U.S. curler Korey Dropkin knew he was going to the Olympics on Feb. 23, 2025, when he and his mixed doubles teammate Cory Thiesse won the U.S. Olympic Trials to qualify for his first Games.

But Dropkin’s men’s curling team wouldn’t compete at the Trials until November, a full nine months later. In between, he competed at the world championships and a few other events with Thiesse, while also making sure he and his men’s team stayed sharp.

“We were trying to balance our schedules to make sure we're giving both teams the time and the appropriate focus that each of them needs,” Dropkin said in a recent phone interview. “We definitely made sure to schedule enough mixed doubles events to make sure we're competing and fully prepared and ready to go for when we were in Italy, and making sure, also, to schedule enough women's and men's events, too.

“But just being able to make sure you're giving enough focus to both teams, it's a little bit tough sometimes.”

Playing that many tournaments while also working a full-time job as a realtor can take a lot out of a person, and requires a lot of time spent in the gym to stay prepared.

Dropkin sweeps more than any other player on the ice, but there’s a lot more he’s focused on in the gym than just his arms. When asked what a typical workout looks like, the Olympic silver medalist said, “It's full body, really.”

“When you think of the sport of curling, essentially what we're doing is an extended lunge on ice,” he added. “So, being able to have that lower-body focus and the balance to be able to continue to slide out of the hack with stability and be able to be precise, it's like a golfer on a green trying to make a putt.”

Oftentimes, since there are only two players on the ice in mixed doubles, Dropkin will make a throw and then have to hop up and sweep his own stone. In those moments when he’s sweeping end-to-end, he said his heart rate can go up into the 170s and 180s.

“For us sliding, it's a lot of lower body, but then especially mixed doubles when you get up and start sweeping, that's all upper body and core, as well as some lower bodies for the balance piece of it,” he said. “So a lot of what we'll do is full-body strength workouts and then also do some high-intensity workouts.

“To be able to get up, sweep, communicate after that effectively with my teammates, and then get to the other end to the hack to get ready to throw and deliver again and try to get that heart rate back down to the 120s or lower so that I can have an effective shot and be precise again, it's a high intensity interval workout out there on the ice.”

Getting in tip-top shape is incredibly important for curlers. Not only so they’re able to compete at a high level on the ice, but also so they can stay on the ice. Glenn Howard, a world champion Canadian curler who is now a coach for the Swiss Olympic teams, told Reuters when it comes to just getting up and down the ice, “The strain is massive.”

Howard has seen a lot of competitors in his sport develop shoulder issues from the pressure they put on the brooms, and also sustain knee injuries from the constant sliding and getting up and down.

"The position you get into on a curling delivery is not really natural,” Howard said. “What it does is it puts a ton of strain on the inside of your knee and your cartilage. Over time, it takes its toll. You have to be in as good a shape as you possibly can.”

Each curler takes their own approach to what works when it comes to preparing for competition. For Gim Eun-Ji, the skip for South Korea’s women’s team, she sticks with mainly just cardio.

A lot of cardio.

Gim said in interviews before the Olympics she runs 8-10 kilometers (about 5-6 miles) every day.

“After missing selection for PyeongChang in 2018, I started running every morning to stay disciplined,” the two-time Olympian said. “Of course, there are times when I don’t feel like running, but if I skip it I start thinking that I’m not trying hard enough. So, I keep reminding myself, if you keep putting in the effort, even in just one thing, good things will come."

Gim was originally a speed skater before switching to curling in high school. She estimates she runs about 3,000 kilometers (1,800 miles) a year.

Canada’s Brad Jacobs took his own approach to preparing for Cortina. Over a nearly-five-day period in January, the Canadian skip had four gym sessions, four sauna sessions, two steams, and four on-ice practice sessions where he threw 180 stones each time. 

All that was while he was also partaking in a 110-hour fast.

“It was a grind,” Jacobs said in a social media post. But he added the fast had him “feeling very optimal heading into the Olympics.”

"Boy, do I ever feel lean and strong,” Jacobs added. “The goal was to have a long fast before a big event. This is the longest one I have done.”

Jacobs, a 40-year-old two-time Olympian and two-time world champion, is sometimes credited as the one whose 2014 team changed the look of curling because all four members were gym rats. He said in an interview at the time, “Ever since we were teenagers, we've always been in the gym, all of us. And even if we curled or not, we would still be in the gym on a regular basis."

A decade later, Jacobs' team is no longer the outlier, they’re the norm.

"Oh, exponentially,” Howard said when asked how much better shape curlers are in now compared to when he played. “These are full-fledged athletes. All these curlers are in great shape. … I would put them up against most athletes in here. They do what it takes to get themselves in great shape.”

"These guys, every one of them is ripped, and every one of them sweeps their butt off,” said U.S. alternate Rich Ruohonen. “That's what you need in this game now, or you aren't going to win.”