Playoff Melee at U.S. Mixed Doubles Curling Trials

As the USA Curling Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials enter the final draw of round robin play on Friday morning—with the beginning of the playoffs set for that evening—one part of the playoff picture is already determined.

Sarah Anderson and Andrew Stopera know they’ve got a date with Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin in the 1 vs 2 Page playoff, Friday at 7:00 p.m. MST.

Both teams hold 7-1 won/loss records after Thursday.

Anderson and Stopera have looked incredibly strong so far in the Trials at Rock Creek Curling in Lafayette, Col. The 2023 national finalists are guaranteed a podium finish again in 2025, but their sights are firmly set on winning their first championship together in the mixed doubles discipline.

To get there, they’ve got to first go through the 2023 world champions. Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin had a shaky start, dropping their first game to Bear/Oldenburg, but since then have rattled off seven straight wins including a convincing 8-2 victory over Anderson/Stopera.

Stopera plays for Dropkin in men’s fours. Their squad captured the recent four-player nationals at Duluth, relegating perennial champion John Shuster to third place.

Dropkin, one of the strongest sweepers in the field, has been battling blister issues on his hand. It will be interesting to see if this has any impact as he and Thiesse work to return to the world stage, this time as Olympians at Milano-Cortina 2026.

The winner of the 1 vs 2 playoff will go straight through to the best of three final while the other team will drop to the semifinal to take on the winner of the 3 vs 4 playoff.

Madison Bear and Aidan Oldenburg control their fate going into Friday, sitting alone in third place with a 5-3 record, but they’ve got four teams behind them at 4-4, including their final round robin opponents, Becca and Matt Hamilton.

The youngest team in the field, Bear and Oldenburg have put heavy pressure on their opponents early in games thus far. In four of their five wins, they have had a lead going into the fourth end break (in the other win, they were tied with hammer).

In each of their three losses, they’ve gotten behind early. They’ll be looking for a strong start against Madison Curling Club’s Hamilton siblings to secure their spot in the playoffs.

With the 4-4 logjam of Anderson-Heide/Richardson, Daly/Violette, Hamilton/Hamilton and Roth/Nernberger, it’s probably a safe bet there will be a tiebreaker game at 1:00 p.m. to determine the final playoff spot.

The pairing of Aileen Geving and Shuster sits at 3-5.