By Ben Hoppe, U.S. curling writer
In their first season as a team, the mixed doubles duo of Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin found themselves in the semifinals of a world championship against Team Canada. If they were tight, nobody would have known. If there were nerves, they weren’t showing.
Thiesse and Dropkin were relaxed. They were having fun. In what should have been a moment filled with pressure, they were laughing.
“We were behind the sheet, just giggling, enjoying ourselves,” Dropkin reminisced. “If you look back at photos and videos before we even stepped on the sheet, we were just smiling and laughing and having a good time. That kind of sums up our team and our partnership.”
The teammates rode their wave of positivity through the semifinals and won the gold at the 2023 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship. They joined together as a team to make a run to the Winter Olympics, and their quadrennial run started with a statement.
Three years after their run to gold, the two friends are pinching themselves as they head to Cortina, Italy, in hopes of chasing another medal of the same colour. To be successful, they’ll need to keep each other measured, loose, and having fun with the brightest lights on them.
“It’ll be wild to be playing with the (Olympic) rings all around us,” Dropkin said. “Living out our dream and doing so with some of our closest supporters there watching us.”
Dropkin and Thiesse have already made their way overseas for a pre-Olympics training session in Switzerland from their homes in northern Minnesota. In just a few days, the duo from Duluth will be joined in Italy by approximately 60 family and friends, who will make the trek overseas to cheer them on. The community that moulded them into the people they are today are sure to make their voices heard when Thiesse and Dropkin take the ice against Norway on Feb. 5.
BUILT ON A FIRM FOUNDATION
The balance that the teammates find in each other is rooted in a firm foundation 4,532 miles away from Cortina d’Ampezzo: the Duluth Curling Club. A native of Duluth, the club made a profound impact on Thiesse’s development.
“It’s a second family to me,” she said. “I wouldn’t be half the curler I am today if I didn’t grow up in Duluth and at the Duluth Curling Club.”
When Thiesse walks into her club, she sees the banners hanging above the ice. The history of curling in Duluth is interwoven with the history of the sport in the entire country. Legends of the game hail from Duluth. The history and community of the club are key components of who Thiesse and Dropkin are today, but their success has made them part of that rich tapestry. The magnitude is not lost on either player.
“Every time I walk into the Duluth Curling Club, I see all the banners that are raised over the sheets,” Dropkin shared. “The pictures, all the memorabilia, the world championships, the Olympic teams that remind you of the history that the DCC offers. To be able to represent the Duluth community means a lot to me.”
Dropkin pointed to another club that helped develop his passion for the game. Growing up in Southborough, Mass., Dropkin recalled watching his brother curl at Broomstones Curling Club. His parents were incredibly involved with the club, and he found himself growing up at Broomstones and falling in love with the sport, driving the passion we see today.
“It was essentially my daycare, my religion, my everything from an infant age," he said.
As he got older and continued his pursuit of the Olympic dream, Dropkin wanted to surround himself with the best curlers in the country and moved to the shores of Lake Superior. In doing so, he found himself enveloped in a community of people in Duluth who have dedicated lifetimes into curating a culture that has bred success. Between Broomstones and Duluth, Dropkin got the best of both worlds.
He shared, “Having that combination of those two curling clubs has been a blessing for my career.”
Teaming up with Thiesse, who Dropkin named “the best shotmaker of all time in the U.S.,” as a teammate hasn’t exactly hurt his career, either.
PERFECT COMPLEMENTS
They first met when they represented the United States at the 2012 World Junior Curling Championships in Sweden, and became fellow club members soon after when Dropkin moved to Duluth. Their friendship grew as they both competed on tour, and when the two discussed the idea of teaming up in 2022, it was a seamless fit from the get-go.
“Right away, it came very easily to us,” Thiesse recalled.
Their world championship in 2023 was evidence of that, but their path to the Winter Olympics had some bumps. Through their ups and downs, the two have learned how they can keep each other in balance, even if they do find themselves in a stressful situation.
“I’m always at the same level,” Thiesse shared. “I have a way of remaining calm and just focusing on one shot at a time.”
She believes her level-headedness also helps Dropkin stay in the moment.
Dropkin said curling with Thiesse has been a dream, and it’s that calming force that she brings to each game.
“She has this mentality that she believes she can beat anybody on the sheet, and there’s a very calming sense that comes with that presence," he said.
Dropkin, on the other hand, is the hype squad. He brings emotions and big energy to every game, and he always wants to make sure he’s affirming how good his teammate is. He knows if he can make his shots and give Thiesse everything he has to sweep her rocks to the perfect spot, they’ll be having a good time.
“With the coaching staff that we have, Cathy (Overton-Clapham) and Phill (Drobnick), we have a really fun dynamic together,” Thiesse said. “It makes the sport fun, and we all know that we play better when we’re having fun.”
Dropkin echoed Thiesse’s sentiment.
“The core four has been such a great mix. We’ve made statements because of that mix," he said.
Thiesse and Dropkin are popular picks to medal in Cortina, but no matter what happens, they can lean on their community to support them, their coaches to lift them up, and each other to keep having fun.
Thiesse will bring the calm; Dropkin will bring the fire. And together, the two aim to make a statement and bring some hardware back to Duluth.
