.
It took extra ends, but the U.S. curling team started off their quest at defending their gold medal with a close 6-5 win over the ROC.
Team USA's defending gold medalists, including Wisconsin stars John Shuster and Matt Hamilton, ultimately came out on top with the final stone in the nail-biting match.
Watch it below:
In the first match of round-robin play, U.S. skipper John Shuster nailed the button in extra ends to pull out the close victory.
The United States nearly grabbed the win in the usual 10 ends. The 10th end came down to a measurement while the U.S. held a 5-4 lead.
With both the U.S. and the ROC having stones on the edge of the button, if the American rock was closer to the button, the U.S. would win. If the ROC's was closer, it would grab the point to tie the match.
It was determined that the ROC's stone was closer to the middle, getting the point to tie the game and force the extra end before the United States took advantage of a bad rock by ROC skipper Sergei Glukhov to secure the victory.
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