After back-to-back bronze medal finishes at the 2012 and 2013 United States Men's Curling Championships, Shuster and his team were selected to participate at the 2013 United States Olympic Curling Trials by the United States Curling Association's High Performance Program committee.[5] Shuster and his team finished first in the round-robin, and played Pete Fenson in the three-game final round, winning after the third game. Thus, Shuster's team represented the United States at the qualifying event for the Olympics and succeeded in securing the final spot at the Olympics for the United States. He again represented the United States at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, marking his third consecutive appearance at the Olympics. However, Shuster's team again got off to a slow start and was unable to recover, finishing in ninth place with a 2–7 win–loss record.
U.S. rejection and 2018 Winter Olympics
Following the U.S. team's Olympic struggles, the United States Curling Association held an athlete combine to determine which curlers to include in their High Performance Program (HPP) aimed at having better success at the next Olympics. Shuster and teammate Landsteiner were two of the athletes dropped from the HPP. In response, Shuster created a new team nicknamed "The Rejects" with Landsteiner at lead, fellow combine reject Matt Hamilton at second, and Tyler George at third, who had not attended the combine due to his work.[6] They maintained this line-up for four seasons and found great success. They defeated both HPP teams to win the gold medal at the National Championships in 2015.[7] Representing the United States at the 2015 World Championship in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Team Shuster missed out on the playoffs when they lost a tiebreaker to Finland's Aku Kauste. As a result of its success, Team Shuster was added to the High Performance Program for 2016.[6]
Shuster came up just short of defending his national title in 2016, losing to Brady Clark in the final. Despite finishing in second, Team Shuster earned enough points throughout the season to secure their return trip to the World Championship.[8] In Basel, Switzerland, they defeated Japan's Yusuke Morozumi in the bronze medal match, earning the first World Men's medal for the United States since 2007.[9][10] For the 2016–17 season they added Joe Polo, a former teammate of Shuster and George, as alternate and won the 2017 National Championship. At the 2017 World Championship, their third Worlds in a row, they lost in the bronze medal game against Team Switzerland, skipped by Peter de Cruz.[11]
At the 2017 United States Olympic Curling Trials, Shuster and his team beat Heath McCormick's team in a best-of-three final series, setting up Shuster's fourth straight Olympics appearance.[6] In the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, the U.S. team lost four of its first six matches and needed to win all of its three remaining matches to qualify for the playoffs, but all of its remaining opponents (Canada, Switzerland, and Great Britain) were then among the top four teams. Nevertheless, the U.S. team won all three matches to finish the round-robin in third place with a record of 5–4. In the semifinals, they defeated Canada's Kevin Koe, a two-time world champion, to reach the gold-medal match versus Niklas Edin's team representing Sweden. The gold-medal game was close through seven ends, with the score tied 5–5, but the United States scored five in the eighth end to set up a 10–7 victory.[6][12][13] This was the first Olympic gold medal in curling for the United States.
Shuster was the skip for the United States team at the 2021 World Men's Curling Championship, which was played in a fan-less bubble in Calgary due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. There, he led his U.S. rink to a 10–3 round robin record, in third place.[17] They played Switzerland in the playoffs, in a game which was delayed a day due to some curlers testing positive for the virus. In the game, Switzerland, skipped by Peter de Cruz, beat the Americans to advance to the semifinals.[18]
Shuster is married to Sara Shuster and has two children. He was employed as a "Team USA Sales Associate" for Dick's Sporting Goods,[24] and now works as a public speaker.[25] He lives in Superior, Wisconsin.[26]