| Men's Olympic
curling team honored as
U.S. Olympic Committee Team of the Year
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 16, 2007
Men's Olympic curling team honored as U.S. Olympic Committee
Team of the Year
(STEVENS POINT, Wis.) - After making Olympic history last February,
the 2006 Olympic men's curling team was honored today as the U.S.
Olympic Committee's 2006 Team of the Year.
Led by Pete Fenson of Bemidji, Minn., the Olympic team won the
sport's first Olympic medal for the U.S. after defeating Great
Britain for the bronze medal in February in Torino, Italy.
Fenson and teammates Shawn Rojeski (Chisholm, Minn.), Joe Polo
(Bemidji), John Shuster (Chisholm, Minn.) and Scott Baird (Bemidji)
finished the Olympic Winter Games with a 7-4 record losing in
the semifinals to Canada to move to the bronze medal match with
David Murdoch's Great Britain rink.
"We're quite pleased and honored to have been named team
of year," Rojeski said. "It is quite an accomplishment
and privilege to be named along with the athletes who have received
this award before us."
The Fenson rink won the 2006 U.S. National Championships just
days following Torino and advanced to the 2006 World Men's Championship
in Lowell, Mass., where they finished fourth. The team played
well on the World Curling Tour all season long finishing the season
ranked No. 19 overall. To end the season, the team reached the
quarterfinals of the WCT Players' Championship.
The Fenson team won its third national title in four years at
the championships in March in Bemidji, Minn.
"I'm actually very honored to be part of a team that was
able to capture curling's first medal," Shuster said. "We
had just a great year that finished with a bronze medal. It's
just a real honor to get a chance to represent your country, and
a real honor to be recognized by the USOC."
This season the Fenson team added Doug Pottinger (Eden Prairie,
Minn.) at the lead position as Shuster elected to finish working
on his college degree at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Shuster's
new team is currently competing at the World University Games
in Torino, Italy.
"At the end of last season I decided to go back to college
to finish up my degree. Along with that I got another opportunity
as a full-time student again to represent the U.S. at the Winter
World University Games. I had to choose to move on and basically,
this year we took a shot and me and four of my friends won the
opportunity to represent the U.S. at the Winter World University
Games."
In Torino today, Shuster got to revisit the site where he and
his teammates received their bronze medals last February. "I'm
actually back in Torino right now, and today we went to exact
spot where we received our Olympic medal. I looked around and
this is where it was," Shuster said. "I got the same
emotions as when I bowed my head and they put the medal around
my neck."
This is the first time the sport of curling has been selected
as the USOC's Team of the Year. The team also was named USA Curling
Team of the Year for 2006.
Joey Cheek was named 2006 USOC Sportsman of the Year. Cheek skated
into the spotlight at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino,
Italy. Cheek won the gold medal in the 500-meter individual long
track, with the largest margin of victory in more than 50 years,
and the silver medal in the 1000-meter individual long track events.
Snowboarder Hannah Teter's gold medal-winning performance in
the halfpipe earned her the 2006 USOC Sportswoman of the Year
award. In 2006 on her way to Torino, Teter also won two Grand
Prix contests and took second at another; the Grand Prix is the
premier snowboard competition series in the nation. She also won
the 2006 World Cup.
Paralympian swimmer Jessica Long had a phenomenal year with a
long list of impressive accomplishments and was named the 2006
USOC Paralympian of the Year. She set five world records and earned
nine gold medals at the 2006 International Paralympic Committee
Swimming World Championships in Durban, South Africa in December.
Her gold medal performances were in freestyle relay (world record),
100-meter backstroke, 100-meter freestyle (world record), 100-meter
fly (world record), IM relay, 100-meter breaststroke, 200-meter
IM (world record), 400-meter freestyle (world record), and 50-meter
freestyle. She also set three world records at the 2006 U.S. Paralympic
National Championships in August; two world records at the GTAC
Open in Ypsilanti, Michigan, in May; two world records at the
Belgian Open in Antwerp, Belgium in May; and four world records
at the Spring Can-Am in London, Ontario, in April. She currently
holds world records in 12 events, one as part of a relay.
USA Curling is sponsored by AIT Worldwide Logistics, AmerAust
Technologies and Nike as well as by AT&T, General Motors,
The Home Depot, and Bank of America through a joint marketing
program with the U.S. Olympic Committee.
(30)
For more information: Terry Kolesar Luder, USA Curling, 1-888-287-5377,
terryk@curlingrocks.net.
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