Duluth’s Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin started Sunday by just getting back into the win column, then finished it by getting into the playoffs at the 2026 Winter Games in Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy.
The United States’ mixed doubles curling team is guaranteed to play for a medal, something Americans weren’t able to do in two previous Olympics appearances, after defeating Estonia 5-3 and Sweden 8-7.
The match with Estonia’s Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill was the lowest-scoring of the tournament thus far, and the first in Olympic mixed doubles since 2018 in which neither team scored more than one point in a single end.
The teams alternated forcing the other to one point over the first six ends. Thiesse’s last rock of the sixth end deflected off an Estonian guard, forcing them to settle for one when they were going for three.
The back-and-forth finally changed in the seventh when Lill’s last rock had too much weight and not enough curl, missing the target and giving the Americans a steal of one. That gave Team USA a one-point lead, but not the last rock in the climactic eighth end. With the game in Kaldvee’s hands again, she again missed her target, only grazing the American rock in the scoring area and sealing the result.
As tight as the afternoon match was, Team USA’s showdown with the Swedish sibling team of Isabella and Rasmus Wrana was much more freewheeling.
Each side scored three in their first attempt with the hammer. After holding the Swedes to a single point in the third end, Thiesse was on target, pushing a Swedish stone out of the way and scoring another three for a 6-4 US lead at the halfway point. The Americans then added on to their lead by stealing a point in end five.
Sweden tied it up with two in the sixth end and a steal of one in the seventh but the Americans won it in the eighth. Dropkin had a highlight-reel shot in which he ejected all three Swedish stones from the rings, leaving two in place. After the Swedes failed to push those rocks out of scoring position, they conceded before Thiesse even had to throw the last rock of the game.
The Americans (6-2) conclude round-robin play on Monday morning (3:05 a.m. CST) against host and defending champion Italy, with both teams knowing they’re in the semis. If the Italians win, they’ll trigger another meeting in the semifinals (11:05 a.m. CST). If the Americans win, Italy will drop to fourth and the US will play Sweden in the semifinals.
The losing semifinalists will play Tuesday morning at 7:05 a.m. CST for the bronze medal, with the mixed-doubles gold-medal game taking place at 11:05 a.m. Tuesday.
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