It was halfway across the world nearly a decade ago that Minnesota native John Shuster chose to completely change the way he thought about curling.

It took being on the brink of elimination in the round robin portion of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang for him to realize that he was putting too much pressure on himself when it came to the game he loved so much.

It wasn’t sustainable.

“I decided I wasn’t going to let results define my joy,” Shuster said. “I decided I was going to be satisfied with being the best I could possibly be.”

That shift in mindset freed Shuster from the weight of expectations that had been holding him back for so long. It paid off almost immediately as the U.S. beat Canada, then Switzerland, then Great Britain in succession to advance to the medal round.

That paved the way for Shuster — born in Chisolm and living near Duluth — to reach celebrity status. He became the face of the sport stateside after the U.S. finished the job and took home its first gold medal in the sport.

“Just seeing how much difference that made was huge,” Shuster said. “I’ve never gone back.”

That shift in mindset was put to the test in the lead up to 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The questions were rooted in whether Team Shuster was approaching it like it was gold medal or bust. The answers were similar each time.

“The comment I made was, ‘If we can leave feeling like we played the best we could play then I’d be OK,’ ” Shuster said. “Then of course God said, ‘Hold my beer.’ ”

Not only did the U.S. fail to secure the gold medal, the group that included Shuster, John Landsteiner, Matt Hamilton and Chris Plys missed out on the podium altogether.

“I realized how much of a change I had personally made when I walked off after losing in the semifinals,” Shuster said. “I didn’t have this massive emotionally defeated response. That’s validating looking back on it. I was like, ‘You know what? I really am living how I say I am.’ ”

That shift in mindset was once again on display a few months ago when Team Shuster lost to Team Casper in the Olympic Trials. The meant that Team Shuster wouldn’t be representing the U.S. at the to 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina.

After shaking hands in defeat, Team Shuster committed to helping Team Casper in whatever way they could. It speaks to how close the community is at its core. It also speaks to the change Shuster committed to long ago.

“The fact that we played great and lost probably made it easier for me,’” Shuster said. “That definitely helped the next step, which was, ‘Let’s support these guys.’ ”

This will be the first time in 20 years that Shuster is not representing his country on the highest stage. That doesn’t mean he will be completed removed from the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina. He’s going to be serving as a curling analyst live from NBC Studios in Stamford, Conn.

“I’ll be watching every shot of every game,” Shuster said. “I’ll be able to give some insight to what I’m seeing.”

That shift in mindset continues to show up for Shuster nearly a decade later, even though he’s well aware of the irony that followed him choosing not to let results define his joy. Would he still have stayed committed to the change had it not played a role in him winning the gold medal?

“I don’t know,” Shuster said. “I hope it would’ve because life as a whole has been better since I was like, ‘My best is good enough for me.’ I try to teach my kids that. We don’t always have to be perfect if we’re doing our best.”

Related Articles

US snowboard star Chloe Kim calls for unity after Trump bashes teammate over immigrant crackdown

Should Lindsey Vonn have been allowed to race?

Gremaud again denies Gu an Olympic gold medal in freeski slopestyle

Chloe Kim will ride Olympic halfpipe with a shoulder brace, says she’s anxious but also confident

Olympic town warms up as climate change puts Winter Games on thin ice

The Frost sent eight players to the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Italy, and for most it will be a familiar experience. Of the six Minnesota players on Team USA, only forwards Taylor Heise and Britta Curl-Salemme are first-timers.

And for Heise, it’s been a long time coming.

Minnesota Frost’s Grace Zumwinkle, left, throws out a ceremonial first pitch as teammate Taylor Heise, right, watches before a baseball game between the Los Angeles Angels and the Minnesota Twins, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

The Lake City, Minn., native and former Gopher was left off the U.S. team that would win a silver medal in the 2022 Games in Beijing, and it was difficult. “I was pretty close,” she said.

“Four years is a long time to wait,” Heise said.

She and Curl-Salemme join Frost teammates who have been here before: Kendall Coyne Schofield, Lee Stecklein, Kelly Pannek and Grace Zumwinkle.

For Heise, the most notable name there is Zumwinkle, the Gophers teammate who moved on to Beijing in 2022 while Heise stayed in Minneapolis.

Both agreed it was a growing moment in their relationship, and that their bond as friends is tighter than either could have expected back in 2022.

“We’re the best of friends on and off the ice, so it’ll be super cool to share that experience together,” Zumwinkle said. “I know we’ve both had to overcome times of adversity in the past, and it’s ultimately brought us closer together. We’re super excited for it together, and I think it should be a lot of fun.”

And perhaps sweeter than it would have been in 2022, when the Games were played under strict COVID restrictions that severely limited the athletes’ ability to mingle and had them playing in mostly empty arenas. As usual, the 2022 gold medal was decided by a game between the U.S. and Canada that Canada won, 3-2.

For Zumwinkle, an Excelsior native who played high school hockey at Breck, these Games will be an exciting change.

“I have a lot of family and friends coming over, so we’re excited about that,” she said. “And I think it’ll be a completely different experience.”

Heise and Zumwinkle have been Gophers, Frost and World Championship teammates. Now, they’re Olympic teammates.

Upon officially earning a spot on the 2026 team on Jan. 2, Heise said being cut in 2022 — by then-head coach and Gophers assistant Joel Johnson — was appropriate. “I wasn’t ready,” she said, and after looking inward, she vowed to get better.

And she did

That spring, Heise won the 2022 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award as the nation’s best college player after scoring 29 goals and amassing 66 points in 39 games for the Gophers. In the summer, she was the MVP and leading scorer (18 points) at the IIHF World Championships.

After a last season with the Gophers, Heise became the first overall draft pick in PWHL history, picked by the Frost in September 2023. Since then, Heise has been a Team USA fixture and two-time PWHL champion.

Being separated from longtime teammate and roommate Zumwinkle, Heise said, was, “Honestly, probably the best for both of us.”

“I learned a lot, she learned a lot separately,” she said. “I think this time, being 25, we’ve kind of understood the process now. I’m just super excited to be along with her. So I know it’s going to be a good ride.”

Heise will have her fiancé, former Gophers basketball player Parker Fox, among friends and family in Italy, and she will reunite with former Gophers teammate Abbey Murphy, one of four current Minnesota players in Milan.

“Crazy,” Heise said. “It’s been a month. But (I’m) just super excited to get there, and obviously the chance of a lifetime. So, trying to take advantage of that.”

The U.S. won Olympic gold in 2018 with a team that included Coyne Schofield, Pannek and Stecklein.

Gophers senior Taylor Heise, right, celebrates her game-winning goal with teammate Nelli Laitinen in a 3-2 overtime victory over Minnesota Duluth on Nov. 4, 2022, at Ridder Arena (Bjorn Franke / Gophers Athletics)

Related Articles

Meet the Minnesotans competing in the 2026 Winter Olympics

Frost overpower Goldeneyes

More sports figures speak out on ICE actions in Minnesota

Frost rebound from OT losses to top New York

Frost come up short in second consecutive OT loss to Montreal

By SUDHIN THANAWALA

ATLANTA (AP) — Federal judges around the country are scrambling to address a deluge of lawsuits from immigrants locked up under the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.

Under past administrations, people with no criminal record could generally request a bond hearing before an immigration judge while their cases wound through immigration court unless they were stopped at the border. President Donald Trump ‘s White House reversed that policy in favor of mandatory detention.

Immigrants by the thousands have been turning to federal courts by using another legal tool: habeas corpus petitions. While the administration scored a major legal victory Friday, here’s a look at how that’s affecting federal courts and what some judges have done in response:

Judges are raising the alarm

In one federal court district in Georgia, the enormous volume of habeas petitions has created “an administrative judicial emergency,” a judge wrote in a court order on Jan. 29. U.S. District Judge Clay Land in Columbus said the Trump administration was refusing to provide bond hearings to immigrants at Georgia’s Stewart Detention Center despite his ”clear and definitive rulings” against mandatory detention. Instead, the court had to order the hearing in each individual case, wrote Land, a nominee of Republican President George W. Bush.

In Minnesota, where the administration’s immigration enforcement surge continues, U.S. District Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz said in a Jan. 26 order Trump officials had made “no provision for dealing with the hundreds of habeas petitions and other lawsuits that were sure to result.” The court had received more than 400 habeas petitions in January alone, according to a filing by the government in a separate case.

Schiltz, who was also nominated by Bush, said in a separate order two days later that the government since January had failed to comply with scores of court decisions ordering it to release or provide other relief to people arrested during Operation Metro Surge.

And in the Southern District of New York, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian said in an opinion in December that the district had been “flooded” with petitions for relief from immigrants who posed no flight risk or danger but were nonetheless imprisoned indefinitely. Subramanian, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and presides in New York City, granted a 52-year-old Guinean woman’s habeas petition and ordered her release.

“No one disputes that the government may, consistent with the law’s requirements, pursue the removal of people who are in this country unlawfully,” he wrote. “But the way we treat others matters.”

The administration defends its actions

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement on Friday that the administration was “more than prepared to handle the legal caseload necessary to deliver President Trump’s deportation agenda for the American people.”

DHS and the Justice Department, which also emailed a statement, slammed the judiciary.

“If rogue judges followed the law in adjudicating cases and respected the Government’s obligation to properly prepare cases, there wouldn’t be an ‘overwhelming’ habeas caseload or concern over DHS following orders,” the Justice Department statement said.

On Friday, a federal appeals court backed the administration’s policy of detaining immigrants without bond. The 2-1 ruling by a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals marked a major legal victory for the government and countered a slew of recent lower court decisions that argued the practice was illegal.

Immigration attorneys accuse the administration of flouting a key court decision

In November, a federal judge in California ruled that the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy was illegal. U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes in Riverside, who was also nominated by Biden, later expanded the scope of the decision to apply to detained immigrants nationwide.

But plaintiffs’ attorneys said the administration continued to deny bond hearings.

“This was a clear cut example of blatant defiance, blatant disregard of a court’s order,” Matt Adams, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, told The Associated Press in January.

According to Sykes, the government argued her decision was “advisory” and told immigration judges, who work for the Justice Department and are not part of the judicial branch, to ignore it. The judge said she found the latter instruction “troubling.”

In its statement, DHS said “activist judges have attempted to thwart President Trump from fulfilling the American people’s mandate for mass deportations.”

Judges are trying to find ways to ease the burden

Land, the federal judge in Georgia, directed other judges in his district to immediately order the government to provide bond hearings to immigrants who meet criteria established by two previous habeas cases.

Related Articles

US snowboard star Chloe Kim calls for unity after Trump bashes teammate over immigrant crackdown

Ghislaine Maxwell declined to answer questions from a House committee, citing 5th Amendment rights

Vance is in Armenia, a country no sitting US president or vice president has visited before

Masks emerge as symbol of Trump’s ICE crackdown and a flashpoint in Congress

Bad Bunny delivers joyful Super Bowl halftime show

Maryland District Court Chief Judge George L. Russell III has ordered the administration not to immediately remove any immigrants who file habeas petitions with his court, under certain conditions. Russell, who was nominated by President Barack Obama, a Democrat, said in an amended order in December that the court had received an influx of habeas petitions after hours that “resulted in hurried and frustrating hearings.”

In Tacoma, Washington, U.S. District Judge Tiffany Cartwright ordered the administration last month to give immigrants detained at a processing center in Tacoma notice of her ruling that the mandatory detention policy was illegal. Cartwright, who was also nominated by Biden, said the high volume of habeas filings had put a “tremendous strain” on immigration attorneys and the court.

The Gophers football program gained two more Super Bowl champions in Boye Mafe and Nick Kallerup contributing to the Seattle Seahawks’ 29-13 win over New England on Sunday in Santa Clara, Calif.

Minnesota last had former players active in a Super Bowl victory in 2021 when Antonie Winfield Jr., and Tyler Johnson were a part of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ victory.

Mafe, who attended Hopkins High School, was credited with with one tackle and a quarterback hit in the big game. Kallerup, of Wayzata, has played on special teams and as an extra blocker on offense this season.

After the win, Mafe celebrated with a cigar and holding up the Nigerian flag in honor of his heritage.

New England had former U linebacker Jack Gibbens on defense and special teams in Super Bowl 60. The Bulverde, Texas, native was credited with four tackles in the loss, but also gave up a second-half touchdown.

The Gophers now have a total of 22 Super Bowl champions since 1967. The last was kicker Ryan Santoso in 2022; he was a member of the L.A. Rams’ practice squad.

Related Articles

Coming Sunday, another Gophers Super Bowl champion

Gophers assistant Bobby April III leaving for Buffalo Bills

Football: Check out the Gophers’ full 2026 schedule

Gophers report $2.4 million surplus due to Big Ten revenue jump

Men’s basketball: Gophers lose again in overtime, 82-74 to Ohio State