Curling rules and sweep explanation
Learn how Olympic curling works, from positions to overall strategy, in this fast-talker from USAT’s Sam Cardona Norberg.
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Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – Danny Casper never cries.
He’s not the emotional type. He’s actually a little aloof. He and his curling teammates joke that he lacked concentration enough to really get thrown out during a match. But looking back on the past two years from the top of Italy’s Dolomites during his first Winter Olympics, Casper can’t help but find himself at a loss for words. Tears well up in his eyes and he can’t stop them. I can’t help but feel all the emotions.
“I don’t want to say I never expected to be here, because that’s what I thought about every day,” Casper told USA Today. “…But at the same time, I feel like he meant it when he said, “I guess all I can do is watch my friends there and support them.”
Curling is Casper’s life. He’s been on this path for 13 years, ever since he was one of a handful of juniors at New York’s Ardsley Curling Club, playing on the ice with kind adults who accompanied him. If you ask him what he does outside of sports, you won’t get an answer. (“Well, maybe not very healthy,” he admitted sarcastically. “I don’t know.”)
But two years ago, he had to give it up. I had to “forget about curling” for a little while. It was a decision his body made because he could no longer walk. “I really couldn’t do anything.” That includes operating a cell phone, which no doubt means picking up and throwing 40-odd pound curling stones.
Casper developed Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), an autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system attacks the nerves. This can cause numbness, weakness, and paralysis. It took three months before doctors realized what was happening to him. He has been living with the diagnosis, which affects 1 to 2 in 100,000 people, for two years and beyond.
There are better days now than before. After all, he beat John Shuster & Co. at the U.S. Olympic Trials to qualify, so he’s a skip at the Winter Olympics. But the pain still hits him. After going through this four-year cycle, Casper isn’t sure if he’ll be able to continue until 2030, if he still has the heart then. (The exact cause and treatment for GBS is unknown, but most people make a full recovery. Casper was originally told it would go away within eight months to a year.)
He is doing his best to take advantage of this experience. I wish I was better at things like that. “I’m always goofing around during games and stuff, so I don’t think this moment really got to me, in a good or bad way,” Casper said. “I just want to be a little more like, ‘Wow, I’m here for the Olympics.'”
But there were also moments, like Tuesday’s press conference, when Casper questioned what it meant to be in Cortina after everything he’s been through. My voice caught in my throat and my jaw trembled as I answered. Competing at the highest level is special. But do they compete at all?
“At the end of the day, I’m curling,” Casper said. “That’s pretty much all I can ask for.”
Casper initially ignored the first signs that something was wrong in 2024. He was competing in the USA Curling Mixed Doubles Nationals. He doesn’t usually play mixed doubles. And although he doesn’t usually sweep, he was doing it for his partner, Vicki Persinger.
Sweeps were never one of Casper’s strengths. So when he started dealing with neck and back pain at events, he chalked it up to being a skill issue, not a medical issue. But over the next two weeks, he “continued to go downhill super fast.”
Casper bounced from doctor to doctor for three months. They threw him a phone book with diagnostic results. Perhaps it’s multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease that “causes the destruction of the protective membranes of nerves,” according to the Mayo Clinic. MS can cause symptoms including, but not limited to, numbness, weakness, difficulty walking, and changes in vision.
Maybe you have a vitamin D deficiency. Casper scoffed at the idea. It was not thought that vitamin deficiency was the cause of all this. Then he Googled and realized where they were coming from. (“I think I did pretty well not to Google a lot for a while, but then I had to Google a little bit,” Casper joked. “Then I’m like, ‘You’re dead.’”)
So he continued taking vitamin D tablets for a month. It didn’t do anything. Wow, another month wasted, he thought.
The USOPC (United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee) referred him to a doctor through its partnership with the University of Florida Hospital System. After reviewing all of Mr. Casper’s information and performing EMG (electromyography) neurological testing, he diagnosed the 22-year-old man with GBS.
“A lot of people think, oh, I was sick, I overcame it, and now I’m here at the Olympics. They’re like, ‘What the heck?’ It’s not over at all.”
Casper takes medication for treatment and frequently changes regiments as needed. He was started on gabapentin, a neuroleptic. Then “a bunch of muscle relaxers.” A few months ago, he started taking carbamazepine, a drug commonly used for seizures.
It’s working. In most cases. But Casper didn’t want to risk taking another medication that would make him sick at the Olympics. He’ll probably decide to go home after this season and try something new this summer.
As his dexterity began to return, Casper decided to return to curling. He missed more than half of the 2024-25 season. At last season’s Nationals, Casper and USA Curling’s alternate Rich Luohonen (30 years Casper’s senior) decided that the skipper would play every other game. It’s basically load management.
If his hands bother him during a game, his teammates help Casper clean rocks off the ice, an action that no doubt causes other teams to view Casper as some sort of diva or pre-Madonna. He still goes to the gym with them most mornings at 6am. He focuses on mobility training over strength training and participates because he recognizes the importance of just being there.
Together they won the Olympic Trials and started a team led by American curling legend John Shuster that qualified for Cortina. The shocking feat was made all the more impressive because every upset was made all the more impressive by how often they had to work with another skip during Casper’s absence.
“We have nothing to lose,” he said, but that doesn’t take away from the ultimate goal: gold.
One of the most difficult parts of living with GBS is that it’s invisible, Casper says. No one can.
He wants people living with invisible autoimmune diseases to know that it’s okay to rely on others for support. Even if it feels strange and difficult.
It’s like a curling game. Casper is the team captain but must rely on sweepers Aidan Oldenburg and Ben Richardson to guide the rocks to the button. Friends, family, and teammates are the cleaners in Casper’s life. They helped lead him to Cortina for a chance at golden glory.
Contact USA TODAY Network sports reporter Peyton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com and follow her at X @petitus25.
