Chris Plys Ready for US Olympic Curling Team Trials: “It’s a Different Animal”

Before the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics 2026before the 2025 Olympic qualifying event in Kelowna, Canada, before any thoughts of representing the United States come into view, there are first the US Olympic curling team trials.

A five-day showdown featuring the North American country’s top men’s and women’s curling teams promises to make the challengers a champion, who will then have a long road ahead as they try to secure the US one of the last two remaining quotas for the team events at next year’s Games in February.

For 38 year old Chris PoohAlready a two-time Olympian Vancouver 2010 And Beijing 2022the decisive confrontation brings up a range of thoughts and feelings.

Speaking at the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) Summit in New York in late October, Plys shared a palpable enthusiasm for the challenge, even against the backdrop of a recent injury.

Earlier this year, the curler was in a mountain biking accident, which resulted in herniated discs in his neck, a pinched nerve and the loss of complete muscle function in some areas.

It put Plys somewhat behind at a crucial intersection.

“I remember sitting on the couch at the end of June and thinking, ‘Well, this sucks. This isn’t really how I imagined it.’ Because if you do Olympic sports, it’s not something for a year, right? It is a four-year commitment,” he told journalists, including Olympics.com, about his preparations.

But with adjustments and some effort he has largely recovered, paving the way for a sense of optimism around the trials, not least thanks to his team’s strong performances this year, including silver at the 2025 Pancontinental Curling Championships.

“This is the best start to a season we’ve ever had as a team. So we’re very confident, there’s certainly good competition, but I think the one thing that’s in our team is that we just have so much experience, and those trials are different than a national competition or any other major competition,” he continued.

“There’s just an extra kind of looming pressure that young teams can easily feel, and I think John has won the last five tests, and we have so much experience and so much confidence in each other that we are very excited about this opportunity indeed.”