Dentist competes for US women’s first curling medal at Olympics

Tara Peterson, D.D.S., works at Isaacson Gentle Dentistry in White Bear Lake, Minnesota

Dentist Tara Peterson, D.D.S., was part of the first U.S. women’s curling team to compete for a medal at the Winter Olympics since 2002. Team USA lost to Canada for the bronze medal Feb. 21.

The 2026 Milan Cortina Games in Italy were Dr. Peterson’s second Olympics. The 34-year-old from Minnesota previously made her Olympic debut alongside her sister, Tabitha, at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, where they finished sixth. The sisters again competed together this year.

In their semifinal match Feb. 20 leading up to the medal games, Team USA fell to Switzerland, who then lost to Sweden in the gold medal match Feb. 22. Team USA had previously won six round-robin games in the women’s curling tournament and lost three, securing the U.S. a spot in the semifinals for the first time since 2002.

Dr. Peterson is a dentist at Isaacson Gentle Dentistry in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Her father is a retired dentist, and her mother is a retired dental hygienist. She graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry in 2018 after putting her curling training aside for a couple years while she focused on dental school.

“Curling is a sport that you can never fully master, and when you think you have, there are new strategies or new rules to learn. Dentistry is similar in this sense, and we constantly need to continue with our education and learn to stay abreast of the latest ideas, products and techniques,” Dr. Peterson previously told the ADA News after the 2022 Olympics. “Both curling and dentistry involve tactile sense and also a bit of creativity. Both can be mentally exhausting, so training the brain is important for a strong mental state of mind.”

This story has been updated with the latest results from the Olympics.