A mysterious sickness had stripped 22-year-old Danny Casper of the flexibility to carry out even essentially the most primary duties. Almost in a single day, he went from skippering one in all America’s top-ranked curling groups to struggling to climb away from bed or stroll downstairs with out help.
At first, Casper brushed it off when his neck and again ached close to the tip of a February 2024 blended doubles event. He attributed the soreness to his clumsy method sweeping to attempt to affect the trail of the curling stone. As skipper and main tactician for his males’s workforce, Casper sometimes left sweeping obligation to his teammates. In blended doubles, that was not an possibility.
Danny Casper throughout Wednesday’s match towards Team Czechia at Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium on February 11, 2026 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
(Julian Finney through Getty Images)
The discomfort grew to become all Casper might take into consideration quickly after he returned to his dwelling within the Minneapolis suburbs. Sharp ache shot down his arms and legs. His fingers and toes endlessly tingled as if he had slept on them humorous. He relied on his roommates for meals and laundry. He barely had sufficient feeling in his fingers to crudely pound out textual content messages on his cellphone.
When Casper first underwent a battery of diagnostic assessments, medical consultants got here away as perplexed as he was.
As weeks handed with out a analysis or viable therapy plan, Casper’s psychological state darkened. He now not frightened about recovering in time for the upcoming curling season. In his most hopeless moments, as he stared on the ceiling above his mattress, his ideas would drift to “the worst possible stuff.”
“I would try to watch shows and stuff to pass the time, but it was pretty terrible,” Casper instructed Yahoo Sports. “For awhile, it was like, forget curling. What about getting to tomorrow?”
Well, tomorrow has come, and it’s landed Casper in Cortina, Italy, the place on Wednesday Casper led Team USA to victory over Czechia of their opening match of those Olympic Games.