USA Curling used a number of selection criteria to determine which teams would qualify for the Olympic Trials. If an American team placed in the top five at the 2017 World Men's Curling Championship or 2017 World Women's Curling Championship, that team would automatically qualify for the Olympic Trials. The John Shuster and Nina Roth rinks qualified via this method. Next, teams had an opportunity to qualify for the Olympic Trials by placing in the top 15 of the World Curling Tour Order of Merit standings for the 2016–17 season. No US teams placed high enough in these standings to automatically qualify in this manner. The final criterion used for inclusion in the trial was a discretionary selection by USA Curling's Olympic Team Selection Committee. The committee was required to choose some number of teams for each tournament to ensure that there were a minimum of three and a maximum of five teams competing. The committee chose three men's teams and two women's teams. A fifth team, skipped by Todd Birr, was added to the men's tournament after a successful appeal to the USCA Judiciary Hearing Panel, alleging that the Olympic Team Selection Committee erred in its decision not to include Team Birr in the tournament.