By Ben Helwig
The Omaha Sports Commission announced that the United States Olympic Curling Trials will be returning to Omaha in 2021. After a successful job of hosting back in 2017, Baxter Arena will become the Mecca of curling in the U.S. for two weeks in November. To help make the announcement were Omaha city councilman Pete Festerson (a very good curler himself), former UNO hockey coach Mike Kemp and perhaps most importantly, gold medal curler John Shuster. Shuster was the captain of the curling team at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea that captured the United States’ first gold medal in country history.
The city of Omaha actually has a rich curling history, starting with the Aksarben Curling Club. Established over fifty years ago, the Askarben Curling Club used to hold events in Aksarben before losing their ice. They now hold events using the facilities of Baxter Arena. Led by president Sean Morrison, the club is overjoyed to have the event returning to Omaha, especially considering the uptick in interest around the sport following the gold medal victory of 2018. As for Shuster, he enjoys returning to somewhere he and his team feels comfortable, having competed in Omaha back in 2017 and in the Curling World Cup in 2018.
