Latest news with #Dropkin
Fox Sports
03-05-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
American curlers Thiesse and Dropkin earn spot in Milan-Cortina Olympic mixed doubles field
Associated Press Americans Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin clinched a berth in the 2026 Olympic mixed doubles curling competition when they beat Canada 8-4 at the world championships in Fredericton, New Brunswick, on Saturday to earn a fifth-place finish that was enough for a spot in Milan-Cortina. It will be the first Olympics for Dropkin, who was runner-up to five-time Olympian and 2018 gold medalist John Shuster at the U.S. men's trials for each of the last two Winter Games. Thiesse was an alternate for Nina Roth's women's team in Pyeongchang in 2018. 'It's a huge relief,' Thiesse told the CBC. 'This has been the goal, the dream, for both of us for so long and we both worked so hard for it. To be playing together and be such good friends, and just do it together is really, really exciting.' Thiesse and Dropkin won the U.S. mixed doubles trials this winter to earn the right to represent the country at the world championships in Canada. But the Americans needed to finish at least fifth in Fredericton to qualify for the Olympics. After beating Canada on Saturday, Thiesse and Dropkin had to wait out Scotland's 9-6 win over Australia in another placement match to clinch a trip to Italy. 'We felt like we were in control of our own destiny with our Olympics so let's just give it our all,' Thiesse said. 'We felt like we did that today.' The U.S. Olympic trials for the men's and women's curling teams are in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in November. ___ AP sports: in this topic
Associated Press
03-05-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
American curlers Thiesse and Dropkin earn spot in Milan-Cortina Olympic mixed doubles field
Americans Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin clinched a berth in the 2026 Olympic mixed doubles curling competition when they beat Canada 8-4 at the world championships in Fredericton, New Brunswick, on Saturday to earn a fifth-place finish that was enough for a spot in Milan-Cortina. It will be the first Olympics for Dropkin, who was runner-up to five-time Olympian and 2018 gold medalist John Shuster at the U.S. men's trials for each of the last two Winter Games. Thiesse was an alternate for Nina Roth's women's team in Pyeongchang in 2018. 'It's a huge relief,' Thiesse told the CBC. 'This has been the goal, the dream, for both of us for so long and we both worked so hard for it. To be playing together and be such good friends, and just do it together is really, really exciting.' Thiesse and Dropkin won the U.S. mixed doubles trials this winter to earn the right to represent the country at the world championships in Canada. But the Americans needed to finish at least fifth in Fredericton to qualify for the Olympics. After beating Canada on Saturday, Thiesse and Dropkin had to wait out Scotland's 9-6 win over Australia in another placement match to clinch a trip to Italy. 'We felt like we were in control of our own destiny with our Olympics so let's just give it our all,' Thiesse said. 'We felt like we did that today.' The U.S. Olympic trials for the men's and women's curling teams are in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in November. ___ AP sports:
NBC Sports
03-05-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Cory Thiesse, Korey Dropkin clinch 2026 Olympic spot in mixed doubles curling
Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin are the first curlers to clinch spots on the 2026 U.S. Olympic team. Thiesse, 30, and Dropkin, 29, won the Olympic Trials in mixed doubles in February, but still had to earn an Olympic quota spot for the U.S. through international competition. They did just that in their first of two chances — at this week's world championship in New Brunswick, Canada. Thiesse and Dropkin, the 2023 World champions, finished fifth at these worlds. That combined with another U.S. team's 10th-place result from the 2024 Worlds were enough to ensure the U.S. gets a spot in the 10-team 2026 Olympic field. 'A huge relief,' Thiesse told the Grand Slam of Curling. 'This has been the goal, the dream for both of us for so long, and we both worked so hard for it.' Had Thiesse and Dropkin not qualified the spot at these worlds, they would have had one more opportunity at a last-chance qualifier in December. They're the third and fourth athletes to clinch a spot on the U.S. Olympic team after snowboarders Chloe Kim and Red Gerard. The U.S. team for the Milan Cortina Games will likely end up including more than 200 athletes across all sports. Thiesse and Dropkin, whose team formed over drinks in their native Duluth, Minnesota, would each make their Olympic competition debut in 2026. Thiesse went to the 2018 PyeongChang Games as an alternate for the women's team but did not see game action. She was also a runner-up at the 2018 Olympic Trials (mixed doubles) and the 2022 Olympic Trials (women's team). Dropkin was on Olympic Trials runner-up men's teams in 2018 and 2022, each time winning the first game of a best-of-three championship series against John Shuster-skipped teams before losing the next two. Mixed doubles debuted at the Olympics in 2018. U.S. teams finished sixth in 2018 (Rebecca Hamilton/Matt Hamilton) and eighth in 2022 (Vicky Persinger, Chris Plys). Olympic Trials for the women's and men's team events will be in November in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The winners will then go to December's last-chance qualifier, where the last two spots will be filled in the 10-team women's and men's Olympic fields. Nick Zaccardi,
NBC Sports
07-04-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Scotland to go into Olympics as reigning men's curling world champion after playoffs rally
A Scottish team will go into the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics as the reigning world champion in men's curling. No men from the sport's birthplace have won Olympic curling gold since 1924. A team skipped by Bruce Mouat won 5-4 over the Swiss in the world championship final in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, on Sunday. Mouat's team, ranked fifth after round-robin play, became the first to win a men's world title having to go through the qualification playoffs since that round was added in 2018. Previously, the top four teams from round-robin made the playoffs. In their three playoff games, the Scots defeated Niklas Edin and Sweden in a rematch of the 2022 Olympic final, and then 2014 Olympic gold medalist Brad Jacobs and Canada before beating Yannick Schwaller's Switzerland. Mouat, 30, already skipped teams to Olympic silver in 2022 and a world title in 2023. This is the first time a men's team from Scotland, the sport's birthplace, will go into the Olympics as reigning world champion since 2010. The only time a Scottish team (competing for Great Britain) won the Olympic men's title was at the first Winter Games in Chamonix, France, in 1924. The sport then went 74 years before it returned to the official Olympic program starting in 1998. In the women's event, Scottish teams won Olympic gold in 2002 and 2022. The U.S. team skipped by Korey Dropkin finished 11th out of 13 after going 4-8 in round-robin play. The U.S. missed qualifying an Olympic quota spot for 2026 by one spot, but can still earn a place in Milan Cortina at a last-chance qualifier in December. The team that wins the Olympic Trials in November will go to the last-chance qualifier in Kelowna, British Columbia, where the last two Olympic spots will be filled. Dropkin heads later this month to Fredericton, New Brunswick, for the world championship in mixed doubles. Dropkin and partner Cory Thiesse won that world title in 2023 and can clinch an Olympic spot for themselves at these worlds. Nick Zaccardi,
NBC Sports
23-02-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Cory Thiesse, Korey Dropkin win U.S. Olympic Mixed Doubles Curling Trials
Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin won the U.S. Olympic Mixed Doubles Curling Trials to move one major step closer to each making their Olympic competition debut in 2026. Thiesse and Dropkin, the 2023 World champions, defeated Sarah Anderson and Andrew Stopera 8-7 on Saturday (extra end) and then 6-3 on Sunday to sweep the best-of-three championship series in Lafayette, Colorado. Thiesse and Dropkin aren't qualified for the Olympics yet. They must still earn their spot through international competition later this year. Their first chance is at the world championship in two months in New Brunswick, Canada. Nations' results at the 2024 and 2025 Worlds are combined to create a ranking that determines the first seven nations to qualify for the 2026 Milan Cortina Games (plus automatically qualified host nation Italy). The U.S. team at 2024 Worlds placed 10th. After that, a last-chance global qualifying tournament in December will determine the last two Olympic spots. The U.S. successfully qualified a team for the first two Olympic mixed doubles competitions in 2018 and 2022, ultimately placing sixth and eighth. Thiesse and Dropkin, who live within three miles of each other in Duluth, Minnesota, teamed up in 2022 with the most curling of origin stories. Thiesse previously played with 2018 Olympic men's team champion skip John Shuster. Dropkin used to play with Anderson. Dropkin and Stopera are currently on the same men's team that won a U.S. title earlier this month and will be one of the favorites at those Olympic Trials in November in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Thiesse and Dropkin each previously finished runner-up twice at Olympic Trials in either mixed doubles or team events. Thiesse went to the Olympics in 2018 as an alternate for the U.S. women's team and did not see game action. A year after Thiesse and Dropkin partnered, they became the first Americans to win a world title in mixed doubles. Nick Zaccardi,
