Erika Brown competed in the 1988 Olympics and returns to the Sochi Olympics with medal aspirations. (Team USA Photo)
Erika Brown will lead the Team USA Women’s curling rink into the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Her team surely will be one of the most veteran at the Games. In fact, Lead Ann Swisshelm is the oldest American athlete at the Sochi Games. She’s 45. Second Jessica Schultz is the youngest on Team Brown at 29. Together, Team USA has a combined six previous Olympics appearances.
@ebrowncurls punched @LesterHoltNBC on set today after he revealed the “What the skip say” video was being included. pic.twitter.com/spydVbtvah
— Terry Kolesar (@terry_usacurl) February 9, 2014
If you believe in great stories being made at the Olympics, then Team USA is the one to root for this year. Brown and Swisshelm have been curling for nearly 35 years. Vice Debbie McCormick started playing in 1998. Each lady has prior Olympic experience but none have ever gotten on a podium.
Brown has been competing at an Olympic level for the last four decades. She was part of Team USA at the Games in Calgary (1988), Nagano (1998) and this year. She finished fifth at each previous Olympics she attended.
Helping her call the shots is McCormick. She’s been playing at the Olympic level since 1998. She was a teammate of McCormick in Nagano and finished fourth at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002.
Swisshelm was on McCormick’s team in Salt Lake City and this will be her second Olympics. It’s also Schultz’ second Olympics. She was part of the Torino team in 2006 that finished eighth.
