Man gives up first-class seat so curling gold medalist John Shuster can fly in style

Despite a thrilling gold medal win, the United States men’s curling team was thwarted by Delta when it tried to cheese its way up to first-class accommodations on its way back from PyeongChang.

But things ended up working out for team skip John Shuster. When he arrived at the airport for his flight back to the United States, he was told that a stranger wanted to trade his first-class seat for Shuster’s assignment in coach.

Shuster was only too happy to accept, considering that he was presumably exhausted from both partying, media obligations and, oh yeah, winning the first curling gold medal in this country’s history.

So who was the person willing to give up a first-class seat on an international flight to a dude who slides rocks on ice in the name of patriotism?

Nope, not Ivanka Trump or Sarah Sanders. Shuster was later able to find out that it was Gary Balter, a banking consultant from Hollywood, Florida.

All in all, that’s a pretty solid move from Balter as Shuster flew back home toward Minnesota for a big welcome back at the Duluth airport.

The rest of Shuster’s team did not appear to be as lucky.

But they did get a nice welcome from Delta, which got roughed up a bit by the blogosphere after it told the curling team had no first-class upgrades back to the United States.

Cheers!

More Olympic coverage from Yahoo Sports:
• Meet the unlikely, unfazed and unparalleled gold medalists of U.S. Olympic curling
• Canadian Olympian arrested after alleged drunken car theft in PyeongChang
• The 2018 Olympic moments that will make you cry
• Vic Wild’s rant contains a deep, dark truth about Olympics