'Legendary' performance sends U.S. to Olympic mixed doubles gold-medal game

For the first time since 2018, USA Curling is back in an Olympic gold-medal game. This time, however, it’s in mixed doubles competition.

Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin defeated reigning Olympic champ Italy 9-8 in an absolute barn-burner on Monday to advance to Tuesday's gold-medal match at Milano Cortina 2026.

Thiesse needed to hit and stick with her final shot to secure the win, something her teammate Dropkin knew she could do.

“Take an extra breath, do what you do best,” Dropkin told Thiesse, in words picked up by television microphones, before she threw her last stone.

She drilled it. The two ran to hug one another in excitement, realizing what they had just accomplished.

“You’re legendary,” Dropkin told Thiesse.

It’s been a long journey for the U.S. mixed doubles curling program at the Olympics.

While John Shuster’s men's team won gold in 2018, the U.S. mixed doubles pair of Rebecca Hamilton and Matt Hamilton finished seventh out of eight with a 2-5 record. It marked the first year for mixed doubles in the Olympics.

2022 wasn’t much better. Vicky Persinger and Chris Plys represented the country and finished eighth in the standings with a 3-6 record. 

But now?

Thiesse and Dropkin will compete for the U.S.’s second gold medal in any curling event at the Olympics.

They will face Sweden’s sibling duo of Isabella Wrana and Rasmus Wrana, who started the week 2-3, but have gone 4-1 since, including their 9-3 semifinal win over Great Britain. The U.S. beat Sweden in round-robin play.

For the Swedes, it also will be their best showing in mixed doubles at the Olympics. In 2022, the country captured the bronze medal.

Here's how everything played out on Monday.

Monday, Feb. 9 results

Draw 13

Canada 8, Switzerland 4

Italy 7, U.S. 6

Norway 8, South Korea 5

Czechia 8, Estonia 4

Draw 14 (semifinals)

Sweden 9, Great Britain 3

U.S. 9, Italy 8

The better teams were rewarded 

Sometimes we look at sports and question if the best two teams are actually playing for the championship. We wonder if the teams competing for the title got outplayed on their way there and just made one crucial play to win them a game.

Thankfully, we can say the latter won’t be the case in this year's mixed doubles final. Both Sweden and the U.S. deserve to be playing for gold.

However, for the Americans, Italy was close to making that one shot to get them into their second straight gold-medal match.

Even with the home crowd behind them, Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner didn’t have a great showing in the semifinal. Constantini shot 75 per cent and Mosaner was at 74.

The Italians were off their game, Mosaner started getting frustrated at Constantini in the fifth end because of her line calls while he was throwing and sweeping.

Yet they were neck and neck the entire match with Thiesse and Dropkin, who were shooting lights out. Thiesse finished at 92 per cent and Dropkin was at 85.

It was the key ‘one-shot-changes-everything’ moment each end that the Italians were counting on, and they just couldn’t do it in the eighth and final end. Constantini needed to hit and roll with her last stone, but couldn’t get it done.

In the game between Great Britain and Sweden, meanwhile, everything added up after looking at the stats and scoreboard.

Great Britain's Jennifer Dodds, who had been good to great for most of the week, shot just 57 per cent while Bruce Mouat shot 69 per cent. For Sweden, Isabella Wrana shot 91 per cent and Rasmus was at 92.

Until the sixth end, however, it didn’t feel like the Brits were just straight up missing shots. Instead, the Swedes were controlling the game and forcing Dodds and Mouat into uncomfortable situations.

The sixth end was a different story. Dodds started the end with a miss before Mouat was heavy on his first rock that went through the house. This left Sweden the opportunity to draw for three. Next shot, Mouat tried a runback but just made it a peel. Sweden drew to sit four.

As Dodds went to throw her last shot with Sweden still sitting four, instead of hitting, Dodds attempted to freeze to limit Sweden’s scoring possibility. It was a shot that would either make or break the game. 

Dodds was way too heavy, landing in the back 12-foot. Isabella drew for five and the game was essentially over.

Canada shows pride in final match

Although Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant didn’t achieve what they wanted this week at the mixed doubles competition, they certainly wore the Maple Leaf with pride throughout the event, even when they played their final game already being eliminated from the playoffs.

The Canadian duo played outstanding versus Switzerland in their final round-robin match to earn an 8-4 victory and finish 4-5 on the week.

“You never want to dog it or not bring your best when you’re wearing the Maple Leaf,” Peterman said afterward, per Curling Canada. “So we wanted to do that today and finish on a win and we’re proud of that.”

The biggest takeaway from the game was the bounce-back performance for Gallant, who is competing in the men’s curling discipline with skip Brad Jacobs, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert. 

During a five-game mixed doubles losing streak, Gallantstruggled badly to figure out the ice and missed timely shots because of it. 

But versus Switzerland, it finally clicked as Gallant shot 97 per cent.

That game might just provide the confidence Gallant needs to have a strong performance in the men’s tournament.

Canada will be back on the ice to start the quest for gold in both the men’s and women’s tournaments starting on Wednesday and Thursday.