U.S. Olympic Gold Medal–Winning Curling Team Inaugurates New Chicago Rooftop Curling Rink

It’s safe to say that curling in the U.S. has never been the same since 2018—and a new Chicago rooftop curling rink, the first of its kind in the city, underscores the sport’s growing popularity.

That year, of course, is when TeamTISI
Shuster, led by 40-year-old curling veteran John Shuster, earned the U.S. its first Olympic gold medal in curling. Shuster had been part of Pete Fenson’s team that took bronze at the 2006 Winter Olympics, and after that milestone he formed his own team.

Shuster and his team—Chris Plys (Third), Matt Hamilton (Second), John Landsteiner (Lead) and Colin Hufman (Alternate)—have been an invaluable force in growing curling’s popularity in the U.S.

So it was only fitting that Shuster, Hamilton, Plys and Hufman were on hand last week to celebrate the opening of Stone’s Throw, a new rooftop curling concept at The Emily hotel (the former Ace hotel space) in Chicago.

For years the Fulton Market location served as an outdoor function space that would host weddings and other events. When developer Onni Group took over last December with The Emily, the team began rethinking the potential of the space.

Earlier this year, The Emily added an offshoot of the open-air movie experience Rooftop Cinema Club concept, which drew more than 27,000 moviegoers to The Emily’s fifth-floor terrace over the summer.

When the team began to imagine what a winter offering on the outdoor space could look like, the curling concept wasn’t entirely out of left field.

Onni Group, is based in Canada, home to a thriving curling scene. And the sport has strong roots in the Midwest; the entirety of Team Shuster, which is based in Duluth, Minnesota, hails from the region; Shuster is from Chisholm, Minnesota; Hamilton is from Madison, Wisconsin; Plys is from Duluth and Hufman now lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, though he was born in Alaska.

Stone’s Throw boasts four curling courts and two yurts where guests can enjoy winter beverages and ’80s-themed food and snacks. It will be open throughout the winter, with heaters in both yurts and at each end of the curling rinks. The curling surface is not actual ice, and curlers don’t step directly on it to throw their stones, so finding appropriate footwear isn’t an issue.

The experience can be booked on Tock, with the cost of a one-hour curling reservation for two people being $60 and $110 for four people. Renting out the entire rooftop for one hour, all four rinks, is $400. Each reservation includes one adult beverage as well, and guests must be 21 or older to participate.

“We appreciate everyone coming out and celebrating this event,” The Emily general manager Zoltan Payerli said. “We think it’s a great way to push forward the fun way to keep warm in an active way in the winter season we’re about to embark on.”

Food and Beverage Development Director Billy Caruso added that the hope is guests will remain onsite after they curl to dine at one of The Emily’s two restaurants, Selva and Fora.

Shuster said his team “jumped at the chance” to be involved in the opening of Stone’s Throw and help promote the sport in metro areas like Chicago.

“What’s happening in here tonight, the fact that the momentum that we’ve garnered through the additional televising of our sport during the Olympics and between Olympic years—the world championships now are nationally televised—curling is happening in the major metro areas in the country and a rooftop curling patio can be a thing,” Shuster told me.

Shuster acknowledged that, of course, the setup at Stone’s Throw isn’t textbook curling. And yet…. “Exposing people to our sport…this is exactly what curling is: you compete on the ice and the camaraderie off the ice is some of the most special parts of our sport,” Shuster said.

“This setting captures that and a little bit of what it looks like. There are three [curling] clubs here in the Chicago metro area, and people can play actual real curling that we play daily as well. If this can boost that and curling in general, it’s just awesome to see.”

When Shuster was part of the bronze medal-winning team at the 2006 Games, he knew that curling’s profile could grow. Hailing from a curling community in Minnesota, Shuster’s father was a curler, and he grew a team that has become the gold standard to curlers across the country.

But Team Shuster has faced its share of adversity, leading up to the 2018 Olympics and even during them. Remember that Shuster and his crew had four losses to begin round-robin play before finishing 5-4 to advance to the semifinals, where they defeated Canada’s Kevin Koe and then, in the gold-medal match, Niklas Edin’s team representing Sweden to win the United States’ first-ever Olympic gold in curling.

One U.S. curler watching Team Shuster’s golden run through the 2018 Games? None other than Plys, who was on Heath McCormick’s team that lost to Team Shuster in the best-of-three Olympic trials ahead of the 2018 Games.

“As somebody that didn’t win a gold medal, watching what they did in ’18, as hard as it was at points for personal reasons of just being so close, it was also validating, obviously to them, but it was also validating to the rest of us that have put our lives into this sport,” Plys told me. “Because you knew that the culture and the level of play that the U.S. had come to was something that gave our country an opportunity to go and take that next step.”

All the members of Team Shuster plan to attempt to qualify for the 2026 Games. (At Beijing 2022, Shuster served as a flagbearer at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games, but the defending gold medal champions finished fourth after falling to Canada in round-robin play.)

But the pursuit is about more than gold medals. The goal now is the same as it was for Shuster in 2006—raise the profile of curling nationally and perhaps make it so that in the future, U.S. curlers can support themselves fully through the sport.

“Once we won a bronze in ’06 and I stayed with the sport it was about trying to figure out if we could get our sport to a place where somebody could make it a career,” Shuster said. “Since we won in 2018, I’ve almost gotten to that point because we won, but can the next team coming have that be their career path before they ever win an Olympic gold?”

“We’re getting close; the number of curlers in our country has grown exponentially and our TV coverage has grown exponentially and we have sponsors that are very gracious to us.”

Unlike in other nations, Team USA is not supported by the government or by tax dollars; it relies on partnerships and fundraising. Those funds, such as those earned through partnerships with sponsors like Columbia and Toyota, are allocated to each national governing body (NGB); in this case, USA Curling.

Team Shuster also has its own partnerships with sponsors Allianz and a curling supply company called Hardline based out of Montreal. This support helps with travel and equipment, but not quite with paying the bills.

“You have to have another career in our sport if you want to contribute to your family’s bottom line,” Shuster said. “Colin’s an engineer, Chris is a food broker, Matt is in the radio business. For me, my contribution was not having my kids in daycare; I stay home with my kids when I’m not traveling.”

But the 2018 gold medal win was a perfect case study in how an Olympic medal can raise curling’s—and a curler’s—profile.

“After 2018, having the mustache and everything, I definitely got the vibe that I had made a name for myself,” said Hamilton, whose mustache and jovial spirit were indeed the subject of many a meme and article. “But I wouldn’t have had those opportunities without my teammates.”

To that end, something that Team Shuster has instituted is a policy wherein each individual kicks 20 percent of his personal sponsorship earnings back to the team.

“Something we’re known for in general is our team chemistry and our communication and the way we all work together,” Shuster said. “We do that naturally on the ice, but in the way we do that off of the ice, you see us all here together, at an event like this, that chemistry that we have on the ice, off the ice, even the business off the ice just makes it so when we’re on the ice we’re that much more of a cohesive unit, that much more of a force in our sport.”

And so while renting a court at Stone’s Throw might just be a fun night out, it might also turn someone on to the sport who then joins a Chicago-area club. Perhaps that club becomes the next Team Shuster and wins an Olympic medal down the line.

It’s what Shuster, Hamilton, Plys and Hufman hope could happen when they go to curling events such as these and try to show people how fun and rewarding the sport can be.

“Wanting to leave a thing better than when you found it is motivating,” Hufman said.