BEIJING, China — Sixteen years after he won the Olympic curling gold medal, Brad Gushue is going back to Canada with bronze. The Canadians capitalized on a missed final shot by American — and reigning Olympic champion — John Shuster in the second-to-last end that turned a one-point edge into an insurmountable 8-5 lead.
Gushue won gold in Turin in 2006. Back then, he shared a podium with Shuster, who won bronze.
This time, the Canadian skip knocked his American counterpart off it.
Shuster has been back at every Winter Games since, winning it all in Pyeongchang and earning the honor as a U.S. flag bearer for the Beijing opening ceremony.
Gushue wasn’t able to get through the ultra-competitive Canadian Olympic trials again until this year.
The Americans took a 5-4 lead with two points in the sixth, then Canada scored two in the eighth to take the lead. With the United States holding the last-rock advantage in the ninth, Shuster tried to knock loose two Canadian rocks in the scoring area but missed.
That gave Gushue two points, with one end to go. Canada’s third-to last shot cleared all of the American rocks out of the target area, leaving no chance for the U.S. to tie the match, and Shuster immediately conceded.