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For 20 years, John Shuster of Superior, Wis., and Duluth, Minn., has been the face of U.S. curling. He represented the U.S. in the past five Winter Olympics, and his team won the 

 American gold medal in curling, at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games.

Shuster carried the American flag in the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Olympics. He was aiming for his sixth Winter Games. But the 43-year-old Midwestern dad and his team of seasoned curlers got beat at the 

 for curling in November, by 24-year-old Danny Casper and his (mostly) Gen Z team.

, all in their mid-20s and Olympic first-timers, mark a new era in U.S. curling. "We understand how much it means, for us but also for the country," Casper says, "We want to do our best to represent everyone well, so we're definitely going to give it our all."

The competition at the Team Trials was fierce. It came down to the very last match. U.S. curling fans told NPR it was the best competition they'd seen in years.

It was also civilized, with Team Shuster graciously conceding the loss. "Whatever you do, give it whatever you have — and some days it's not enough, and that's OK," Shuster said in a TV interview immediately after losing the final match. "Everyone needs to get behind those guys," he added, urging the stadium packed with mostly Shuster fans to support Team Casper in their Olympic run.

Curling is a game of tradition, first played 

 on Scottish lochs, where players slide heavy granite rocks down a sheet of ice toward a target.

": You don't distract your opponents, you call your own fouls and you respect each other and the game.

"I want to respect the sport, and it's a great sport," Casper says. "At the same time, it's a small one, and if we want it to grow, we gotta do something about it."

Casper and his teammates try to up the entertainment in their performances. His teammates Ben Richardson and Aidan Oldenburg are known to 

. "We want to win, but we're here doing it because it's fun," Casper says. "If you show up at the arena and you've never watched curling before, why would you care that we just 

? But if we start yelling at the crowd and pumping them up, dancing — that's something, and then maybe they'll go try it themselves," Casper says.

Men's and women's curling are team sports — three players take turns throwing rocks toward a target and using brooms to sweep their paths down the ice. A fourth player, the skip or team captain, calls the shots and throws the final rocks.

The team whose rock is closest to the center of the target, or house, scores. They get a point for that rock, along with additional points for every other rock that's closer to the center than their opponent's nearest rock.

At these elite levels, members have played on many other teams. Some have led their own top teams before joining this one. "I don't think about it as Team Casper," Danny Casper says. "I feel a little bit weird because it's my name and it feels a little selfish or something."

It's been a special team effort for Casper, who developed

 about two years ago. It's a rare autoimmune condition that causes nerve damage, affecting Casper's hands and legs, and it kept him out of the game for several months. With medication and physical therapy, he's back to curling full time, though he still suffers some of the effects.

To help shore up the team, veteran curler Rich Ruohonen joined as a fifth man — an experienced player and coach who can substitute in as needed.

 at the Olympics. "It's been a long road. I've been so close so many times to the Olympics — it was really emotional for me because I thought it was over," he says. "I figured I'd get there someday as a coach maybe, but to get there, even as an alternate, is just my dream."

If he throws a rock, he'll go into history as the oldest U.S. athlete to compete in the Winter Olympics, besting figure skater 

, who competed as a 52-year-old figure skater in the 1932 Lake Placid Games, according to Olympic historian Bill Mallon.

Ruohonen has been competing at the top levels of curling for more than 30 years — longer than his Gen Z team members have been alive. One of the changes, he says, is that sweeping has become more aggressive. "We didn't used to practice it. We weren't in the gym all the time," he says. "We used to throw a million rocks. Now we throw less rocks and we work out more."

When he's not curling, Ruohonen is a partner at a personal injury law firm. He doesn't sleep much, he says. Most curlers hold

. The women's team includes a pharmacist, a dentist and a lab technician. Casper's team has a civil engineer and an environmental scientist.

Casper was asked what he'd do after his big victory at the Olympic Trials. "I was going to drive home and go to work tomorrow," he said. He did, in fact, show up for his job at an Alfa Romeo car dealership the next day.

 starts Feb. 11 and finishes with the medal events Feb. 20-21. If they win at the

, Team Casper may celebrate in a bigger way.

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At the U.S. Curling Olympic Trials, a team of Gen Z curlers usurped the long-reigning champions in a big upset. Team Casper is bringing swagger, limber knees and some new sensibilities to a tradition-filled sport.

America’s Gen Z curlers bring new ways to a traditional sport

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