Keeping curling cool goal for sport’s chief in US after gold

Curling, among the many “nichiest” of area of interest sports activities in america, took its place within the nationwide highlight after the American males gained the gold meda l on the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018.

USA Curling chief govt Jeff Plush was employed two years in the past to construct off the momentum and develop a program that can transfer the game nearer to the forefront and make appearances on the medal stand an expectation somewhat than a nice shock.

The John Shuster-skipped workforce that upset Sweden in 2018 can be in Beijing subsequent month to play for an additional gold. Becoming a member of him are returnees Matt Hamilton and John Landsteiner and newcomer Chris Plys.

The ladies’s skip is Tabitha Peterson, who performs with Nina Roth, Becca Hamilton and Tara Peterson. The U.S. ladies are searching for their first medal because the sport was added to the Olympic program in 1998. Plys and Vicky Persinger will compete in combined doubles.

Previous to becoming a member of USA Curling, the 55-year-old Plush was an govt in skilled soccer and a sports activities agent.

He oversaw the 2021 transfer of USA Curling’s longtime headquarters in Stevens Level, Wisconsin, to Eagan, Minnesota, the place world-class curlers have entry to up-to-date services on a campus shared with the Minnesota Vikings.

Plush is working to extend funding and land new sponsorships whereas additionally tending to the game on the grassroots degree — there are 25,000 curlers amongst 197 golf equipment — and inspiring efforts to diversify curling.

Plush sat down with The Related Press for a 45-minute interview (remarks have been edited for readability and size).

AP: Do you know a lot about curling while you while you had been employed?

PLUSH: Very, little or no — in all probability as a lot as the common fan who watches each 4 years. You study fairly fast how type of endlessly advanced it's. These gamers on the elite degree, they’ve received over 150 ft of ice, and it’s a margin of inches between successful and dropping.

USA Curling chief govt Jeff Plush, left, shakes arms with Staff Shuster's John Shuster following his workforce's victory over Staff Dropkin throughout the third night time of finals on the U.S. Olympic Curling Staff Trials at Baxter Enviornment in Omaha, Neb., Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021. Curling, among the many “nichiest” of area of interest sports activities in america, took its place within the nationwide highlight after the American males gained the gold medal on the Pyeongchang Olympics. USA Curling chief govt Jeff Plush was employed two years in the past to construct off the momentum and develop a program that can transfer the game nearer to the forefront and make appearances on the medal stand an expectation somewhat than an aberration.

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AP: Did the 2018 Olympic gold medal elevate the bar for the game in America?

PLUSH: Nicely, it ought to, and it must. I don’t suppose you run away from that. When you've got success, you earn the precise to demand extra of your self. We now have to applaud what occurred in 2018 and notice that that's over and we've to go and attempt to obtain this stuff yearly whether or not it’s a world championship, whether or not it’s males or ladies, Paralympics.

AP: Is the U.S. males’s program forward of the ladies’s?

PLUSH: I believe you’d need to say it type of is. I believe we've much more we will do with the ladies’s program. I’m undecided that it was as a lot of a spotlight because it wanted to be. I believe we owe it to the ladies’s program to (put) extra effort and time into it. And I believe we’ll be rewarded for doing it as a result of we’ve received nice younger ladies coming by the pipeline.

AP: What has USA Curling completed to place some extra emphasis on the ladies’s program?

PLUSH: After I got here into this system, we had three males’s funded groups and solely two for girls. So simply from gender fairness, an equal variety of workforce dollars going into packages. It’s not nearly cash, it’s about our ethos, proper? I used to be excited to do this immediately. I believe it’ll will bear fruit.

AP: How tough is it financially for curlers to coach and be developed to compete on the world degree?

PLUSH: It’s nonetheless very robust. All of them produce other jobs. There may be not practically sufficient cash within the ecosystem but. And that’s a part of my mission, to alter that.

AP: Are extra younger athletes specializing in curling?

PLUSH: There’s no query the expertise degree is growing. We’re persevering with to put money into the event each on the elite degree and grassroots degree. Whether or not it’s for psychology, vitamin or our (athletic) coach, we’ve prolonged that now all the way down to our juniors.

AP: Is there room to develop past the 25,000 curling membership members?

PLUSH: Demand is there. We now have actually nice, very well-run golf equipment in main markets like Boston or Detroit or Chicago. They don’t have capability. They'll’t get any greater. They’ve received ready lists.

AP: So constructing extra curling services is a precedence?

PLUSH: I really feel very strongly about that and I believe that’s a problem as a nonprofit. We don’t have the capability to ship it ourselves. So discovering individuals who can share our imaginative and prescient and convey our belongings to the desk.

AP: Have there been efforts by USA Curling to reinforce variety?

PLUSH: Completely. We’ve launched a program known as Icebreakers. We’ve piloted it in about 15 golf equipment. It’s about getting stones and brooms within the arms of individuals of coloration, folks from extra of an city market, much less privileged backgrounds, It’s been a sport that’s been largely white, largely by nation membership backgrounds to some extent as nicely. So I really feel very strongly that our sport generally is a nice sport for folks of all backgrounds.

AP: Is it like an after-school program?

PLUSH: Completely. It doesn’t need to be on ice, so we might take our road curling kits into YMCAs, Boys and Ladies Golf equipment. Each faculty district is affected by funds cuts. Each faculty district sees worth in after-school programing. I believe our sport is absolutely well-suited to do this and fairly cheap within the grand scheme of issues.

AP: If you had been employed, was there an edict that USA Curling wanted to modernize?

PLUSH: There wasn’t the edict. I believe there’s simply the understanding that there was extra alternative. I believe that’s in all probability a part of why I received the job. I take an strategy that’s very formidable. Not solely ought to we be a really vital sport in america, we needs to be one of the best curling nation on the earth. It doesn’t simply occur, proper? You need to do plenty of arduous work to push your self and notice the remainder of the world goes to be pushing themselves, too.

AP: Will you not be glad till there are Individuals on the Olympic stand medal stand each 4 years?

PLUSH: Oh, I don’t suppose you possibly can count on that. I gained’t be glad if we’re not maximizing our potential each day. I really feel actually good if we’re treating our athletes in a manner they really feel valued, if we’re treating my workers with a tradition the place they really feel supported and pushed, and if our board has delight in what we’re doing for our communities of coloration. It’s about doing issues the precise manner and making a program the American folks could be actually happy with. In case you do these issues, we’re going to win.

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Extra AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports