Tabitha Peterson

Tabitha S. Peterson (born March 6, 1989) is an American curler from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She was a bronze medalist at the 2010 World Junior Championships and is a two-time women's national champion. She currently is skip of her own team, having traded positions with Nina Roth during the 2020 off-season.

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. 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.

2010–2014

After her junior career ended in 2010, Peterson joined the Allison Pottinger rink at lead position. In their first year together, the team lost in the final of the 2011 United States Women's Curling Championship to Patti Lank. The following season, they avenged this loss by beating Cassandra Johnson's rink to win the 2012 United States Women's Curling Championship. This sent the Pottinger team to the 2012 Ford World Women's Curling Championship to represent the U.S. The team finished the round robin at the 2012 Worlds in a tie with Canada's Heather Nedohin for fourth place and a 7–4 record. However, Canada beat the team in the tie-breaker, forcing the U.S. to settle for 5th. The next season, the team won a bronze medal at the 2013 United States Women's Curling Championship. The team found more success in the 2013–14 season. They won one World Curling Tour (WCT) event over the season, the 2013 Kamloops Crown of Curling. Their success on the World Curling Tour gave them enough points to qualify for the 2014 Ford World Women's Curling Championship, following new rules made by the United States Curling Association which based World Championship qualifying on Order of Merit points rather than winning the U.S. Championship. At World's Team Pottinger finished sixth, with a record of 6–5. As for the U.S. Championship that season, the team ended up losing in the final to Nina Spatola.

2014–present

For the 2014–15 season Peterson joined Nina Roth as lead. At the 2015 National Championship Team Roth finished fifth, just outside of the playoffs. Peterson claimed another World Curling Tour event win at the 2014 Twin Cities Open.

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. The US Champion team, skipped by Erika Brown, added Peterson as alternate for the 2016 World Championships, where the team finished 6th. 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.

For the 2016–17 season Peterson was back played 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. 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. 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.

At the 2017 US Mixed Doubles Championship Peterson and teammate Joe Polo earned the silver medal losing to the brother and sister duo of Matt and Becca Hamilton in the final. Later in 2017 Peterson and Polo competed at the first United States Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials, where they finished tied for fifth with a record of 3–4.

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. Due to competing at the Olympics, Team Roth opted to skip 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. 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.

Peterson skipped Team Roth during the 2019–20 season as Nina Roth was on maternity leave. At the 2019 Tour Challenge Grand Slam event they had a semifinal finish. 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. 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. They also earned a spot at the final Grand Slam of the season, the Champions Cup, which was also cancelled due to the pandemic. Their qualification will instead carry over to the 2021 Champions Cup.

During the 2020 off-season the team announced that Peterson would remain as skip when Roth returned from maternity leave. Roth will re-join the team as vice-skip at third, with Hamilton moving to second, Tara Peterson to lead, and Geving to alternate.

Peterson studied at the Minnesota College of Pharmacy. She is currently employed as a pharmacist. Her sister is fellow curler Tara Peterson.

Women's

Season	Skip	Third	Second	Lead	Alternate	Coach	Events
2005–06	Alex Carlson	Tabitha Peterson	Tara Peterson	Sophie Brorson			2006 USJCC (SF)
2006–07	Alex Carlson	Tabitha Peterson	Tara Peterson	Sophie Brorson			2007 USWCC (4th)
2007–08	Alex Carlson	Tabitha Peterson	Tara Peterson	Sophie Brorson			2008 USJCC
2008–09	Alex Carlson	Tabitha Peterson	Tara Peterson	Sophie Brorson	Molly Bonner	Howard Restall	2009 USJCC 2009 WJCC (5th)
2009–10	Alex Carlson	Tabitha Peterson	Tara Peterson	Sophie Brorson	Miranda Solem	Howard Restall	2010 USJCC 2010 WJCC
2010–11	Allison Pottinger	Nicole Joraanstad	Natalie Nicholson	Tabitha Peterson			2011 USWCC
2011–12	Allison Pottinger	Nicole Joraanstad	Natalie Nicholson	Tabitha Peterson	Cassandra Potter	Derek Brown	2012 USWCC 2012 WWCC (5th)
2012–13	Allison Pottinger	Nicole Joraanstad	Natalie Nicholson	Tabitha Peterson			2013 USWCC
2013–14	Allison Pottinger	Nicole Joraanstad	Natalie Nicholson	Tabitha Peterson	Tara Peterson	Derek Brown	2014 USWCC 2014 WWCC (6th)
2014–15	Nina Roth	Jamie Sinclair	Becca Hamilton	Tabitha Peterson			2015 USWCC (5th)
2015–16	Jamie Sinclair	Tabitha Peterson	Becca Hamilton	Jenna Haag	Tara Peterson		2016 USWCC (4th)
	Erika Brown	Allison Pottinger	Nicole Joraanstad	Natalie Nicholson	Tabitha Peterson	Ann Swisshelm	2016 WWCC (6th)
2016–17	Nina Roth	Tabitha Peterson	Aileen Geving	Becca Hamilton	Cory Christensen (WWCC)	Ann Swisshelm	2017 USWCC 2017 WWCC (5th)
2017–18	Nina Roth	Tabitha Peterson	Aileen Geving	Becca Hamilton	Cory Christensen (OG)	Al Hackner	2017 USOCT 2018 OG (8th) 2018 Cont. Cup
2018–19	Nina Roth	Tabitha Peterson	Becca Hamilton	Tara Peterson			2019 USWCC
2019–20	Tabitha Peterson	Becca Hamilton	Tara Peterson	Aileen Geving		Natalie Nicholson	2020 USWCC
2020–21	Tabitha Peterson	Nina Roth	Becca Hamilton	Tara Peterson	Aileen Geving

Mixed doubles

Season	Female	Male	Events
2015–16	Tabitha Peterson	Joe Polo	2016 WMDCC
2016–17	Tabitha Peterson	Joe Polo	2017 USMDCC
2017–18	Tabitha Peterson	Joe Polo	2017 USMDCOT (5th)
2018–19	Tabitha Peterson	Joe Polo	2019 USMDCC (SF)
2019–20	Tabitha Peterson	Joe Polo	2020 USMDCC
2020–21	Tabitha Peterson	Joe Polo