Tara Peterson


Tara S. Peterson is an American curler from Shoreview, Minnesota. She currently plays second for her sister Tabitha.

Curling career

As a junior curler, Peterson won three United States Junior Curling Championships, qualifying her to play in the 2009, 2010 and 2011 World Junior Curling Championships. At the 2009 World Junior Curling Championships, Peterson played second for the Alexandra Carlson team and finished in 5th place. The next season, Peterson remained on the Carlson rink, and at the 2010 World Junior Curling Championships, the team won the bronze medal for the United States. The next year, Peterson joined the Wisconsin-based Rebecca Hamilton team at third. At the 2011 World Junior Curling Championships, the team finished in 5th. In 2012, they finished in third place at the U.S. Junior Championships.
After juniors, Peterson continued to play with Hamilton for on season, until joining the Nina Roth rink in 2013 as her second. Peterson competed at the 2014 Ford World Women's Curling Championship as the alternate on team USA, skipped by Allison Pottinger. In 2014, she joined the Aileen Sormunen rink. With Sormunen, Peterson won her first World Curling Tour event at the 2014 St. Paul Cash Spiel. She also played in her first Grand Slam event that season, going all the way to the semifinals of the 2014 Colonial Square Ladies Classic. The team acquired enough WCT Order of Merit Points to qualify as the U.S. National team for the 2015 World Women's Curling Championship.
At the 2020 United States Women's Championship Peterson earned her second national title, as second for her sister Tabitha. 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 Tabitha 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.

Personal life

Peterson's sister is fellow curler Tabitha Peterson. She is employed as a dentist and is engaged.

Teams