February 9, 2026 / 3:07 PM EST / CBS/AP

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

Dropkin, of Massachusetts, and Thiesse, of Minnesota, whooped and hollered after edging the hosts, hugging tightly. Thiesse made her first Winter Olympics appearance at the 2018 PyeongChang Games, placing 8th with the women's curling team; it is Dropkin's first Olympics Games.

The duo gave the U.S. its first world title in mixed doubles curling in 2023, a year after they teamed up.

Curling runs in both of their families, and Dropkin says it's "like religion" to him.

"I grew up at the curling club," the 30-year-old told CBS News. "My parents were super involved with a junior 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 U.S. senior national champion and one-time world senior champion.

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

The Americans will play Swedish siblings Isabella and Rasmus Wrana, who upset 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 widely expected to be in the final.

Sweden's brother-and-sister team are curling together after growing up as rivals. Sweden won bronze in mixed doubles in 2022.

Similar to innings in baseball, curling is played in "ends." At each end, 16 stones are thrown in one direction and a score is determined. In the next end, the stones are thrown in the other direction.

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

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

The sheet is only 5 meters (16.4 feet) wide and both teams' stones accumulate every round, so it gets crowded.

Each round, for up to 10 rounds, teams have eight chances to slide the specialized 44-pound (20 kg) stones toward the tee. They can aim directly for the center, try to knock their opponents' stones away or nudge their own stones closer to the target. Strategies include blocking and take-outs.

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