Thiesse, Dropkin a Win Away from Cortina

Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin are one win away from future Olympian status.

The mixed doubles pairing defeated Sarah Anderson and Andrew Stopera 8-7 in the first game of their best-of-three championship final of the U.S. Olympic Trials.

The 10-team championship, which started Monday at Rock Creek Curling in Lafayette, Col., wraps up on Sunday and will—for the first time—declare Team USA’s mixed doubles representatives one year in advance of the Olympic Winter Games.

Curling—mixed doubles and men’s and women’s fours—at those Games is scheduled for Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy in February of 2026.

These and Dropkin, the first Americans to win a mixed doubles world championship, started their Friday night series opener with a 1-0 lead and never trailed, even holding a 5-2 lead after four ends of play.

Anderson/Stopera fought back, tying the match 5-5 with a sixth-end steal and again in the eighth end—on a fine short angle runback from Anderson—to square the tussle at 7-7.

The extra end went the way of Thiesse/Dropkin, as Anderson just missed executing a delicate raise on a cluster of stones on her last attempt. That allowed Thiesse/Dropkin to score one without throwing their final shot.

Thiesse/Dropkin defeated Anderson/Stopera in the Page 1 vs 2 playoff game by a 10-3 scoreline, after going on a nine-point scoring run beginning in the fourth end. That put them directly into the championship series.

Anderson/Stopera bounced back in the semifinal, eliminating the Madison Bear/Aidan Oldenburg duo 7-5.

After the event’s round robin came to a close, Bear/Oldenburg clambered through a tiebreaker win—5-4 over Lexi Daly and Lucy Violetta—as well as the Page 3 vs 4 matchup against Taylor Anderson-Heide and Ben Richardson, 10-9 in an extra end.

Game two of the best-of-three final will air on CNBC on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. (all games Mountain Time). If a game three is necessary, it will follow at 6:00 p.m.

Games are also available on Peacock, the NBC Olympics portal and the NBC Sports app.