The United States mixed doubles curling team of Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin are 4-0 after two days of competition at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics following wins over Canada and Czechia on Friday.
Thiesse and Dropkin began their day by defeating Canada’s Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman 7-5 in a tight battle at Cortina Olympic Stadium.
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After going behind 1-0 after the first end, the U.S. scored three points over the next two ends for a 3-1 lead. That advantage would quickly dissipate after the Canadians earned two points in the fourth end to even the score.
The teams would exchange points in the fifth and sixth ends, but the U.S. would go ahead for good in the seventh end after Dropkin scored three points for a 7-4 lead. Knowing what they needed to do to preserve the lead, the American team played defense with Gallant and Peterman only able to muster a single point as rapper Snoop Dogg watched in the crowd sitting next to Dropkin’s mom, Shelley.
Rapper Snoop Dogg was in attendance for the U.S. mixed doubles matches on Friday. (Photo by Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images)
(Andrew Milligan – PA Images via Getty Images)
“We kind of spotted him halfway through the game and saw his jacket that we were on, which was awesome,” Thiesse said afterward, via The Athletic. “Yeah, just so cool to be able to meet him and to have him here, supporting us.”
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“He had his arm around my mom,” said Dropkin. “Like, get out of here. This is wild. I think coach mum was helping Snoop out, telling him all about curling.”
A few hours later, the U.S. had a much easier time in their second match of the day dispatching Czechia 8-1.
Vít Chabičovský and Julie Zelingrová had no answers for Thiesse and Dropkin as the U.S. built a 4-0 lead after two ends and didn’t falter the rest of the match. The U.S. added four more points before the Czechs conceded following the sixth end.
The 4-0 start by Thiesse and Dropkin the best at an Olympics among any U.S. men’s, women’s or mixed doubles curling team since the sport was added in 1998.
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The four victories surpasses the total that previous U.S. mixed doubles teams picked up in each of the previous two Olympics. Rebecca Hamilton and Matt Hamilton went 2-5 in 2018 and Vicky Persinger and Chris Plys finished 3-6 in 2022. Neither of those teams advanced to the playoffs.
Thiesse and Dropkin will continue round-robin play on Saturday against 5-0 Great Britain and 0-4 South Korea.
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