By Aadi Nair
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Danny Casper’s United States men’s curlers may not be as experienced as some of the teams they will face at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, but the 24-year-old skip has a message for his seasoned opponents: Watch out for the kids.
Casper is the youngest skip in the competition and his team’s other three starting members Luc Violette (26), Ben Richardson (27) and Aidan Oldenburg (24) are far from long in the tooth – although their alternate Rich Ruohonen is 54.
“It’s going to be super fun. We’ve played most of the teams here. It’s an honour to have that challenge, to be playing people who have been there and done that,” Casper told reporters on Tuesday.
“We’re the young team and haven’t been here before, but that doesn’t change the goal. The goal is always to win the gold.
“I have trouble wrapping my head around whenever that’s not the goal. People are just like, ‘We’re here to win a few games’, or ‘We’re here to make the playoffs’. I don’t get that ever.”
The young Americans will square off against intimidating opposition including reigning Olympic champions Sweden led by Niklas Edin, Bruce Mouat’s in-form Britain, and curling powerhouse Canada with 2014 gold medallist Brad Jacobs at the helm.
WE’RE GOING TO ENJOY IT
Casper is relishing the challenge.
“I don’t care what we’ve done in the past or what other teams have done in the past,” he said.
“Every team here is more than capable of beating the others. It’s just going to be fun. We’re going to enjoy it. And, you know, I might throw a couple of comments out there to Niklas (Edin) like, ‘You better not lose to some kids’.”
Team Casper earned their Olympic spot by exceeding expectations, beating 2018 Olympic champion John Shuster’s team in the U.S. trials before winning the Olympic Qualification Event in December.
Despite defeating Shuster’s men, Casper said the veterans had been extremely helpful, with Shuster’s third Chris Plys even travelling to Cortina as part of Team USA’s staff.
“It’s been awesome. You cannot really ask for much else from them. They deserve all the flowers that they’ve earned throughout the years,” Casper said.
“They have pulled us aside, they have texted us, called us… A kind of a cool story I like to tell is that after the trials final, the people that came over to hang out with us was them.
“I don’t think you see that in a lot of other places. They’re there for us whenever we want it. I mean, it’s just all class.”
The U.S. begin their campaign on Wednesday by facing the Czech Republic skipped by Lukas Klima.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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