The U.S. mixed doubles curling team opened the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics with two straight wins on Thursday. Here's a look at how they were able to find victory. 

The U.S. mixed doubles curling team opened play in the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in the best way possible, stealing a win over Norway on Day 2 of competition.

Down 6-4 in the seventh end, Cory Thiesse got a takeout on the hammer for two U.S. points that tied the score going into the final end. 

“It was a lot of figuring out the ice," Thiesse said. "We struggled early on with our draw weights and had a really good fourth-end break. We refocused, talked about the different speeds and the different paths, and wanting to communicate that more out on the ice... The last half we did a really great job of that, and knew we needed to keep the game close.”

Norway had a huge advantage with hammer in the eighth, but an undercurled throw on their penultimate rock left the U.S. sitting two on their final rock. After the U.S. threw a guard for their last rock, Kristin Skaslien's hammer throw again didn't curl enough to get to the button, giving the U.S. two stolen points for the win.

The eighth was the only stolen end for either team in the match.

The U.S. jumped out to a 1-0 lead early, but Norway responded with three in the second, and never trailed again until the final throw.

With the loss, Norway, silver medalists in the 2022 Olympics and bronze winners in 2018, falls to 0-2. The duo of Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten will look for win No. 1 at 8:35 a.m. ET when they take on Canada (1-0).

Thiesse and her partner, Korey Dropkin, were off for the first session of play on Wednesday. The U.S. (1-0) will get just a short break before their second game against Switzerland.

SCOREBOARD

It seemed every mistake Switzerland made on Thursday, the U.S. was able to capitalize. Trailing 2-1 in the third end, Thiesse's final throw took out a Swiss stone on the button for two points to regain the lead.

The U.S. was able to steal two more in the fourth after Thiesse's final throw had her team sitting two ahead of the Swiss hammer throw. Briar Schwaller-Hüllimann's final throw wasn't hard enough to knock out the U.S.'s red stone, and Switzerland went down 5-2 at the halfway point.

The steal was the second stolen end for the U.S. They also stole a point in the first for an early 1-0 lead.

A double-takeout by Thiesse on Team USA's penultimate throw of the sixth was followed by a missed takeout attempt by Schwaller-Hüllimann, setting up two more easy points for the U.S. in the sixth.

The desperate Swiss squad chose to use their power play in the seventh, but again the U.S. didn't let them capitalize much, holding them to one. 

Needing at least three points to force an extra end, Switzerland conceded the final throw of the eighth to give Thiesse and Dropkin the win.

SCOREBOARD

After two wins to open their tournament, Thiesse and Dropkin will get a break for the final session of play on Thursday. They'll next take on Canada (2-0) — another unbeaten squad — at 4:05 a.m. ET on Friday morning before facing Czechia (0-2) at 8:35 a.m. ET.