Matthew James Hamilton (born February 19, 1989) is an American curler from McFarland, Wisconsin. [2] He currently plays front-end on Team John Shuster. He is a World Junior Champion, World Men's bronze medalist, and Olympic gold medalist.
Matthew James Hamilton (born February 19, 1989) is an American curler from McFarland, Wisconsin. [2] He currently plays front-end on Team John Shuster. He is a World Junior Champion, World Men's bronze medalist, and Olympic gold medalist.
Hamilton played for skip Jeremy Roe at the 2007 and 2008 United States Men's National Championships, placing seventh [3] and ninth, [4] respectively. In 2008 he also joined Chris Plys' junior team, who had won the National Junior Championship the two previous years. Hamilton helped make it four Junior National Titles in a row for Plys, winning the 2008 and 2009 championships. [5]
As national champions, Hamilton and Team Plys represented the United States at the World Junior Championships. At the 2008 World Juniors in Östersund, Sweden they took home gold medals after beating Sweden's Oskar Eriksson 9–5 in the final. While in Sweden, Hamilton won the championship's 2008 Sportsmanship Award, an award only given to one male junior curler and one female junior curler. [2]
The following year, at the 2009 World Junior Championships held in the newly completed Vancouver Olympic Centre, they failed to defend their title, ending up with bronze medals. [5] Hamilton and his juniors team also competed at the 2009 United States Olympic Trials, which doubled as that year's national championship, finishing in eighth place with a 3–6 record.
For the 2009–10 season Hamilton returned to Jeremy Roe's team, as third.
In the stages leading up to the 2011 United States Men's Curling Championship, he played as Paul Pustovar's second through the Medford qualifier and the challenge round, eventually qualifying for the Nationals. He replaced Pustovar as skip in the Nationals and finished seventh with a 3–6 win–loss record.
Starting with the 2011–12 curling season, Hamilton joined Craig Brown at third for three seasons. This stint culminated with a silver medal at the 2014 National Championship, Hamilton's first men's championship medal.
After the 2014 Winter Olympics, the United States Curling Association held an athlete combine to determine which curlers to include in their High Performance Program (HPP) aimed at having better success at the next Olympics. Hamilton attended the combine but was not chosen as one of the ten male HPP curlers. John Shuster, three-time Olympian at that point, was also not chosen and, in response, created a new team nicknamed "The Rejects", bringing on Hamilton at second, fellow Olympian and combine reject John Landsteiner at lead, and Tyler George at third, who hadn't attended the combine due to his work. [6] They maintained this line-up for four seasons and found great success. At their first National Championships together in 2015, they defeated Hamilton's former skip Brown in the final to win the gold medal. [7] Representing the United States at the 2015 World Championship in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Team Shuster missed out on the playoffs when they lost a tiebreaker to Finland's Aku Kauste. [8] As a result of its success, Team Shuster was added to the High Performance Program for 2016. [6]
Hamilton and his team came up just short of defending their national title in 2016, losing to Brady Clark in the final. Despite finishing in second, Team Shuster earned enough points throughout the season to secure their return trip to the World Championship. [9] In Basel, Switzerland they defeated Japan's Yusuke Morozumi in the bronze medal match, earning the first World Men's medal for the United States since 2007. [10] For the 2016–17 season they added Joe Polo, a former teammate of Shuster and George, as alternate and won the 2017 National Championship. At the 2017 World Championship, their third Worlds in a row, they lost in the bronze medal game against Team Switzerland, skipped by Peter de Cruz. [11] Hamilton attended a second world curling championship this season, representing the United States at the 2017 World Mixed Doubles Championship after he and his sister and doubles partner Becca Hamilton won the US Championship. At the Worlds in Lethbridge, Alberta, they won their group during the round-robin phase and were the second seed going into the playoffs but ultimately ended in tenth place. [12]
Early in his fourth season on Team Shuster, Hamilton won the 2017 United States Olympic Curling Trials [6] with them and then a month later won the 2017 United States Mixed Doubles Curling Olympic Trials with Becca, earning his spot in both curling disciplines for his first Olympics.
In the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, the US team lost four of its first six matches and needed to win all of its three remaining matches to qualify for the playoffs, but all of its remaining opponents (Canada, Switzerland, and Great Britain) were currently among the top four teams. Nevertheless, the US team won all three matches to finish the round-robin in third place with a record of 5–4. In the semifinals, they defeated Canada's Kevin Koe, a two-time world champion, to reach the gold-medal match versus Niklas Edin's team representing Sweden. The gold-medal game was close through seven ends, with the score tied 5–5, but the United States scored five in the eighth end to set up a 10–7 victory. [6] [13] [14] This was the first Olympic gold medal in curling for the United States. In the mixed doubles competition, the Hamilton siblings did not fare as well, finishing in sixth place with a 2–5 record. [15]
After the Olympics, George took a break from competitive curling, and Team Shuster replaced him at third with Chris Plys. The slightly revamped team continued winning, taking gold at the 2019 United States Men's Championship. At the 2019 World Men's Championship, they finished in fifth place, having lost to Japan in the first round of playoffs. They defended their United States title at the 2020 United States Men's Championship, defeating Rich Ruohonen in the final to finish the tournament undefeated. [16] The national title would have earned Team Shuster a spot at the final Grand Slam of the season, the Champions Cup, [17] as well as the chance to represent the United States at the 2020 World Men's Curling Championship, but both events were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [18]
Team Shuster represented the United States at the 2021 World Men's Curling Championship, which was played in a fan-less bubble in Calgary due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. There, the team led the U.S. to a 10–3 round robin record, in third place. [19] They played Switzerland in the playoffs, in a game which was delayed a day due to some curlers testing positive for the virus. In the game, Switzerland, skipped by Peter de Cruz, beat the Americans to advance to the semifinals. [20]
Hamilton is a former research and development technician [21] [22] for Spectrum Brands. He currently works for ESPN as a radio host. He is married and resides in McFarland, Wisconsin. [23] His sister, Becca Hamilton, is also an elite curler. She played with Nina Roth in the women's event at the 2018 Winter Olympics, as well as with Matt in the mixed doubles event.
Hamilton gained notoriety on Twitter after tweets comparing him to video game character Mario in 2018 and Formula One driver Valtteri Bottas in 2022 surfaced. [24] [25]
| Season | Skip | Third | Second | Lead | Alternate | Coach | Events |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006–07 | Jeremy Roe | Matt Hamilton | Scott Templeton | Mark Hartman | Kroy Nernberger | 2007 USMCC (7th) | |
| 2007–08 | Chris Plys | Aanders Brorson | Matt Perushek | Matt Hamilton | Daniel Plys | Phill Drobnick | 2008 USJCC  2008 WJCC |
| Jeremy Roe | Patrick Roe | Richard Maskel | Mark Hartman | Matt Hamilton | 2008 USMCC (9th) | ||
| 2008–09 | Chris Plys | Aanders Brorson | Matt Perushek | Matt Hamilton | Aaron Wald | Phill Drobnick | 2009 USJCC 2009 WJCC  |
| Chris Plys | Aanders Brorson | Matt Perushek | Matt Hamilton | Phill Drobnick | 2009 USMCC/USOCT (9th) | ||
| 2009–10 | Jeremy Roe | Matt Hamilton | Patrick Roe | Tom Gabower | |||
| 2010–11 | Matt Hamilton | Jeremy Roe | Joseph Bonfoey | Patrick Roe | Paul Pustovar | 2011 USMCC (7th) | |
| 2011–12 | Craig Brown | Matt Hamilton | Kroy Nernberger | Derrick Casper | 2012 USMCC (4th) | ||
| 2013–14 | Craig Brown | Kroy Nernberger | Matt Hamilton | Jon Brunt | 2013 USMCC (7th) | ||
| 2013–14 | Craig Brown | Kroy Nernberger | Matt Hamilton | Jon Brunt | 2014 USMCC  | ||
| 2014–15 | John Shuster | Tyler George | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Craig Brown (WMCC) | Pete Fenson | 2015 USMCC 2015 WMCC (5th) |
| 2015–16 | John Shuster | Tyler George | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Kroy Nernberger (WMCC) | Phill Drobnick | 2016 USMCC 2016 WMCC |
| 2016–17 | John Shuster | Tyler George | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Joe Polo | Phill Drobnick | 2017 USMCC 2017 WMCC (4th) |
| 2017–18 | John Shuster | Tyler George | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Joe Polo | Phill Drobnick | 2017 USOCT 2018 OG |
| 2018–19 | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Korey Dropkin (WMCC) | Derek Brown | CWC/2 2019 USMCC 2019 WMCC (5th) CWC/GF (6th) |
| 2019–20 | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Sean Beighton | 2020 USMCC | |
| 2020–21 [26] | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Colin Hufman | Sean Beighton | 2021 WMCC (5th) |
| 2021–22 | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Colin Hufman | 2021 USOCT 2022 OG (4th) | |
| 2022–23 | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Colin Hufman | Phil Drobnick | 2023 USMCC 2023 WMCC (8th) |
| 2023–24 | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Colin Hufman | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Theran Michaelis | 2024 USMCC 2024 WMCC (6th) |
| 2024–25 | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Colin Hufman | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Theran Michaelis | 2024 PCCC |
| Season | Female | Male | Events |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015–16 | Becca Hamilton | Matt Hamilton | 2016 US World Trials (4th) [27] |
| 2016–17 | Becca Hamilton | Matt Hamilton | 2017 USMDCC 2017 WMDCC (10th) |
| 2017–18 | Becca Hamilton | Matt Hamilton | 2017 USMDOT 2018 OG (6th) |
| 2018–19 | Becca Hamilton | Matt Hamilton | 2019 USMDCC (QF) |
| 2019–20 | Becca Hamilton | Matt Hamilton | 2020 USMDCC (QF) |
| 2020–21 [28] | Becca Hamilton | Matt Hamilton | |
| 2021–22 | Becca Hamilton | Matt Hamilton | 2021 USMDOT (5th) 2022 USMDCC 2022 WMDCC (8th) |
| 2022–23 | Becca Hamilton | Matt Hamilton | 2023 USMDCC (5th) |
| 2023–24 | Becca Hamilton | Matt Hamilton | 2024 USMDCC [29] 2024 WMDCC (10th) |
| 2024–25 | Becca Hamilton | Matt Hamilton |
Joseph Polo is an American curler who is best known for winning a bronze medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics and being the alternate on the gold-medal winning United States men's team at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Polo was raised in Floodwood, Minnesota before moving to Cass Lake. He learned to curl in nearby Bemidji at the age of 10 in the Bemidji Curling Club's Sunday Night Junior League.
John Shuster is an American curler who lives in Superior, Wisconsin. He led Team USA to gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics, the first American team to ever win gold in curling. He also won a bronze medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. He has played in five straight Winter Olympics and eleven World Curling Championships.
The United States Curling Association is the national governing body of the sport of curling in the United States. The goal of the USCA is to grow the sport of curling in the United States and win medals in competitions both domestic and abroad. Curling's recent popularity has swelled the USCA to 185 curling clubs and approximately 23,500 curlers in the United States. The United States Olympic men's curling teams have seen success in recent years, most notably winning the gold medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, led by skip John Shuster.
Christopher Plys is an American curler from Duluth, Minnesota. He currently plays third on Team John Shuster. He is a World Junior Champion and four-time National Men's Champion. He was the alternate for the United States men's team at the 2010 Winter Olympics and a member of both the men's team and the mixed doubles team at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Jason Smith is an American curler from St. Paul, Minnesota.
Tyler George is an American curler from Duluth, Minnesota. He is a three-time U.S. Champion, 2016 World bronze medalist, and 2018 Olympic gold medalist. Since the 2018 Olympics, he has taken a break from playing competitive curling, instead spending time as an ambassador and coach for the sport.
Jamie Ann Sinclair is an American-Canadian curler from Osgoode, Ontario and is a three-time U.S. National Champion. Her United States Curling Association membership is through the Charlotte Curling Association in Charlotte, North Carolina where she has a number of personal connections. She grew up in Manotick, Ontario, a suburb of Ottawa.
Brady Clark is an American curler from Lynnwood, Washington. Clark is a ten-time national mixed champion, three-time national mixed doubles champion, and two-time national men's champion. He has played in three World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships and one World Men's Championship.
Rebecca Lynn Hamilton is an American curler from McFarland, Wisconsin. She is a five-time national women's champion, three-time national mixed doubles champion, two-time national junior champion, and a two-time Olympian. At the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, she competed in mixed doubles curling with her brother, Matt, along with playing with the women's curling team. She was again on the women's curling team during the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Cory Thiesse is an American curler from Duluth, Minnesota. She currently plays third on Team Tabitha Peterson. She is a three-time defending U.S. women's champion, winning titles in 2021, 2023 and 2024. Thiesse was one of the top junior women's curlers in the United States, playing in six national junior championships and winning four of them. She was the alternate on Nina Roth's 2018 United States Olympic team.
John Landsteiner is an American curler and three-time Olympian. He currently plays lead on Team John Shuster. He won gold as part of Shuster's team at the 2018 Winter Olympics and also competed in 2014 and 2022.
Tabitha Skelly Peterson is an American curler from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She was a bronze medalist at the 2010 World Junior Championships and is a three-time women's national champion. She currently is skip of her own team, having traded positions with Nina Roth during the 2020 off-season.
Korey Dropkin is an American curler originally from Southborough, Massachusetts. He currently skips his own team out of Duluth, Minnesota.
Richard Ruohonen is an American curler from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. He is a two-time national champion and as such represented the United States at the 2008 and 2018 World Men's Curling Championships.
Greg Persinger is an American curler. He was born in Fairbanks, Alaska. He was a member of Team USA at the 2018 World Men's Curling Championship.
Colin Hufman is an American curler. He was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, and resides in Seattle. He currently plays second on Team John Shuster. He has been a USA Curling Board member since August 2017 and USA Curling Athlete Representative for the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee Athletes Advisory Council since December 2020.
The 2019 United States Mixed Doubles Curling Championship was held from February 27-March 3, 2019 at the Granite Curling Club in Seattle, Washington. Cory Christensen and John Shuster won the tournament, earning the right to represent the United States at the 2019 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Stavanger, Norway.
The 2020 United States Mixed Doubles Curling Championship was held from February 27 to March 1 at the Bemidji Curling Club in Bemidji, Minnesota. The twelve teams were divided into two pools of six teams each. Each pool played a full round robin with the top three from each pool proceeding to the playoffs. The winning team of Tabitha Peterson and Joe Polo was supposed to represent the United States at the 2020 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Kelowna, Canada but the event got cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They will instead compete at the 2021 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Aberdeen, Scotland as the 2021 U.S. Mixed Doubles National Championship was postponed due to the pandemic.
Delaney Strouse is an American curler from Midland, Michigan. She currently skips her own team out of Traverse City. She is a two-time champion of the United States Junior Curling Championships, going on to win the bronze medal at the 2022 World Junior Curling Championships and the 2023 Winter World University Games.
Daniel "Danny" Casper is an American curler from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He currently skips his own team out of Chaska. He is a former U.S. junior champion, going on to win the silver medal at the 2023 Winter World University Games.
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