All posts tagged: curlers

A new generation of American curlers arrives on the Olympic stage

A new generation of American curlers arrives on the Olympic stage

ST. PAUL, Minnesota — When Danny Casper prepares to throw, confidence takes over. “I look to my right, look to my left and down the sheet, and I just think there’s no good reason that I should miss this shot,” he told NBC News. Follow along for live coverage The 24-year-old skip of the U.S. men’s Olympic curling team is bringing his own flair as he competes in his first Winter Games. Casper is joined by teammates Luc Violette, Aidan Oldenburg, Ben Richardson, and alternate Rich Ruohonen — the oldest member of Team USA at the Milan Cortina Olympics and the oldest American ever to compete at the Winter Games. Team Casper is 1-2 in the men’s curling round robin, defeating Czechia 8-7 on Wednesday before falling to Switzerland 8-3 on Thursday and Canada 6-3 on Friday. Curling became an integral part of Casper’s life early on. His father signed him up for the sport when he was 12 and his family’s Olympic roots run deep. Carla Casper, his great aunt, competed at the 1988 …

Olympic Curlers Are Wearing Air Force 1s on the Ice Now

Olympic Curlers Are Wearing Air Force 1s on the Ice Now

The Air Force 1, interestingly, wasn’t even Dropkin’s original go-to. “He had previously worn Nike SB models,” Nicko says. “In 2022, he moved to the AF1, largely driven by team uniform color coordination.” After that season he went back to SBs before reaching out last summer to refresh the AF1s. “He felt they were too good to retire.” This isn’t just about vibes, though. Curling shoes are wildly specific bits of kit. They’re asymmetrical by design: one shoe grips the ice, the other has a near-frictionless Teflon slider so you can glide. The slider is usually a quarter-inch thick, split between the toe and the heel. The opposite shoe gets a soft rubber gripper attached with Velcro so it can be swapped out. There’s also a reinforced toe coat on the gripper shoe because it drags during delivery. To convert an AF1, Nicko removes the original tread, levels out the outsole, preps the surface, then shapes and installs sliders, grippers, and Velcro by hand. Each stage requires curing time, so while active labor might only …