Tabitha Skelly Peterson (born March 6, 1989) is an American curler from Minneapolis, Minnesota.[2] She was a bronze medalist at the 2010 World Junior Championships and is a three-time women's national champion. She currently is skip of her own team, having traded positions with Nina Roth during the 2020 off-season.
Career
Junior
As a junior, Peterson was a four-time state champion curler and won U.S. national junior championships in 2009 and 2010. In 2009, Peterson played third on her junior rink, skipped by Alexandra Carlson. After winning the U.S. junior title, the team would represent the United States at the 2009 World Junior Curling Championships. The team finished the round robin with a 4–5 record, finishing 5th.[3] In 2010, the Carlson rink won another U.S. junior title, sending the team to the 2010 World Junior Curling Championships. At the 2010 World Juniors, the team finished the round robin in a tie for third place with a 6–3 record. The team won their first playoff match against Switzerland's Manuela Siegrist before losing in the semi-final to Sweden's Anna Hasselborg. That demoted the team to the bronze medal game, where they defeated Switzerland again to finish third overall.[4]
For the 2014–15 season, Peterson joined Nina Roth as lead. Team Roth finished fifth at the 2015 National Championship just outside of the playoffs.[7] Peterson claimed another World Curling Tour event win at the 2014 Twin Cities Open.[8]
At the 2016 National Championship, Peterson played third for skip Jamie Sinclair. The team finished the round robin with a 5–1 record but lost in the page playoff 3v4 game to Cory Christensen's team.[9] The US Champion team, skipped by Erika Brown, added Peterson as alternate for the 2016 World Championships, where the team finished 6th.[10] Also in 2016 Peterson joined with Joe Polo to compete at the United States Mixed Doubles World Trials. They finished with an impressive 9–1 record, earning them a spot at the 2016 World Mixed Doubles Championship in Karlstad, Sweden. Peterson and Polo finished the round robin group play undefeated, losing to Team Russia in the semifinals. In the bronze medal match, they defeated Team Scotland 9–7.[11]
For the 2016–17 season, Peterson was back playing with Roth's women's team, this time as third. Team Roth won the Molson Cash Spiel that year, a WCT event. At the 2017 National Championship, they earned a silver medal when they lost to their former teammate Jamie Sinclair in the final.[12] Peterson's team represented the United States at the 2017 Americas Challenge, where they beat Brazil to qualify the U.S. for the 2017 World Championship.[13] Due to the United States Curling Association's point system at the time, they also got to compete at the 2017 World's despite not being the National Champions. At World's Peterson and Team USA finished fifth with a record of 6–5.[14]
Just a month before competing at the Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials, Peterson and her women's team defeated Jamie Sinclair's team in a best-of-three final at the 2017 United States Olympic Curling Trials to earn the right to represent the United States at the 2018 Winter Olympics. At the Olympics, Team Roth finished with a 4–5 record, missing the playoffs.[15] Due to competing at the Olympics, Team Roth opted not to compete in the 2018 US National Championships.
In 2019 Peterson returned to both the United States Women's Championship and Mixed Doubles Championship. In a repeat of the 2017 National Championship final, Peterson's women's team of Nina Roth, Becca Hamilton, and sister Tara Peterson lost to Jamie Sinclair in the final.[16] At the Mixed Doubles Championship, Peterson and Polo went undefeated through the round robin section of the tournament but ultimately lost in the semifinal to eventual champions Cory Christensen and John Shuster.[17]
2019–2022
Peterson skipped Team Roth during the 2019–20 season as Nina Roth was on maternity leave. They had a semifinal finish at the 2019 Tour Challenge Grand Slam event. At the 2020 United States Women's Championship, Peterson earned her second national title and first as skip. In the round robin, Team Peterson's only loss came against Jamie Sinclair, but they then beat Team Sinclair in the 1 vs. 2 page playoff game and again in the final.[18] As United States Champions Team Peterson would have represented the United States at the 2020 World Women's Curling Championship, but they lost that opportunity when the Championship was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[19] They also earned a spot at the final Grand Slam of the season, the Champions Cup,[20] which was also cancelled due to the pandemic. Their qualification will instead carry over to the 2021 Champions Cup.[21]
During the 2020 off-season, the team announced that Peterson would remain as skip when Roth returned from maternity leave. Roth re-joined the team as vice-skip at third, with Hamilton moving to second, Tara Peterson to lead, and Geving to alternate.[25] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Peterson team did not compete in events for most of the 2020–21 season until entering a bio-secure bubble held in Calgary, Alberta in the spring of 2021 for three events in a row. The first two events were the Champions Cup and Players' Championship grand slams, with Peterson missing the playoffs at both. The third event in the Calgary bubble for Team Peterson was the 2021 World Women's Championship, in which they earned a spot as 2020 National Champions after the 2021 National Championship was moved to later in the spring due to the pandemic. They finished the 13 game round-robin in fifth place with a 7–6 record, earning them a spot in the playoffs and securing a 2022 Olympic berth for the United States. In the playoffs, Team Peterson defeated Denmark's Madeline Dupont but lost to Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni to end up in the bronze medal game. There, Peterson faced off against Sweden's Anna Hasselborg and won with a score of 9–5, including scoring five points in the seventh end.[26][27] Team Peterson's bronze medal finish was the first World Women's medal for the United States in 15 years, and the first-ever bronze medal. Right after the World Championship, Peterson traveled to Aberdeen, Scotland to compete in the 2021 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship with Joe Polo. There, the pair finished the round robin with a 5–4 record.[28] This put them in a qualification game against Czech Republic for the seventh direct spot at the 2022 Winter Olympics, which they lost 8–6.[29]
Following the 2021–22 season, Nina Roth retired from competitive curling and the team added Cory Thiesse (née Christensen) as their new third.[36] After a semifinal finish at the US Open of Curling, the team missed the playoffs at both the 2022 National and the 2022 Tour Challenge Slam events.[37] They represented the United States at the 2022 Pan Continental Curling Championships where they finished first in the round robin with a 7–1 record.[38] They then lost to South Korea and Canada in the semifinal and bronze medal game respectively, finishing fourth.[39] In their next event, Team Peterson reached the semifinals of the Red Deer Curling Classic where they lost to Rachel Homan.[40] At the 2022 Masters, the team made it to the semifinals before losing to the Einarson rink.[41] The following week, they won the Curl Mesabi Classic.[42] In the new year, the team went undefeated to claim the 2023 United States Women's Curling Championship, defeating Delaney Strouse 8–5 in the final.[43] This qualified them for the 2023 World Women's Curling Championship where they finished just outside the playoffs with a 6–6 record.[44] The team ended their season at the 2023 Players' Championship and the 2023 Champions Cup Grand Slam events where they reached the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively.[45]
Team Peterson won their second event of the 2023–24 season, losing just one game en route to claiming the US Open of Curling.[46] They also had a semifinal finish at the 2023 Stu Sells Oakville Tankard and a quarterfinal appearance at the 2023 Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic. For the 2023 Pan Continental Curling Championships, the team changed their lineup with Tara Peterson and Becca Hamilton switching positions to second and lead on the team respectively.[47] The move worked as they finished 6–1 through the round robin. After a semifinal loss to Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa, Team Peterson bounced back to claim the bronze medal, stealing in an extra end to defeat Canada's Kerri Einarson.[48] In Grand Slam play, they only qualified in one of the four events they played in, the 2023 Masters, losing in the quarterfinals to Silvana Tirinzoni.[49] At the 2024 United States Women's Curling Championship, the Peterson rink lost their first game to Sarah Anderson before running the table the rest of the event. In the final, they doubled up on Team Anderson 10–5 to defend their title as national champions and qualify for the 2024 World Women's Curling Championship.[50] At Worlds, the team struggled to find consistency, ultimately finishing 6–6 and failing to reach the playoffs for a second year in a row.[51]
Personal life
Peterson studied at the Minnesota College of Pharmacy. She is married and is currently employed as a pharmacist.[52] Her sister is fellow curler Tara Peterson.[53]
