Joseph Polo (born December 10, 1982) is an American curler who is best known for winning a bronze medal at the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...

and being the alternate on the gold-medal winning United States men's team at the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

. Polo was raised in

Floodwood, Minnesota Floodwood is a city in Saint Louis County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 528 at the 2010 census. Originally a logging community, Floodwood was a dairy community for most of its history, but could now be best described as a bedroo ...

before moving to Cass Lake. He learned to curl in nearby

Bemidji Bemidji ( ) is a city and the county seat of Beltrami County, in northern Minnesota, United States. The population was 14,574 at the 2020 census. According to 2021 census estimates, the city is estimated to have a population of 15,279, making it ...

at the age of 10 in the

Bemidji Curling Club The Bemidji Curling Club is a curling club located in the city of Bemidji, Minnesota. It is notable for its long line of champions in many competitions, including men's and women's rinks which represented the United States in the 2005 World Curl ...

's Sunday Night Junior League.

Curling career

Men's

When Polo transitioned from juniors to men's, he joined

Pete Fenson Peter Fenson (born February 29, 1968 in Bemidji, Minnesota) is an American curler. He was the skip of the men's rink that represented the United States at the 2006 Winter Olympics, where they won the bronze medal, the first Olympic medal for th ...

's team at

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

. The team also consisted of

John Shuster John Shuster ( ; born November 3, 1982) is an American curler who lives in Superior, Wisconsin. He led Team USA to gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics, the first American team to ever win gold in curling. He also won a bronze medal at the 2006 Winte ...

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

and

Shawn Rojeski Shawn Rojeski (born January 21, 1972) is an American curler from Chisholm, Minnesota and Olympic medalist. He was born and raised in Biwabik, Minnesota and attended Mesabi East High School. Under skip Pete Fenson, he received a bronze medal at ...

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

. Team Fenson won the United States Olympic trials ahead of the

, which also counted as the 2005 National Championships. As a result, they represented the United States at the

2005 World Men's Curling Championship The 2005 World Men's Curling Championship (branded as 2005 Ford World Men's Curling Championship for sponsorship reasons) was held from April 2–10, 2005 at the new Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, British Columbia. The tournament was t ...

, where they just missed the playoffs when they lost a tiebreaker game to Norway's

Pål Trulsen Pål Trulsen (born 19 April 1962 in Drøbak, Norway) is a Norwegian curler from Hosle in Bærum, and was the 2002 Olympic curling men's champion. Career Trulsen participated in both the and World Junior Championships, finishing both tourna ...

. At the Olympics they lost to Canada, skipped by

Brad Gushue Bradley Raymond Gushue, ONL ( ; born June 16, 1980) is a Canadian curler from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Gushue, along with teammates Russ Howard, Mark Nichols, Jamie Korab and Mike Adam, represented Canada in curling at the 2006 W ...

, in the semifinals and then defeated

David Murdoch David Matthew Murdoch (born 17 April 1978) is a retired Scottish curler from Stirling. As the Scotland skip, he and his former team of Ewan MacDonald, Warwick Smith, Euan Byers and Peter Smith are the 2006 and 2009 World Curling Champion ...

's Team Great Britain to take the bronze medal. Shortly after the Olympics completed they successfully defended their United States National Title at the 2006 National Men's Championship, which earned them another trip to the World Championship. At the 2006 World Men's Championship, held in

Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of ...

, they finished in fourth place when they lost the 3 vs 4

page playoff The Page playoff system is a playoff format used primarily in softball and curling at the championship level, the Indian Premier League and Pakistan Super League cricket tournaments. Teams are seeded using a round-robin tournament and the top four ...

game to Norway's

Thomas Ulsrud Thomas Ulsrud (21 October 1971 – 24 May 2022) was a Norwegian curler from Oslo. He won a silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics, one World Curling Championship, two European Curling Championships, and fourteen Norwegian titles (Norwegian Men ...

. On January 16, 2007, the team was named the 2006

USOC Team of the Year The USOPC Athlete of the Year (historically USOC Athlete of the Year) awards are part of a series of awards presented by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee to athletes who have distinguished themselves in one of the Olympic or Paralym ...

. Polo continued to play second on Fenson's team for another eight seasons, winning the United States Men's Championship three more times. The only year they didn't compete at the National Championship was in 2009, when they ended up one win short of earning a spot at the play-in tournament, and missed the combination National Championship and Olympic Trials. After participating at the 2010 Worlds and finishing in fourth place, Polo, Fenson, Rojeski, and Ryan Brunt went to the 2011 Continental Cup of Curling, where Team North America defeated Team World. The team then headed to the 2011 US Nationals, where they again won gold when they finished the tournament undefeated. They represented the United States at the 2011 Ford World Men's Curling Championship in April at

Regina, Saskatchewan Regina () is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province, after Saskatoon, and is a commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. As of the 2021 C ...

, finishing in 10th place with a 3–8 win–loss record after a series of close losses. Starting in the 2016–17 season, Polo joined John Shuster's team as a full-time alternate; the rest of the team included

Tyler George Tyler George (born October 6, 1982) is an American curler from Duluth, Minnesota. He is a three-time U.S. Champion, 2016 World bronze medalist, and 2018 Olympic gold medalist. Since the 2018 Olympics, he has taken a break from playing competitiv ...

, Matt Hamilton, and

John Landsteiner John Landsteiner (born May 19, 1990) is an American curler and two-time Olympian. He competed in the 2014 Winter Olympics and won gold as part of John Shuster's team in the 2018 Winter Olympics. Career Landsteiner was a prolific junior curler, ...

. Polo won his sixth US title with Team Shuster at the 2017 United States Men's Championship and then the team finished the 2017 World Championship in fourth place when they lost to Switzerland in the bronze medal match. At the

2017 United States Olympic Curling Trials The 2017 United States Olympic Curling Trials were held from November 11–18, 2017 at Baxter Arena in Omaha, Nebraska. Five teams qualified for the men's tournament and three teams qualified for the women's tournament. The winner of each tourname ...

, Team Shuster beat

Heath McCormick Heath McCormick (born August 7, 1976) is a Canadian-American curler from Sarnia, Ontario. Career McCormick began curling in 1992 as a junior in Ontario. He competed in the Ontario Junior Curling Championships five times, and won in 1996 playin ...

's team in a best-of-three final series, setting up Polo's second Olympics appearance. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, the US team lost four of its first six matches and needed to win all of its three remaining matches to qualify for the playoffs, but all of its remaining opponents (Canada, Switzerland, and Great Britain) were then among the top four teams. Nevertheless, the US team won all three matches to finish the round-robin in third place with a record of 5–4. In the semifinals they defeated Canada's

Kevin Koe Kevin Koe ( ; born January 11, 1975) is a Canadian curler. Koe is a two-time World champion and four-time Canadian champion. He was the skip of the Canadian men's team at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. Originally from Yellowknife, N ...

, a two-time world champion, to reach the gold-medal match versus

Niklas Edin Johan Niklas Edin (born 6 July 1985) is a Swedish curler. He currently resides in Karlstad, which has been his curling home base since 2008. He holds several sport distinctions. He is the first and the only skip in World Curling Federation (WCF ...

's team representing Sweden. The gold-medal game was close through seven

ends End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to: End *In mathematics: **End (category theory) ** End (topology) **End (graph theory) ** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) **End (endomorphism) *In sports and games ** End (gridiron footbal ...

, with the score tied 5–5, but the United States scored five in the eighth end to set up a 10–7 victory. This was the first Olympic gold medal in curling for the United States. Polo joined a team of four younger curlers,

Korey Dropkin Korey Dropkin (born June 11, 1995) is an American curler originally from Southborough, Massachusetts. Curling career Juniors As a junior curler, Dropkin won three United States Junior Curling Championships, playing third for brother Stephen ...

, Tom Howell, Mark Fenner, and Alex Fenson, at the start of the 2018–19 season and the team rotated line-ups throughout the season.

Mixed doubles

In 2016, Polo teamed up with

Tabitha Peterson Tabitha Skelly Peterson (born March 6, 1989) is an American curler from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She was a bronze medalist at the 2010 World Junior Championships and is a two-time women's national champion. She currently is skip of her own team ...

to compete at the United States

Mixed Doubles Mixed doubles or mixed pairs is a form of mixed-sex sports that consists of teams of one man and one woman. This variation of competition is prominent in curling and racket sports, such as tennis, table tennis and badminton (where it is known as ...

World Trials, a tournament to determine the US representative at the 2016 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in

Karlstad, Sweden Karlstad Municipality (''Karlstads kommun'') is a municipality in Värmland County in west central Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Karlstad. The present municipality was established in 1971 when the former City of Karlstad was amal ...

. They finished with an impressive 9–1 record, earning them the spot at Worlds. Peterson and Polo finished the round-robin group play undefeated, losing to Russia's Alexander Krushelnitskiy and Anastasia Bryzgalova in the semifinals. In the bronze medal match they defeated Team Scotland, Bruce Mouat and Gina Aitken, 9–7. Polo has continued to compete in mixed doubles with Peterson since that first success. At the 2017 US Mixed Doubles Championship Polo and Peterson earned the silver medal losing to the brother and sister duo of Matt and

Becca Hamilton Rebecca Lynn Hamilton (born July 12, 1990) is an American curler from McFarland, Wisconsin. She is a two-time national women's champion, a two-time national junior champion, and a two-time Olympian. At the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, she compet ...

in the final. Later in 2017 Polo and Peterson competed at the first United States Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials, where they finished tied for fifth with a record of 3–4. At the 2019 United States Mixed Doubles Championship, Polo and Peterson went undefeated through the round-robin section of the tournament but ultimately lost in the semifinal to eventual champions

Cory Christensen Cory Thiesse ( Christensen; born December 1, 1994) is an American curler from Duluth, Minnesota. She is currently the defending U.S. champion skip, and represented her country at the 2022 World Women's Curling Championship. Christensen was one ...

and John Shuster. The

next year "Next Year" is a song released as the last single from the third Foo Fighters' album ''There Is Nothing Left to Lose''. History A shorter version (running at just 3:21 compared to the original's 4:36) was released as a single in 2000 and wa ...

, Polo and Peterson again faced Christensen and Shuster, but this time in the final and Peterson and Polo won 7–4. This was their first mixed doubles national title, and earned them a spot at the 2020 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship and the 2021 United States Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials. But about a month before the World Championship was supposed to begin the

World Curling Federation The World Curling Federation (WCF) is the world governing body for curling accreditation, with offices in Perth, Scotland. It was formed out of the International Curling Federation (ICF), when the push for Olympic Winter Sport status was made. T ...

announced its cancellation due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The next year the

United States Curling Association The United States Curling Association (USCA or USA Curling) is the national governing body of the sport of curling in the United States. The goal of the USCA is to grow the sport of curling in the United States and win medals in competitions both ...

announced that the 2021 US Mixed Doubles Championship would be postponed until after the 2021 World Mixed Doubles due to the pandemic, and so as 2020 national champions Polo and Peterson were invited to represent the United States at the 2021 Worlds.

Personal life

Polo attended

Bemidji State University Bemidji State University (BSU) is a public university in Bemidji, Minnesota. Founded as a preparatory institution for teachers in 1919, it provides higher education to north-central Minnesota. It is part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Univ ...

and

University of North Dakota The University of North Dakota (also known as UND or North Dakota) is a public research university in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of ...

, earning an engineering degree. He is employed as a project manager. Polo has a wife, Kristin, and a daughter, Ailsa. His daughter is named after

Ailsa Craig Ailsa Craig (; sco, Ailsae Craig; gd, Creag Ealasaid) is an island of in the outer Firth of Clyde, west of mainland Scotland, upon which microgranite has long been quarried to make curling stones. The now-uninhabited island comprises the r ...

, an island off of Scotland and one of only two places that granite is quarried to make curling stones.

Teams

Men's

Mixed doubles

References

External links

*
Official site of Team Fenson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Polo, Joe 1982 births Living people American male curlers Olympic curlers of the United States Curlers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Curlers at the 2018 Winter Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in curling Sportspeople from Duluth, Minnesota Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics Continental Cup of Curling participants People from Cass Lake, Minnesota People from St. Louis County, Minnesota Olympic gold medalists for the United States in curling Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics American curling champions