U.S. WOMEN CONCLUDE OLYMPICS AT 4-5
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Three weeks ago, the U.S. Olympic Women’s Curling Team (Tabitha Peterson, Nina Roth, Becca Hamilton, Tara Peterson, and Aileen Geving) began their travels to Beijing, China for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games.
The Team spent a week in Los Angeles, going through team processing, meeting testing protocols, practicing at the Southern California Curling Center, and putting a bow on the final preparations for the biggest stage they’ve seen in four years.
The Team, skipped by Tabitha Peterson, had high expectations heading into the Games after earning the U.S. its first women’s world medal in 15 years by securing bronze back in May 2021.
Team Peterson started the Olympic competition strong. In fact, the team went unscathed through the first three games, handing losses to ROC, Denmark, and then China.
It was in the fourth game of the contest that Team USA experienced turbulence, losing 10-5 to Great Britain before dropping another game, 10-4, to Sweden.
Despite losing back-to-back matchups, the Team remained positive, focusing on improving each game.
"3-2 is great,” said Tabitha Peterson in a post-game interview. “If you said we'd be 3-2 at this point I think we'd be happy with it because we have played some tough games the last few days."
The Team rebounded, picking up a win against Korea by executing at a level that gave no indication it’d be the last win of the tournament for the U.S. women.
With playoff hopes still alive, Team USA lost games to Switzerland and Canada in heartbreaking fashion, before dropping the final round robin game to Japan, officially eliminating the Team from playoff contention.
"It's hard because this is such a tough field. We play these teams on the tour and I'd probably say overall we're fifty-fifty against these teams in general,” said Tabitha Peterson once eliminated. “So, we knew this would be tough but of course there's progress.”
The ‘Tour’ Peterson mentions is a circuit of international curling competitions that Team Peterson has spent every curling season traveling to compete in.
While the final preparations for the Olympic Games began just three weeks ago, Tabitha Peterson, Nina Roth, Becca Hamilton, Tara Peterson, and Aileen Geving’s planning has been years in the making.
"We've put in a lot of work the last four years, said Nina Roth. “2018 was kind of an eye opener of some things we needed to work on, and we made some adjustments moving forward."
Roth, referring to the Team’s experience at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, has taken on an entirely new position since her Olympic debut, moving in the third position after giving birth to her son Nolan just a couple years ago.
Roth isn’t the only team member who has transitioned into being a full-time mom while curling competitively, as Aileen Geving gave birth to daughter, Sienna, following the 2018 Games.
Embracing change is an underlying theme for the Team who has the rarity of tenure on their side, as Tara Peterson, Tabitha’s younger sister, joined the roster at lead, and Aileen Geving moved to the fifth position, allowing flexibility in traveling lineups for the Team to compete at the highest level while maintaining accomplished professional and familial lives at home.
The lineup of American women boasts a dentist, a pharmacist, a nurse, moms, spouses, and so much more.
While these are accolades that the roster under qualifies as simply a normal part of their lives, these accomplishments highlight the undeniable work ethic, sacrifice, relentlessness, dedication, and passion that each of the five women possess.
The Team went all-in on a goal after coming up short of the desired result four years ago in PyeongChang. They had the bravery to look in the mirror, shake things up, and make a run to leave it all out on the ice in Beijing, tying their own record for the most wins of an American women’s curling team at the Olympic Games in 20 years.
Thank you, Team Peterson, for representing the United States of America in a way that we will always admire and reflect upon with pride.
USA Curling is sponsored by Columbia Sportswear, Toyota, Twin Cities Orthopedics, Training HAUS, Brakebush, ISS (Ice, Sports & Solar), and Sitrin, and is partnered with IHG, Rock Solid Productions Inc., Laurie Artiss Ltd. – The Pin People.
