FARGO, N.D. – Seconds after her curling team won the U.S. Olympic trials Saturday night, Jessica Schultz raced up the concrete stairs at Scheels Arena. She didn't even pause to wipe the tears clouding her eyes as she headed to the section where her parents, Marty and Nancy, watched a nerve-racking 8-7 victory that vaulted Schultz and teammates Erika Brown, Debbie McCormick and Ann Swisshelm into the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Schultz moved from her native Alaska to Minnesota a decade ago to pursue a path as an elite curler. The training and travel required to chase an Olympic berth meant the Minneapolis resident had not seen her parents in 18 months. Their reunion was cause enough for celebration, but they got a huge bonus — and an equally huge hug from their elated daughter — as Schultz and her teammates became the first Americans nominated to the Sochi Games.
Brown, the skip of a team loaded with previous Olympic experience, broke a 7-7 tie with the last rock of the game to defeat a team skipped by Allison Pottinger of Eden Prairie. Brown's sweep in the best-of-three finals capped an emotional day in Fargo, with more to come before the weekend concludes.
Earlier Saturday, Pete Fenson of Bemidji defeated Duluth's John Shuster 5-4 to tie their best-of-three men's final at one game each, forcing a deciding game Sunday.
Pottinger's team, which lost 7-5 in Friday's Game 1, included three 2010 Olympians. Schultz said her team — the defending national champions — needed to manage its emotions in a game it knew would be close. Once it was over, however, they let their feelings fly.
"They're all just very excited and in shock," Schultz said of a posse of family and friends who saw her earn a second trip to the Olympics. "All the hard work and everything has come together. We were all crying. The emotions just drained through us.
"Our team's goal was to stay focused on the four of us on the sheet of ice. We knew all the shots we'd be playing we'd played before. Knowing we worked so hard for this moment, our goal was to stay in the moment and keep our nerves calm. Really, just breathe."
That was not as simple as it sounds in a game that fulfilled three years of hopes and dreams and labor and sweat. Brown was part of the 1998 Olympic team and had fallen short in three tries for a return trip. McCormick was the skip of the 2010 Olympic team; after a poor showing in Vancouver, her three teammates — including Pottinger and Natalie Nicholson of Bemidji — left her to form their own squad.