At Duluth Curling Club, everyone’s rooting for ‘Boy Korey’ and ‘Girl Cory’

DULUTH ‐ At the Duluth Curling Club, the members of Team USA’s mixed doubles team are known as Girl Cory and Boy Korey.

On Sunday afternoon, dozens of fellow club members turned out to watch as the duo edged Sweden 8-7 to ensure a spot in Monday’s semifinals. Team USA, Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin, had the hammer when they knocked out three of Sweden’s stones in the eighth end to seal a crucial win in round-robin play.

“They’re playing for hardware now,” said Steve Wick, a curling fan who plotted strategy throughout the match, using his arms to consider the best angles for tricky shots.

Thiesse and Dropkin are the first U.S. mixed doubles team to advance to the semifinals.

The Gold Medal Lounge, outfitted with several TV screens and overlooking eight curling sheets, erupted on impact. At this club, decorated with balloons, red, white and blue drapes of fabric and posters celebrating its Olympians past and present, Thiesse and Dropkin are beloved.

Girl Cory is the steady one, calm under pressure, club members say; Boy Korey brings big energy. Asked who in the room might know them best, Margie Nelson, who has curled for decades, looked around.

“Everyone,” she said.

Wilson-Norgskog is a collector. She said she has a curling shrine at her cabin. Beneath her jacket, she wore a gray T-shirt signed by Boy Korey and Girl Cory.

“I told them that I was going to be watching ever rock, every end, every game,” she said.

Wilson-Norgskog has stayed true to her promise, waking up for the early-early matches. Though, sometimes after leaving the curling club, which hosts watch parties daily around noon, she has to rewatch at home.

Wilson-Norgskog joined fans at a round table in the center of the room, where each of the three large screen televisions showed the match. During pans of the crowd, they pointed out the people they knew: Dropkin’s fiance or Thiesse’s mom.

Almost everyone at the club curls, whether they were born to play or started later in life. (Those who don’t are offered lessons on the spot.)

“I had to see if [Chris] got his skill from me,” she said, then added: “He didn’t.”

The Olympics have messed with Kathy Olson’s own curling schedule. She was supposed to compete against Dropkin in two-on-two mixed doubles league play this week at the Duluth Curling Club. But, of course, he will still be in Italy.

Curling is considered a “gentleman’s sport,” known for its etiquette. Opponents applaud quality shots and stick around after a match to get a drink together. Winner buys.

It’s likely Olson had this etiquette in mind when she said she and Dropkin will reschedule, rather than her taking his absence as a forfeiture.

“We’ll give him a little pass,” Olson said, then joked: “There is a chance he’ll fly in for that because he knows he is playing me.”

The city’s curling scene is one of the reasons that attracted her as an adult to the Duluth area. She and Wick plan to return to the Duluth Curling Club, where she plays in a league, when Team USA’s men’s and women’s teams compete this week.

They would watch even if Thiesse weren’t on the women’s team roster.