Thomas Ulsrud

Thomas Ulsrud (born 21 October 1971) is a Norwegian curler[1][2][3] from Oslo. He is the skip of the 2014 World champion Norwegian national team, a two-time European champion and Olympic silver medalist. Ulsrud is also the current holder of the record for most wins by a skip at the World Men's Curling Championship.

Thomas Ulsrud
Curler
Born	(1971-10-21) 21 October 1971 Oslo, Norway
Team
Curling club	Snarøen CC, Oslo, NOR
Skip	Thomas Ulsrud
Third	Steffen Walstad
Second	Markus Høiberg
Lead	Magnus Vågberg
Alternate	Magnus Nedregotten
Career
World Championship appearances	12 (1998, 1999, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016)
European Championship appearances	17 (1997, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019)
Olympic appearances	3 (2010, 2014, 2018)
Medal record Curling Representing  Norway Winter Olympics 2010 Vancouver World Championships 2014 Beijing 2015 Halifax 2006 Lowell 2008 Grand Forks 2009 Moncton European Championships 2010 Champéry 2011 Moscow 2007 Füssen 2008 Örnsköldsvik 2012 Karlstad 2013 Stavanger 2014 Champéry 2016 Renfrewshire 2002 Grindelwald 2009 Aberdeen 2015 Esbjerg World Junior Championships 1988 Füssen

Career

Ulsrud calling line at the 2010 Winter Olympics

Ulsrud has curled since 1983.[2] In his second World Junior Curling Championship in 1988, Ulsrud skipped Norway to a bronze medal.

In 1997, he skipped in his first European Curling Championships, finishing in seventh place. Team Ulsrud competed again in 2000–2003, 2006–2009, winning bronze in 2002, silver in 2007, and bronze in 2009.[4]

In his first World Curling Championship in 1998, Ulsrud skipped Norway to fifth place. After serving as the alternate for Pål Trulsen's team in 1999, he returned again as skip in 2006–2009, making the playoffs for the first time in 2006 and then defeated USA's Team Pete Fenson to win the bronze medal. Two more bronze medals followed in 2008 and 2009.[5]

Between 2007 and 2010, Team Ulsrud won six World Curling Tour events, namely, the 2007 & 2009 Lucerne Curling Trophies, 2008 Baden Masters, 2008 Radisson SAS Oslo Cup, 2009 Swiss Cup Basel, and 2009 Bern Open.[3]

At the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Team Ulsrud attracted worldwide attention, not only for introducing Loudmouth Golf's colourful harlequin pants to the arena,[6] but also for winning the silver medal after the final game against Canada's Team Kevin Martin.[7]

Immediately at the start of the 2010 World Curling Championship in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Ulsrud had to return home for family reasons. With Torger Nergård acting as skip, Ulsrud's teammates took first place at the end of round-robin games (10–1 score) and won the silver medal.[8]

Team Ulsrud began the 2010-11 curling season by winning their first European Curling Championship gold medal in Champéry, Switzerland.[9] The team topped the season off by finishing fourth at the 2011 Ford World Men's Curling Championship.

The rink won a second straight European Championships by winning the gold medal at the 2011 European Curling Championships. Later that season they would once again finish 4th at the 2012 World Men's Curling Championship. That season, the team won one WCT event, the 2012 European Masters.

The Ulsrud rink would continue their domination at the European championship by winning the silver medal at both the 2012 and 2013 events. They were less successful at the 2013 Ford World Men's Curling Championship, finishing in 5th place. The rink represented Norway once again at the 2014 Winter Olympics, where they finished 5th, with a 5-5 record. They lost in a tie-breaker match to Great Britain, skipped by David Murdoch. On the World Curling Tour, the team won one event in 2013-14, the 2013 Swiss Cup Basel. The team capped off their season by winning a gold medal at the 2014 World Men's Curling Championship.

The World champion Ulsrud rink began the 2014–15 curling season by winning the first WCT event of the year, the 2014 Baden Masters. That season, he won another silver medal at the 2014 European Curling Championships and won a silver medal at the 2015 World Men's Curling Championship, losing to Sweden's Niklas Edin rink in the final. The next season, Ulsrud led his team to a silver medal at the 2015 European Curling Championships and a disappointing sixth place finish at the 2016 World Men's Curling Championship.

In 2016, Ulsrud won another silver medal at the European Curling Championships, which he followed up by winning the Qinghai China Men's International on the tour the next month. Later in the season, he lost in a best-of-five challenge against Steffen Walstad which would have qualified his team for the 2017 World Championships, the first Worlds that Ulsrud would miss since 2010. Ulrsud and co. did get to represent Norway one last time at the 2017 European Curling Championships, where they finished in fourth place. They represented Norway at the 2018 Winter Olympics, placing sixth.

The Ulsrud rink began the 2018–19 curling season by winning the Baden Masters for the third time in their career. Ulsrud paired up with Kristin Skaslien at the third leg of the 2018–19 Curling World Cup in the mixed doubles event. The pair made it to the final, losing to Canada's Kadriana Sahaidak and Colton Lott. It was Ulsrud's first experience in mixed doubles.[10] After a light curling season, where they didn't play in any Grand Slam events, or in the Europeans or Worlds, Team Ulsrud announced they would be disbanding after the season.[11][12]

Personal life

Ulsrud is married to Elin Grødal, and they have one son. He is employed as a business owner.[13]

Teams

Season	Skip	Third	Second	Lead	Alternate	Events
1984–85	Bjørn Ulshagen	Bjarte Nilsen	Terje Strand	Thomas Ulsrud		1985 WJCC
1987–88	Thomas Ulsrud	Thomas Due	Krister Aanesen	Mads Rygg		1988 WJCC
1988–89	Thomas Ulsrud	Bent Ånund Ramsfjell	Krister Aanesen	Mads Rygg		1989 WJCC
1991–92	Thomas Due	Torger Nergård	Mads Rygg	Johan Høstmælingen	Thomas Ulsrud	1992 WJCC
1997–98	Thomas Ulsrud	Johan Høstmælingen	Thomas Due	Torger Nergård	Rolf Andreas Lauten	1997 ECC
2000–01	Thomas Ulsrud	Torger Nergård	Thomas Due	Johan Høstmælingen	Flemming Davanger	2000 ECC
2002–03	Thomas Ulsrud	Torger Nergård	Thomas Due	Johan Høstmælingen	Thomas Løvold	2002 ECC
2003–04	Thomas Ulsrud	Torger Nergård	Thomas Due	Jan Thoresen	Thomas Løvold	2003 ECC
2005–06	Thomas Ulsrud	Torger Nergård	Thomas Due	Jan Thoresen	Christoffer Svae	2006 WCC
2006–07	Thomas Ulsrud	Torger Nergård	Thomas Due	Jan Thoresen	Christoffer Svae Petter Moe Thomas Løvold	2006 ECC, 2007 WCC
2007–08	Thomas Ulsrud	Torger Nergård	Christoffer Svae	Håvard Vad Petersson	Thomas Due	2007 ECC, 2008 WCC
2008–09	Thomas Ulsrud	Torger Nergård	Christoffer Svae	Håvard Vad Petersson	Thomas Due Thomas Løvold	2008 ECC, 2009 WCC
2009–10	Thomas Ulsrud	Torger Nergård	Christoffer Svae	Håvard Vad Petersson	Thomas Løvold	2009 ECC, 2010 OG
2010–11	Thomas Ulsrud	Torger Nergård	Christoffer Svae	Håvard Vad Petersson	Markus Høiberg	2010 ECC, 2011 WCC
2011–12	Thomas Ulsrud	Torger Nergård	Christoffer Svae	Håvard Vad Petersson	Markus Høiberg	2011 ECC, 2012 WCC
2012–13	Thomas Ulsrud	Torger Nergård	Christoffer Svae	Håvard Vad Petersson	Thomas Løvold Markus Høiberg	2012 ECC, 2013 WCC
2013–14	Thomas Ulsrud	Torger Nergård	Christoffer Svae	Håvard Vad Petersson	Markus Høiberg	2013 ECC, 2014 OG, 2014 WCC
2014–15	Thomas Ulsrud	Torger Nergård	Christoffer Svae	Håvard Vad Petersson	Sander Rølvåg Markus Høiberg	2014 ECC, 2015 WCC
2015–16	Thomas Ulsrud	Torger Nergård	Christoffer Svae	Håvard Vad Petersson	Sander Rølvåg Markus Høiberg	2015 ECC, 2016 WCC
2016–17	Thomas Ulsrud	Torger Nergård	Christoffer Svae	Håvard Vad Petersson	Sander Rølvåg	2016 ECC
2017–18	Thomas Ulsrud	Torger Nergård	Christoffer Svae	Håvard Vad Petersson	Sander Rølvåg Markus Høiberg	2017 ECC, 2018 OG
2018–19	Thomas Ulsrud	Torger Nergård	Christoffer Svae	Håvard Vad Petersson
2019–20	Thomas Ulsrud	Steffen Walstad	Markus Høiberg	Magnus Vågberg

Grand Slam record

Key
C	Champion
F	Lost in Final
SF	Lost in Semifinal
QF	Lost in Quarterfinals
R16	Lost in the round of 16
Q	Did not advance to playoffs
T2	Played in Tier 2 event
DNP	Did not participate in event
N/A	Not a Grand Slam event that season

Event	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09	2009–10	2010–11	2011–12	2012–13	2013–14	2014–15	2015–16	2016–17	2017–18
Tour Challenge	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	DNP	SF	DNP
Masters	DNP	DNP	Q	SF	Q	Q	Q	Q	Q	Q	DNP	Q
The National	Q	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	QF	Q	DNP	DNP	QF	DNP	DNP
Canadian Open	Q	DNP	QF	SF	Q	DNP	DNP	Q	DNP	DNP	DNP	Q
Players' Championships	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	QF	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP

References

1. "About Team Ulsrud". Archived 2010-08-23 at the Wayback Machine TeamUlsrud.com. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
2. "Thomas Ulsrud, Curling" (Curling > Athletes). Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Retrieved 26 November 2010 from https://web.archive.org/.
3. "Thomas Ulsrud" (Profiles > Events). Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine ASHAM World Curling Tour. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
4. "Results/Statistics" (Competitions > European Championships). Archived 2010-05-06 at the Wayback Machine European Curling Federation. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
5. "Championships". Archived 2010-05-12 at the Wayback Machine World Curling Federation Results and Statistics database. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
6. "The Conversation: pants from the curlers of Norway (Diane Sawyer chats with Christoffer Svae). ABC News (Video). 26 February 2010.
7. "Men's Gold Medal Game" (Curling Schedule > Results). Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. 27 February 2010.
8. "Capitol One World Men's Championship – Day 6" (News). World Curling Federation. 8 April 2010.
9. "Results/Statistics" (Competitions > European Championships). Archived 2010-05-06 at the Wayback Machine European Curling Federation. Retrieved 12 December 2010.
10. https://www.curlingworldcup.com/news/another-chance-for-walstad-and-ulsrud-tries-mixed-doubles
11. https://deadspin.com/thomas-ulsruds-norwegian-team-is-disbanding-after-12-ye-1834586582
12. https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/norway-curling-pants-breaking-up
13. 2018 Continental Cup Media Guide

External links

• Official homepage of Team Ulsrud
• Thomas Ulsrud on the World Curling Federation database
• Thomas Ulsrud on the World Curling Tour database
• Thomas Ulsrud on the CurlingZone database
• Thomas Ulsrud at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
• 2014 Olympic profile
• Complete coverages of Team Norway's Olympics performances at the official Vancouver Olympic Games 2010 Channel
• Thomas Ulsrud and Håvard Vad Petersson interviewed on Eurosport Norge. "EurosportNorge møter curlinggutta". 4 December 2009.
• Team Norway interviewed on Grand Slam of Curling. Olympic Curling – Team Norway. 17 February 2010.