Ex-NFL star Jared Allen holds 2026 Olympic dreams, grabs shock win over John Shuster

Talk about curling upsets. They perhaps don't come much more surprising than an Olympic champion losing to a former NFL player.

PyeongChang 2018 Olympic champion John Shuster was on the receiving end of that on Sunday (5 February) at the U.S. national championships in Denver, Colorado, as his second-ranked rink fell 10–6 to the fifth-ranked Team Jason Smith, featuring former NFL defensive end Jared Allen.

Allen is a five-time NFL Pro Bowler (all-star) and Super Bowl 50 runner-up with the Carolina Panthers in 2016. He began curling in 2018 and previously competed at nationals in 2021 as part of a team which lost all nine of their games, has said he aims to represent the United States at the next Olympic Winter Games Milano-Cortina 2026.

Speaking before this year's national championships to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Allen said: "Our goal at nationals is to beat as many teams as we possibly can and see where we land."

That's with a longer-term goal, one he has held since he began curling five years ago, of making a U.S. Olympic team – although Allen told the Star Tribune he would not continue curling beyond 2026, setting a deadline on his dream of becoming an Olympian.

Allen's rink skipped by Smith is ranked 89th in the men's World Curling Team Rankings, fifth among U.S. teams.

Smith was a part of Team USA's Vancouver 2010 rink skipped by Shuster, who has represented the United States at every Olympic Games since 2006 (and as skip at all of those except in 2006).

By contrast, Shuster's rink is ranked 18th in the world, behind only Korey Dropkin (9th) among American teams.