Milano Cortina 2026 - Team USA - Curling

[clemsonbeav 581]

Team USA 2026

 

Men's Team - Team Casper - Danny Casper, Luc Violette, Ben Richardson, Aidan Oldenburg, Rich Ruohonen

 

Women's Team - Team Peterson - Tabitha Peterson, Cory Thiesse, Tara Peterson, Taylor Anderson-Heide, Aileen Geving

 

Mixed Doubles - Cory Thiesse/Korey Dropkin

 

 

History

 

Men's Team won Bronze in 2006 and Gold in 2018.

 

Edited December 12, 2025 by clemsonbeav

[clemsonbeav 581]

As of now, we only know that we're eligible for the Mixed Doubles event.  We earned that at the beginning of May this year after the results at the 2025 World Curling Championship.  We were represented by Cory Thiesse (W) and Korey Dropkin (M).  They earned their spot as the representatives after the US XD trials in February.

 

At the 2025 WCH, we ended up 5th, but girl Cory had the best percentage of all the women, at 90.3%.  Boy Korey was fifth amongst the men, at 84.9%. (Source). I like our chances.

 

Highlights of Thiesse/Dropkin:

2023 National Champs

2023 World Champs

2024 Silver at National Championship

2025 US XD Olympic Trials Champs

 

As for the Men's and Women's team, we're off to an Olympic Qualification Event from 06-13 December.  There will be 8 teams for each gender, and the top two will go on to the Olympics.  We were close to automatically qualifying (just one or two positions off), so hopefully that's a good sign we'll qualify.

 

Edited September 28, 2025 by clemsonbeav

[clemsonbeav 581]

BTW, the USA Men's and Women's Curling Trials will be 11-16 November 2025.  Source: https://www.usacurling.org/2026-olympic-team-trials

 

I would expect to be able to watch this on Peacock, NBC Sports, or something, if not streamed for free online.

[clemsonbeav 581]

Curling trials happening now...and yes, available on Peacock.

[Quaker2001 339]

On 11/12/2025 at 6:05 AM, clemsonbeav said:

Curling trials happening now...and yes, available on Peacock.

Today is on Peacock.  Tomorrow and Sunday are on USA

[Quaker2001 339]

John Shuster with a clutch draw on the last rock of the 10th end.  Series against Danny Casper is tied 1-1.  They'll play a 3rd game tomorrow to decide who will represent the United States at the Olympic Qualifying Event next month.

[clemsonbeav 581]

And Team Peterson locked it in yesterday for the Women.  They were the squad who went to Beijing in 2022 and finished sixth...all the best at the OQE!

 

(Also, nice to have someone else posting in the Team USA club, @Quaker2001!)  

[Quaker2001 339]

3 hours ago, clemsonbeav said:

And Team Peterson locked it in yesterday for the Women.  They were the squad who went to Beijing in 2022 and finished sixth...all the best at the OQE!

 

(Also, nice to have someone else posting in the Team USA club, @Quaker2001!)  

When the schedules came out for LA2028, decided to come back over here.  I'll probably be around a lot between now and February!

 

I discovered something interesting.. this is the 4th Olympic trials they've used this format with a best-of-3 series to determine the winner.  All 4 men's tournaments have gone to a 3rd game.  And as they noted on the broadcast last night, it's the 3rd straight time Shuster lost the first game.

 

I remember watching 4 years ago and it was excruciating because I wanted both Shuster and Dropkin to win, but someone had to lose.  This time though, whoever wins here still has to go through the OQE.  So I feel more confident in that with Shuster than with Casper's team.  Plus that would be really something for Shuster to make a 6th straight Olympics and to be competing for the 2nd time in Italy!

[clemsonbeav 581]

2 hours ago, Quaker2001 said:

 Plus that would be really something for Shuster to make a 6th straight Olympics and to be competing for the 2nd time in Italy!

Yes, my thoughts exactly!

[clemsonbeav 581]

And Shuster starts by giving Casper a steal...