Team Peterson toppled Team Roervik of Norway at the Olympic Qualification Event (OQE) in Kelowna, Quebec to secure the final spot in the women’s competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The victory came less than 24 hours after Team Casper, their American counterparts, qualified for the men’s event in Milan Cortina.
Norway emerged from the OQE round robin atop the table, winning six of their seven matchups. Locking in the No. 1 seed gave skip Marianne Roervik and her rink two opportunities in the qualifying round. On Wednesday, they rematched Japan, a squad they beat a day prior, but lost 6-5. That meant Norway would play the No. 3 seed U.S. in a win or go-home game. Peterson had prevailed 10-9 in their one round-robin matchup.
In curling’s version of a Game 7, the U.S. fell into a hole early, trailing 3-0 going into the third end. Three-pointers aren’t necessarily rare in high-stakes spiels like an OQE, but they typically happen less frequently since the level of play is so elite. Team Peterson, the three-time defending curling national champions, easily could have folded. Instead, they remained poised.
“The first thing I said after it happened, I'm like, ‘Well, got lots of game left, girls,’” said skip Tabitha Peterson. “We knew that anything early like that, there's lots of time to battle back. And that's just what we did.”
They were punched, but landed an equally devastating haymaker back, posting a three-point end of their own to tie things up. It very nearly was a two, but a biter that barely clipped the house evened the score. Peterson then ripped off a string of steals in the fifth, sixth and seventh to take a commanding 6-3 lead. Again, the game of inches tipped in the American rink’s favor, as their fifth-end point resulted from a stone being ever so slightly closer to the button than their opponent’s.
Norway claimed a point in the eighth end, only to be outshot in the ninth by the U.S. who tallied two more, widening the deficit to 8-4. Still Roervik put up a fight in the 10th and threatened to make a final push with three stones well positioned in the house. Cory Thiesse, who was superb throughout the OQE, perhaps landed the day’s best shot, knocking a red (Peterson) guard into a yellow (Roervik) guard, which ricocheted into the house and bumped a different red rock that then hit into another yellow. It cleared a crowded sheet and put the game away.
“We've been training for this since four years ago, really,” skip Tabitha Peterson said. “But it feels really special, especially with this group of girls. And you know, now being a new mom, it’s different. So it just feels really special. I can't wait to go to Milan Cortina and perform and show everybody what we can do.”
For Tabitha and her younger sister, Tara (a sweeper), it will be the third time they compete at an Olympic Games together. As members of Team Roth in 2018, they placed eighth (out of 10), and on a previous iteration of Team Peterson in 2022, they barely missed out on a medal, taking fourth. Needless to say, they have unfinished business.
Thiesse (the rink’s other sweeper) also has previous Olympic experience, serving as an alternate for Team Roth in 2018. Now, she’ll head into Milan Cortina as the only American curler to compete in multiple events: the women’s and the mixed doubles, alongside partner Korey Dropkin.
Lead Taylor Anderson-Heide is the newest addition to Team Peterson, having joined before the 2024-25 season. The 28-year-old, whose twin sister Sarah Anderson most recently curled for Team Strouse, will be making her first Winter Olympic appearance.
Olympic curling for Team USA begins with round-robin play on February 12 at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium and will stream live on Peacock.