The United States reaches the Olympic curling mixed doubles final and will face its Swedish brothers for gold

Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse guaranteed the United States its first Olympic medal in mixed doubles curling, reaching the final on Monday with a 9-8 victory over Italy in the Milan Cortina Games.

Dropkin, of Massachusetts, and Thiesse, of Minnesota, screamed and screamed after overtaking the hosts, hugging each other tightly. Thiesse made her first Winter Olympic appearance at the 2018 PyeongChang Games, placing eighth with the women’s curling team; It’s Dropkin’s first Olympics.

The duo gave the US its first world mixed doubles curling title in 2023a year after they joined.

Curling runs in both of their families, and Dropkin says it’s “like a religion” for him.

“I grew up in the curling club,” he said. a 30-year-old man told News themezone. “My parents were very involved in a youth program at our curling club. My brother was five years older. He was already curling. I followed in his footsteps. I was like his shadow.”

Thiesse is the daughter of Linda Christensen, who also competed for Team USA and is a two-time US Senior National Champion and one-time Senior World Champion.

When is the Team USA mixed curling double gold medal match?

Dropkin and Thiesse’s mixed doubles curling gold medal match against Sweden is scheduled for Tuesday, February 10 at 12:05 p.m. ET.

The Americans will play Swedish siblings Isabella and Rasmus Wrana, who defeated the British duo of Jennifer Dodds and Brett Mouat 9-3 in the other semifinal.

Dodds and Mouat, best friends who grew up curling together, entered the field as favorites and were expected to be in the final.

The brother and sister team from Sweden are uniting after growing up as rivals. Sweden won bronze in mixed doubles in 2022.

How many ends are there in the curl?

Like innings in baseball, curling is played on “ends.” At each end, 16 stones are thrown in one direction and a score is determined. In the next ending, the stones are thrown in the other direction.

In a curling match, two teams compete to see which can get the most granite stones closer to a target called a tee by sliding them along a narrow sheet of ice.

The distance between where a player must drop the stone and the tee at the other end is approximately 93 feet (28 meters).

The mat is only 5 meters (16.4 ft) wide and stones from both teams accumulate each round, making it crowded.

In each round, for up to 10 rounds, teams have eight opportunities to slide the specialized 44-pound (20 kg) stones onto the tee. They can aim directly at the center, try to knock down their opponents’ stones, or move their own stones closer to the target. Strategies include lockdown and takeaway.