DULUTH, Minn. — The night he won gold at the Winter Olympics in February, Tyler George slept with the medal next to his pillow. He wanted to make sure it would still be there in the morning.

Nearly a year later, he still has barely let the medal out of sight, in large part because he has not been allowed to let it out of sight.

“I know that if I show up without that thing, they’ll send me home,” George said.

This is what happens when you are part of the first American men’s curling team to win an Olympic gold medal.

As invited guests at hockey games, golf tournaments and parades across the country, the members of the team have found that just about everyone wants a look at those medals. George and his four teammates — John Shuster, John Landsteiner, Matt Hamilton and Joe Polo — have appeared at award shows, state fairs, countless learn-to-curl events and at least one Broadway production (“The Play That Goes Wrong”). They have given pep talks to marathoners and delivered commencement speeches to high school students. They have sung karaoke with Jimmy Fallon and blown the Gjallarhorn at a Minnesota Vikings game.