Cassandra "Cassie" Potter (née Johnson) (born October 30, 1981) is an American
curler best known for
skipping the United States Women's Curling Team at the
2006 Winter Olympics
The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...
and the
2005 Women's World Curling Championships. Her sister is fellow curler and long-time teammate
Jamie Haskell
Jamie Haskell (née Johnson; born July 18, 1980) is an American curler. Haskell was born in Bemidji, Minnesota. She was a member of the United States women's curling team at the 2006 Winter Olympics and is the older sister of skip Cassandra Potte ...
.
Career
Early career
Potter was born in
Bemidji, Minnesota
Bemidji ( ) is a city and the county seat of Beltrami County, in northern Minnesota, United States. The population was 14,574 at the 2020 census. According to 2021 census estimates, the city is estimated to have a population of 15,279, making it ...
, a curling hotbed. She began playing the game at age 5, and honed the strategic elements of her game by watching
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
curling competitions on television. After playing as an alternate at the 1998
World Junior Curling Championships
The World Junior Curling Championships are an annual curling bonspiel featuring the world's best curlers who are 21 years old or younger. The competitions for both men and women occur at the same venue. The men's tournament has occurred since 1 ...
for the 5th-place U.S. team skipped (captained) by
Hope Schmitt
Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large.
As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish ...
, Cassandra returned to the Junior Championships in 2002, this time as the skip of the team; she and her United States squad went on to capture the gold medal with a win over
Matilda Mattsson
Matilda or Mathilda may refer to:
Animals
* Matilda (chicken) (1990–2006), World's Oldest Living Chicken record holder
* Matilda (horse) (1824–1846), British Thoroughbred racehorse
* Matilda, a dog of the professional wrestling tag-team The ...
of
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
. In 2003, Cassie returned once again to the World Junior Championships, and once again made it to the final. However, this time she lost, with
Marliese Miller of
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
winning the gold.
2005–present
In 2005, Johnson competed in the U.S. 2006 Olympic Trials/National Championships, which she won, thus gaining the right to represent the USA at both the
2006 Winter Olympics
The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...
and the
2005 World Women's Curling Championship. At the 2005 World Championships, she again won a silver medal, this time losing to
Anette Norberg
Anette Norberg (born 12 November 1966) is a retired Swedish curler from Härnösand.
She and her team were the Olympic women's curling champions in 2006 and 2010. After winning the 2006 Women's Curling tournament in Turin over Mirjam Ott's Swis ...
's
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
rink in the final. For her efforts, Cassie was named USA Curling's Female Athlete of the Year in 2005. Cassie made a difficult, pressure-packed shot in the 11th end of the final match of the
2006 Olympic Trials to qualify for the Turin Games.
Johnson's
Winter Olympics
The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...
experience was a difficult one, though, as she and her United States team lost five of their first six matches en route to a mediocre 2–7 record in the round-robin stage of the tournament. Immediately after the 2006 Olympics, a re-arrangement occurred on the team's roster for the 2006 U.S. World Team Trials. Johnson became the team's alternate, while
Jessica Schultz
Jessica Schultz (born January 2, 1985) is a former American curler. She is a two-time Olympian and three-time U.S. Champion. She is currently the Director of the Women’s National Team & Juniors programs at the United States Curling Associati ...
skipped the team. At the trials, the team finished in fourth place, losing the 3–4 page game to
Margie Smith
Margie Smith (born March 20, 1960, in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is an American curler from Shoreview, Minnesota. She is a former U.S. national senior women's champion.
Smith has played in eight national championships, coming closest to winning in h ...
. The team went back to their Olympic lineup for later events, however.
Upon their semifinal win at the
2012 United States Women's Curling Championship, Potter and her team were qualified to participate at the
2014 United States Olympic Curling Trials
The 2013 United States Olympic Curling Trials was held from November 10 to 17, 2013 at the Scheels Arena in Fargo, North Dakota. The trials were held to determine the women's team that will represent the United States at the curling tournament ...
.
Personal life
Potter became engaged the week after the 2006 Winter Olympics ended, and was married in 2007. She graduated from
Bemidji State University with a degree in
graphic design
Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...
. She enjoys
fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...
and listening to music when she's not curling, and is a big fan of the
Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...
. When she was 12, Potter was diagnosed with a
heart murmur
Heart murmurs are unique heart sounds produced when blood flows across a heart valve or blood vessel. This occurs when turbulent blood flow creates a sound loud enough to hear with a stethoscope. Turbulent blood flow is not smooth. The sound di ...
due to a congenital heart defect in her
tricuspid valve
The tricuspid valve, or right atrioventricular valve, is on the right dorsal side of the mammalian heart, at the superior portion of the right ventricle. The function of the valve is to allow blood to flow from the right atrium to the right vent ...
, but the condition is not severe and does not interfere with her daily life.
Potter's biography page at
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
's Winter Olympics website was among the most-viewed of any U.S. athlete, and she received countless marriage proposals from men all over the world at the U.S. Women's Curling Team's official blog, which crashed early in the Games after receiving 12.9 million hits in one day.
Potter comes from a curling family; she played together with older sister Jamie for many years, her parents Liz and
Tim have won the
U.S. Mixed Curling Championships four times, and her grandparents and great-grandparents were curlers as well. Her father Tim is also a two-time Men's National Champion and 1993 World bronze medalist.
Teams
Women's
Mixed doubles
Awards
*
Frances Brodie Award
The Frances Brodie Award was created in honour of Frances Brodie, who started the first World Women's Curling Championship in 1979, and also presided over the Ladies Committee of the International Curling Federation, now known as the World Curli ...
: 2005
*USA Curling Female Athlete of the Year: 2005
*USA Curling Team of the Year: 2005, 2002
*WJCC All-Star Skip: 2002
*Winner, Curtis Cup (team sportsmanship award) at U.S. Junior Nationals in 1999 and 2000
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Potter, Cassandra
1981 births
Living people
People from Bemidji, Minnesota
Olympic curlers of the United States
Curlers at the 2006 Winter Olympics
American curling champions
American female curlers
21st-century American women