John Benton (born June 23, 1969) is an American curler from

Plymouth, Minnesota Plymouth is a city in Hennepin County in the U.S. state of Minnesota. A suburb in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, the city is about west of downtown Minneapolis.The population was 81,026 at the 2020 census, making it Minnesota's ...

. He competed on

John Shuster John Shuster ( ; born November 3, 1982) is an American curler who lives in Superior, Wisconsin. He led Team USA to gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics, the first American team to ever win gold in curling. He also won a bronze medal at the 2006 Winte ...

's team at the

2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

Curling career

Benton started curling in 1975 and competed at his first and only U.S. Junior National Championship in 1987. He has competed at the United States Men's Championship ten times, his first in 1997. In 1991 Benton qualified for his first

Olympic Trials Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

but failed to make it to the Games. He would go on to compete in the Olympic Trials two more times, in 1997 and

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, before finding success his fourth time in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

. Benton's team won the 2009 Trials which earned them a spot representing the United States at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games as well as the 2009 World Championship, since the Trials were also that year's National Championship. Benton played as

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

on the team, which included

(

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), Jason Smith (

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

), and

Jeff Isaacson Jeff Isaacson (born July 14, 1983) is an American curler. He is a two-time Olympian, playing on the United States men's curling team at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics. Career Isaacson played as second on John Shuster's team which won the U ...

(

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

Chris Plys Christopher Plys (; born August 13, 1987) is an American curler from Duluth, Minnesota. He is a Junior World Champion and two-time National Men's Champion. He was the alternate for the United States men's team at the 2010 Winter Olympics and a ...

joined the team as alternate after the Olympic Trials. In April 2009, Benton's team participated in the Men's World Championship in

Moncton, Canada Moncton (; ) is the most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of New Brunswick. Situated in the Petitcodiac River Valley, Moncton lies at the geographic centre of the The Maritimes, Maritime Provinces. The ...

. His team placed fifth with a 7–4 record. At the 2010 Olympics, Team USA finished 10th with a record of 2–7. After the Olympics Benton left the team to form his own team. Benton was hired by

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...

to work as a curling analyst during the

2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympic ...

. At the 2017 United States Men's Championship Benton played second for

Todd Birr Todd Birr (born April 20, 1968) is an American curler. He was a bronze medalist at the 2007 World Men's Curling Championship. Career Birr skipped his team to victory at the 2007 United States Curling Men's Championships, beating out teams suc ...

. Team Birr earned a silver medal, losing to Team John Shuster in the final. Benton has helped

Jared Allen Jared Scot Allen (born April 3, 1982) is a former American football defensive end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons. He played college football at Idaho State and was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the fourth ...

's team of ex-NFL players turned curlers, both as coach and alternate.

Personal life

He is a member of the

Beta Theta Pi Beta Theta Pi (), commonly known as Beta, is a North American social fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. One of North America's oldest fraternities, as of 2022 it consists of 144 active chapters in the Unite ...

fraternity's Beta Pi chapter at the

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. T ...

campus.

Teams

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Benton, John 1969 births Living people American male curlers Curlers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Curling broadcasters Olympic curlers of the United States People from Stillwater, Minnesota People from St. Michael, Minnesota People from Plymouth, Minnesota American curling champions