MILAN — Danny Casper didn’t understand why his body wasn’t working for him.
A mysterious illness has left the 22-year-old incapable of performing the most basic tasks. Almost overnight, he went from captain of the top U.S. curling team to struggling to get out of bed or walk downstairs without help.
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Casper initially brushed it off when he experienced pain in his neck and back toward the end of a mixed doubles tournament in February 2024. He attributed the pain to his awkward sweeping technique trying to influence the path of the curling stone. As captain and primary tactician of the men’s team, Casper typically leaves overall responsibilities to his teammates. In mixed doubles, this is not an option.
Soon after Kasper returned home to suburban Minneapolis, all he could think about was the discomfort. Severe pain shot through his arms and legs. His hands and feet were constantly tingling as if he’d been sleeping on them. He relied on his roommate for food and laundry. His fingers barely had enough feeling to be able to roughly type text messages on his phone.
When Casper first underwent a battery of diagnostic tests, medical experts were as baffled as he was. A doctor suggested to Casper that he might have a vitamin B deficiency. Casper gave him a grim look and later told friends, “I’m not a doctor and I’m sure B vitamins are important, but I think it’s worse than that.”
As the weeks passed, without a diagnosis or a viable treatment plan, Casper’s mental state grew darker and darker. He no longer worries about recovering in time for the upcoming curling season. In his most desperate moments, as he stared at the ceiling on his bed, his thoughts would wander to “the worst things that could happen.”
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“I would try to watch shows and stuff to pass the time, but it was pretty bad,” Casper told Yahoo Sports. “For a while, I felt like I forgot about curling. How about tomorrow?”
Well, tomorrow has arrived and Casper will be in Cortina, Italy, where he led Team USA to a win over the Czech Republic on Wednesday in their first game of the Olympics.
Even though Kasper wasn’t at 100 percent, his goal was still the same: gold.
Danny Casper (center), Ben Richardson (right) and Aidan Oldenburg compete during the men’s curling round robin against the Czech Republic. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
(Associated Press)
Curling or football?
For Casper, of all people, uttering the words “Forget Curling” was a window into the pain he suffered. Here was a kid from suburban New York who, at 18, moved halfway across the country to pursue his Olympic curling dream.
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Casper first became familiar with the sport by watching his parents curl at the Ardsley Curling Club on the east bank of the Hudson River. When Casper was 11 years old, his father signed him up to start curling in the club.
In an unlikely but fortuitous coincidence, Casper grew up in the same New York town as an older teenager whose father was a former national curling champion. Andrew Stopera had a stellar junior career, leading his team to three consecutive National Junior Championships from 2017 to 2019. Early on, Casper was throwing stones at Stopela and trying in vain to stay competitive.
By the end of his sophomore year at Casper High School, the multi-sport athlete realized he needed to choose a path. Does he want to study football to get a scholarship to a top university? Or does he want to focus on curling and see how far he can go if he makes it a priority?
Casper’s move toward curling came in 2018 after watching John Shuster’s U.S. quartet win Olympic gold. Stopela’s father also duly praised Casper, telling him that he was “pretty good at it” and might one day be able to compete at the national and international levels.
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“What did I know then?” Casper said. “I was like, ‘Oh, that sounds fun.’ Football was my main focus at the time, but I thought, OK, maybe play football in college and then what? Curling is so fun and unique that I could theoretically do it for a longer period of time. That’s what attracted me to it.”
After graduating from high school, Casper did not stay in the New York area, but moved to curling center Minneapolis in 2019 and continued his studies at the University of Minnesota. It was there that he connected with former world junior silver medalists Luke Violet and Ben Richardson, as well as rising star Chase Sinnett.
The quartet won a silver medal at the 2023 Universiade and finished second behind Schuster’s strong team at the 2023 National Championships. Even if Sinnett leaves after the 2023-24 season and is replaced by Aidan Oldenburg, it looks like Casper’s winning ways will continue.
Then Casper fell ill without warning.
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The body that had served him well for 22 years began to malfunction, and no one could figure out why.
American rapper Snoop Dogg (left) and American player Danny Casper at the Curling Olympic Stadium in Cortina, Italy. (Andrew Milligan/PA Photo via Getty Images)
(Andrew Milligan – PA Photo via Getty Images)
looking for answers
In June 2024, four months after Casper began experiencing unexplained symptoms, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee flew him to Florida for additional testing. Only then did Casper finally get the explanation he had been seeking.
Doctors diagnosed Casper with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare disorder in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks its nerves. Doctors told Casper there was no cure for GBS, but with therapy and physical therapy, he could expect to make a full recovery in just eight months to a year.
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“Once they told me this should go away and we could use it to test different drugs, I was relieved,” Casper said. “It makes me more optimistic about curling and everything in life.”
While Casper is eager to rejoin the team when the 2024-25 curling season begins, he doesn’t yet have the ability to slide a 44-pound granite stone through the narrow ice. He missed the first two months of the season and has since played only when health permits, forcing his teammates to rotate through a series of short-term replacement captains.
Casper returns to lead the team this season and is grateful for the opportunity to once again compete against the top teams in the world and eager to prove that he and his teammates belong. They reached the finals and defeated Shuster’s experienced and decorated team in a tense best-of-three matchup to confirm their status as the top U.S. men’s team heading into the Olympic Trials.
There was one hurdle left for Casper to represent Team USA at the Milan Cortina Games, but Casper and his teammates passed it with ease. Their performance in the Last Chance Global Qualifying Tournament in early December earned them one of the only two remaining Olympic spots.
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The fairytale story was of a healthy Casper leading the U.S. team to a triumphant gold medal, but in reality, his road to recovery wasn’t as smooth or quick as doctors had hoped. Even now, two years after he first experienced symptoms, there are clear warning signs that he still doesn’t have the strength or dexterity in his hands that he once had.
In bad weather, he might have loose laces on the ice because he couldn’t tighten the knot. Or he might ask a teammate to help open a bottle of water or turn over a rock to clean it.
“It’s unbelievable that he was able to come out and play in this situation,” said Rich Ruohonen, who frequently replaced Casper last season and is now the team’s backup. “He’s healthier now than he was before, but he still has a lot of problems, a lot of pain. Most people would probably give up. He’s not going to let anything get to him.”
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Casper’s condition did not allow him to pitch as often as he would have liked before the Olympics. He compared himself to NFL veterans who do limited workouts a few times a week to save their legs or body for game day.
However, even at less than 100 percent, Casper’s goals for this Olympics are no different than any other event he has competed in. The man who has been bedridden less than two years ago is expected to be on the medal podium in Italy.
“I always have a hard time understanding people who say their goal is to make the playoffs or win a bronze medal,” Casper said. “No, the goal is always to win. I don’t know why it would be anything else.”
