Tyler, George who is the General Manager at George’s Liquor in Duluth, won a gold medal as a member of the Men’s Curling Team in Korea on February 24th. Team USA beat Sweden 10-7 in the gold medal final game.
George is not the only Minnesotan on the team, his teammate John Shuster is from Chisholm, while John Landsteiner and Joe Polo are from Duluth and Matt Hamilton of McFarland, Wisconsin. Tyler George has be curling his whole life starting at his home club and MLBA member The Duluth Curling Club where his parents Tom and Christine George watched him take Olympic gold in the wee hours of the morning of February 24th.
Team USA was a definite underdog in the Olympics. They started out the tournament 2-4 and had to win 3 straight just to make the medal round, beating powerhouse Canada on the way. They they had to beat favored Canada again in the semi-finals and then world number-one ranked Sweden to take the gold. Skipper John Shuster made an incredible final shot (or “hammer”) in the 8th round (or “end”) in the Gold Medal Match knocking out 2 Swedish “stones” from the “house” and giving the US an unprecedented 5 points and breaking a 5-5 tie with just 2 ends to play. The US played defense the last 2 ends and Sweden conceded with 2 stones left in the 10th end.