His team, consisting of Tyler George, vice skip, Matt Hamilton, second, John Landsteiner, lead, and Joe Polo, alternate, remained the lone unbeaten squad in the five-team men’s field after a nail-biting, extra-end victory over Craig Brown’s team, made up of Jason Smith, vice skip, Kroy Nernberger, second, Sean Beighton, lead, and Quinn Evenson, alternate, at the Baxter Arena, in Omaha.

They had centered the last skip stone in the 11th end to defeat Brown 6-5.

Five men’s teams and three women’s teams are taking part in the trials which run until Saturday (November 18). 

Best-of-three playoffs begin on Friday and continue through Saturday to determine which teams qualify for the Winter Games.

Shuster is the reigning national champion, has never lost an Olympic trials and is trying for an American-record fourth Olympic curling team. 

His team also defeated previously undefeated Heath McCormick's team, which is made up of Chris Plys, vice skip, Korey Dropkin, second, Tom Howell, lead and Rich Ruohonen, alternate, 7-6  and then defeated Brady Clark's quartet of Greg Persinger, vice skip, Colin Hufman, second and Phil Tilker, lead. 

Shuster won the Olympic bronze medal with current team-mate Polo in 2006. 

In the women's section, Nina Roth's team of Tabitha Peterson, Aileen Geving and Becca Hamilton, bounced back from a 9-8 opening loss to Jamie Sinclair's quartet, also including Alex Carlson, vice skip, Vicky Persinger, second and Monica Walker, lead,  with a 7-6 victory over Cory Christensen's team, also including Sarah Anderson, vice skip, Taylor Anderson, second, Jenna Martin, lead, in an extra end. 

Shuster has revealed he is inspired by the day he found out he had missed out on selection for the USA Curling High Performance Programme three years ago. 

"The thing that really fueled me was the press release that said, 'We selected the 10 athletes that we think give us our best chance for international curling success.'

"Being the skip of the last two Olympic teams and one of our top players in the country, it was like, ‘All right, well, I guess it’s time to dig deep and really prove that this is not the case,’” he said.

Shuster, who lives in Wisconsin,  was lead and vice skip on Pete Fenson’s rink in 2006, which gave the US a bronze medal, their only Olympic curling medal to date. 

He led the American teams that were placed 10th in 2010 and ninth in 2014.

Despite his increasing age he says arrived at the trials in the best shape of his life. 

“That (the 2014 snub) was one of the knocks on me for my entire career. 

"I think as the skip it doesn’t really matter because you don’t have that much physical stuff going on, but definitely making that change I travel way better, jet lag doesn’t affect me nearly as much and just generally I’m in a better place to be the best I can be.”

Shuster's team won the 2015 national championship and came fifth at the worlds later that year. 

Shuster was named the USA's Curling Male Athlete of the Year for 2015, less than a year after that fateful email.

In 2016, Shuster's team won the bronze medal at the worlds for the first US men’s curling medal since 2007.

In 2017, Shuster skipped the team that finished fourth, qualifying the United States for Pyeongchang 2018.

“Our team has made it to the medal round of worlds the last two years so I think we know that we’re right in there and what we have to do,” Shuster said. 

“But at the same time, there’s a ton of parity in curling right now and the Olympics are going to be an absolute grind.”