Cory and Korey off to Cortina

It’s hard to imagine a fifth-place game being stressful, but the Friday evening draw of the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Fredericton, N.B. was not for the faint of heart.

With an Olympic berth in mixed doubles on the line, fans of USA’s Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin were cheering for a victory over Canada to decide fifth and sixth place, while simultaneously watching the scoreboard of the Australia-Scotland semifinal.

The USA and Australia were in an asynchronous battle with the winner earning a spot at the 2026 Olympics in Italy. The other would have to plan for a trip to Kelowna, B.C. in December where two final teams will qualify through the Olympic Qualification Event.

As predicted by The Curling News on Friday morning, Great Britain (Scotland), Norway, Estonia and Sweden had already qualified for the Games. Switzerland would soon join them, and Italy are in as host nation.

The United States had to have a few things go right. They needed either a win and a loss by Australia or two losses from Australia. Given how well Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt had played all week, two Aussie losses would be a lot to bank on.

Halfway through the draw on Friday, everything started to fall into place for Team USA. In Australia’s semifinal, Scotland’s Jen Dodds made a double to score five going into halftime and just 20 minutes later, Cory Thiesse’s angle-raise to score three in the fifth end would give the United States a 6-3 lead. American fans could start to feel a glimmer of hope.

The hope was fully realized when neither Scotland nor the United States would relinquish their hold on the lead, and Team USA would take the final Olympic qualifying spot available this season.

This duo, however, was playing for their own personal spots in Cortina as well. Just like the Canadians they had defeated, all that remains now is a formal USA Curling nomination and acceptance by the United States Olympic Committee.

Cory and Korey shared an embrace that was reminiscent of one they shared after they won the Olympic Trials in Colorado just a few months earlier.

The emotions of the rollercoaster ride the pair have been on were clear.

“It was a huge relief,” an emotional Thiesse told CBC’s Devin Heroux after the game.

“This has been the goal, the dream for both of us for so long. 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.”

For much of the week, it looked like Cory and Korey were well on their way to earning the trip to Italy—but as pool play came to an end, everything seemed to flip. In reality, their experience of quickly shifting tides was reflective of the variability of mixed doubles.

With three games remaining in group play, Team USA had a 5-1 record and realistically just needed to beat either 2024 silver medalists Estonia, or 2023 silver medalists Japan. After a close loss to Estonia, the United States built a 5-1 lead at halftime against Japan only to see their lead slip away.

For about 24 hours, it seemed like the United States was on the brink of having a third team headed to Kelowna for December’s Olympic Qualification Event. But as happens in mixed doubles, the tides underwent another extreme shift, and this time in Cory and Korey’s favor.

They took care of their business on Friday evening, and now the United States is guaranteed to have one team representing the country on the pebbled ice at the Olympics.

“Oh my gosh, this has been a rollercoaster of a week with so many emotions,” said Dropkin. “We are so grateful and so incredibly excited to be going to the Olympics!

“This is what we’ve always dreamed about since we were young kids, and now we have finally achieved it. We can’t wait to represent the United States in Cortina.”

On Feb. 5, millions of viewers unfamiliar with curling will tune in to watch the sport for the first time in four years, and they’ll be introduced to two good friends from Duluth making their Olympic debuts together.

Their hard work has paid off and for Thiesse and Dropkin, the fun is only getting started.