It's the day the town of Shelby, Nebraska has been waiting for, their hometown hero, Olympic Gold Medalist Curtis Tomasevicz returned home with his medal, and the town couldn't be more proud.

Tomasevicz got a standing ovation as he re-entered the gym where he first learned to love sports, Shelby Public School. Several hundred people crowded the gymnasium of his alma mater, Shelby Public School, to welcome him with cheers and open arms.

"I'm here because we're so proud of our neighbor boy that used to live about two blocks from us, and he came a long ways," said Theresa Jaax of Shelby.

"I graduated with him. I'm very happy to see him and hoping to get to talk to him a little bit," Ryan Moon said.

And while the whole town of Shelby turned out to celebrate his homecoming, this kind of support is something that Tomasevicz says he's known his whole life.

"This is, this is the moment I was looking forward to, I guess, when I got back to Shelby. To be able to come back in and talk to the, not just the students, but the entire community. It's really to let them know how much they've meant to me on this whole journey," Tomasevicz said.

Some dedicated friends even followed him to Vancouver, including Makenzi Kuhnel, who shared in his winning moment.

"Once they crossed a certain turn, we knew they won and we all cried and were jumping up and down and ringing the cow bells and everything. It was just amazing to see what they did," Kuhnel said.

Tomasevicz showed off his uniform and described his experience, but says he wants to leave the students of his former school with much more than that.

"I hope they remember to be proud of where they come from. I think it's huge to remember your past and just be proud being from Shelby and try to learn the lessons from the great teachers they have here," he said.

Tomasevicz says he hopes to carry those lessons on to Russia again in in the 2014 Winter Olympics. He says he's not positive yet, but thinks his next goal is to be a bobsled driver.
For now, Tomasevicz plans to stay in Nebraska for a while to spend some time with his parents.