The wait is over for Fairbanks-born curler Colin Hufman: He can now say he’s curled at the Olympics.for the U.S. men’s curling team, a position that guaranteed him a trip to Beijing — but whether he would get a chance to actually compete for Team USA was an open question. For the team’s first four games of the round robin, Hufman sat at the end of the ice with the team’s coaching staff, watching his teammates John Landsteiner, Matt Hamilton, Chris Plys and John Shuster compete.
The team split its first four games, winning against Russia and Great Britain, but chalking up losses to Sweden and Norway. Its fifth game was against medal favorite Team Canada, and the game got off to an inauspicious start. Missed shots led to a 7-1 deficit after the fifth end, the game’s halfway point. That’s when Team USA decided it was time to shake things up, and Hufman got to take off his warm-up jacket for the first time.