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Olympics Blog

The curlers are in the house

By Helene Elliott
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The first athletes qualified for the U.S. Olympic team for the Vancouver Winter Games, news that probably went right past you unless you know what a rock, a rink and a broom have in common.

They’re all curling terms, and the U.S. men’s and women’s curling trials were held last weekend at the Broomfield Event Center in Broomfield, Colo. The men’s event was won by skipper John Shuster of Duluth, Minn., and teammates Jason Smith of Cape Coral, Fla., Jeff Isaacson of Gilbert, Minn., and John Benton of St. Michael, Minn.

Among the women, Debbie McCormick of Rio, Wis., earned her third Olympic berth when her rink won its final. Her teammates are Allison Pottinger of Eden Prairie, Minn., Nicole Joraanstad of Madison, Wis., Natalie Nicholson of Bemidji, Minn., and Tracy Sachtjen of Lodi, Wis.

-- Helene Elliott

Olympics Blog
Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

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