Four years ago, Korey Dropkin asked Cory Thiesse to meet him at a now-famed Duluth, Minnesota, restaurant — Pickwick.

The rest, as they say, is history.

That night, Dropkin planned to asked Thiesse if she’d like to be his mixed doubles curling partner. Thiesse didn’t even really hesitate. She said joining up with Dropkin made sense, even if neither of them knew at the time how far the partnership would take them.

“We're really good friends. We've known each other for a long time, so I think it just was a really easy transition for us to become teammates,” Thiesse said in a phone interview last week.

The two had been curling with their men’s and women’s teams and both living in Duluth, where they would have the chance to train and practice together. But they were known as much different players. Dropkin is energetic, often doing little dances after big shots and trying to get the crowd into the games.

Thiesse, on the other hand, is quiet, subdued, and a calming presence on the ice.

It was the fact they were so opposite that she said makes them a good pair.

“I think we're the perfect mix of personalities,” Thiesse said. “We talk about this, like, fire and ice. Korey brings the passion, he brings the energy, the excitement to our team, and I bring kind of this stoic, calm confidence. And I think we both need each other out there on the ice, and it just works really well for us. Korey is an incredible sweeper. He's an incredible mixed doubles player to be able to throw his stones and get up and sweep the rock like he does. He makes a ton of shots with his sweeping abilities. I like to think I'm okay at throwing the last shot.”

“She’s so good,” Dropkin said in response to Thiesse. “Clutch.”

Almost a year to the day after they became a pair, the two won the 2023 World Championships. Less than two years later, they’re Olympic silver medalists.

At the Milan Cortina Games, Dropkin and Thiesse went through round-robin play 6-3 to earn the No. 3 seed in the semifinals. Just doing that was historic, as no American mixed doubles team had ever made the final four at the Olympics, but the two weren’t done. They then took down Italy, the defending gold medalists, to advance to the gold medal game.

It took a comeback win in the 10th for Sweden to defeat the Americans in the final, but Thiesse and Dropkin still brought home the silver medal, a first for any American team in mixed doubles team, just the third American curling medal, and the first for an American woman.

“We had just an incredible week of curling and there was so many great teams there,” Thiesse said. “Any of those teams could have been on the podium at the end of the week. We just knew that we wanted to go out there and just enjoy ourselves, have fun, put together some good curling shots, and just focus on the process, trust all the work that we had put in, and kind of see what happens at the end of the week. 

“And to be finishing on the podium is just incredible, and it's just a huge, huge thing for USA Curling, for our sport back home. We know that a lot of people got really invested in mixed double curling and it's just really, really cool because we love showcasing our sport and showing people how fun it is.”

The medals by Thiesse and Dropkin come 20 years after the United States men’s curling team brought home the country’s first Olympic curling medal, a bronze at the 2006 Games.

Thiesse remembers John Shuster, the skip of that team and a USA curling legend, bringing his medal to a Tuesday night juniors curling night that she attended when she was 10 years old. She said at the time she “thought it was the coolest thing” seeing someone from her club who also grew up in Minnesota go to the Olympics and come back with hardware.

Both curlers said that team was huge for them in their careers. It allowed them to “realize that that was an achievable dream,” Thiesse said.

Taking home silver, Thiesse said she and her teammate know the magnitude of their win and what it means for future generations in their sport. There are likely other young curlers who watched them with that same amazement.

“To be able to see people from the U.S. on the podium for curling, it's huge, and we are really excited to get home and share this medal with people and let them see it, let them hold it, and believe that it can happen,” she said.

“Hopefully, this inspires the next generation to get out there, pick up a broom, get on the ice and dream big in the sport of curling,” Dropkin added. “Really in any sport that they want to get after and attack with passion and determination. I mean, anything can happen if you dream it and believe in it and believe in yourself, so it'd be really cool to see this hopefully inspire some young athletes out there to pursue whatever they're passionate about.”

Looking back at that team 20 years ago, Dropkin is hopeful the sport of curling can continue to grow even more over the next two decades. 

Where does he see U,S, curling 20 years from now?

“Honestly, I would love to see the sport continue to evolve into being more of a mainstream sport and not have it be something that comes around every four years and waiting four years to get the attention of the U.S.,” he said. “We’re wanting to have more events that are on mainstream networks televised with big crowds throughout the U.S. and throughout the world, really.

“This week we got to have a privilege of playing in front of a huge crowd. All of our family and friends that showed up here to support us, but also all the families and friends of the other athletes around the world that were competing here and making this event so special. Hearing the rowdiness of the crowd of all the different countries really made a huge impact on how special this week was for us.

"It’s a fun environment out there when the crowds are full. I know that our country loves watching curling every four years, and hopefully it'll become something that they watch every other week and be able to really give the sport the attention that at least we truly think it deserves.”

Before they get back on the ice to begin competing together again, Dropkin and Thiesse have one place they need to get to first. They’re planning a reunion at Pickwick, where everything started one fateful night four years ago.

“We actually had a nice dinner at the Pickwick with a bunch of friends a couple nights before we left to come here. So yes, it's a special place to us and we'll for sure be having a celebratory dinner when we get home,” Thiesse said.

“Pickwick, we're coming for you,” Dropkin said.

Who knows how many more reunions the duo will need at Pickwick in the future. There’s likely a lot more curling for these two over the coming years.

“I'm really glad he asked me to be his teammate,” Thiesse said.

“I'm really glad she said yes,” Dropkin added.