Christopher Plys (/ˈplaɪz/; born August 13, 1987) is an American curler from Duluth, Minnesota. He currently plays third on Team John Shuster. He is a World Junior Champion and four-time National Men's Champion. He was the alternate for the United States men's team at the 2010 Winter Olympics and a member of both the men's team and the mixed doubles team at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
| Chris Plys | |
|---|---|
 Plys delivering a stone at the 2009 World Junior Curling Championships | |
| Born | Christopher Plys August 13, 1987 Duluth, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Team | |
| Curling club | Duluth CC, Duluth, MN[1] |
| Skip | John Shuster |
| Third | Chris Plys |
| Second | Colin Hufman |
| Lead | Matt Hamilton |
| Alternate | John Landsteiner |
Curling career  | |
| Member Association |  United States |
| World Championship appearances | 6 (2009, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024) |
| Pan Continental Championship appearances | 1 (2024) |
| Olympic appearances | 2 (2010, 2022) |
Medal record | |
Career
editPlys started curling in 1998 at the age of eleven.[2] He competed at seven Junior National Championships in a row, winning five of them, including four in a row as skip to finish his junior career. This gives him more junior national titles as skip than any other junior male. As US Champion, he competed at four World Junior Championships. In his first, 2006, Plys took ninth place in Jeonju, South Korea. The next year, in 2007, he took fifth place in Eveleth, Minnesota. And finally in 2008, Plys won the gold medal in Ostersund, Sweden.[3] At his final Junior Worlds in 2009 he again medaled, taking the bronze. Plys also competed at the World University Games in 2007, in Pinerolo, Italy, playing second on John Shuster's gold medal team.
Early in his men's career, Plys was twice invited to be alternate on Shuster's team at international events, at the World Championship in 2009 and the 2010 Winter Olympics. At the Olympics, he was called in to skip the team (in place of Shuster) during draw 6 after the US team suffered four losses in a row, and led the team to a 4–3 victory over France after a 10th end steal. Following the Olympics, Plys was drafted onto Tyler George's team, where he threw third rocks (and sometimes fourth). The George team finished as runners-up in the 2011 and 2013 national championships. In 2014, Plys moved to third on Heath McCormick's team, which placed third in the 2014 and 2015 national championships, and second in both the 2017 Olympic Trials (to Shuster) and 2018 national championships.
After winning gold at the 2018 Olympics, Tyler George, who had moved to Shuster's team, took a hiatus from curling, and Plys replaced him at third. Team Shuster then won the 2019 national championships and represented the US at the 2019 World Men's Curling Championship, where they finished in fifth place. They defended their United States title at the 2020 United States Men's Championship, defeating Rich Ruohonen in the final to finish the tournament undefeated.[4] The national title would have earned Team Shuster a spot at the final Grand Slam of the season, the Champions Cup,[5] as well as the chance to represent the United States at the 2020 World Men's Curling Championship, but both events were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[6]
Team Shuster represented the United States at the 2021 World Men's Curling Championship, which was played in a fan-less bubble in Calgary due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. There, the team led the U.S. to a 10–3 round robin record, in third place.[7] They played Switzerland in the playoffs, in a game which was delayed a day due to some curlers initially testing positive (including Plys himself)[8] for the virus, but later testing negative (it was later revealed that they were all false positives). In the game, Switzerland, skipped by Peter de Cruz, beat the Americans to advance to the semifinals.[9]
Personal life
editPlys is self-employed. As of 2021, he is engaged.[10]
Teams
editMen's
edit| Season | Skip | Third | Second | Lead | Alternate | Coach | Events |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002–03 | Jesse Gates | Jeff Thune | Kevin Johnson | Shane McKinlay | Chris Plys | Larry Barott | 2003 USJCC 
|
| 2003–04 | Chris Plys | Aanders Brorson | Kyle Coldagelli | Carl Ball | Matt Zbylut | Seppo Sormunen | 2004 USJCC (5th) |
| 2004–05 | Aanders Brorson | Chris Plys | Mark Moore | Grant Rahn | Ryan Brown | Kent Brorson | 2005 USJCC (5th) |
| 2005–06 | Chris Plys | Matt Mielke | Kevin Johnson | Tommy Kent | Aaron Wald | 2006 USJCC 2006 WJCC (9th) | |
| 2006–07 | Chris Plys | Aanders Brorson | Matt Perushek | Joel Cooper | 2007 USJCC 2007 WJCC (5th) | ||
| 2007–08 | Chris Plys | Aanders Brorson | Matt Perushek | Matt Hamilton | 2008 USJCC 2008 WJCC
| ||
| John Shuster | Jeff Isaacson | Chris Plys | Shane McKinlay | Jason Smith | 2008 USMCC (6th) | ||
| 2008–09 | Chris Plys | Aanders Brorson | Matt Perushek | Matt Hamilton | 2009 USJCC 2009 USOCT (8th) 2009 WJCC 
| ||
| John Shuster | Jason Smith | Jeff Isaacson | John Benton | Chris Plys | Brian Simonson | 2009 WMCC (5th) | |
| 2009–10 | John Shuster | Jason Smith | Jeff Isaacson | John Benton | Chris Plys | 2010 OG (10th) | |
| 2010–11 | Tyler George | Chris Plys | Rich Ruohonen | Phill Drobnick | 2011 USMCC 
| ||
| 2011–12 | Tyler George | Chris Plys | Rich Ruohonen | Colin Hufman | 2012 USMCC (8th) | ||
| 2012–13 | Chris Plys (Fourth) | Tyler George (Skip) | Rich Ruohonen | Colin Hufman | 2013 USMCC
| ||
| 2013–14 | Chris Plys (Fourth) | Tyler George (Skip) | Rich Ruohonen | Colin Hufman | Craig Brown | 2013 USOCT (4th) | |
| Heath McCormick | Chris Plys | Rich Ruohonen | Colin Hufman | 2014 USMCC
| |||
| 2014–15 | Heath McCormick | Chris Plys | Joe Polo | Colin Hufman | Ryan Brunt | 2015 USMCC
| |
| 2015–16 | Chris Plys (Fourth) | Pete Fenson (Skip) | Joe Polo | Jason Smith | 2016 USMCC (7th) | ||
| 2016–17 | Heath McCormick | Chris Plys | Korey Dropkin | Tom Howell | 2017 USMCC (6th) | ||
| 2017–18 | Heath McCormick | Chris Plys | Korey Dropkin | Tom Howell | Rich Ruohonen (USOCT) |
2017 USOCT 2018 USMCC
| |
| Greg Persinger (Fourth) | Rich Ruohonen (Skip) | Colin Hufman | Philip Tilker | Chris Plys | Phill Drobnick | 2018 WMCC (6th) | |
| 2018–19 | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | 2019 USMCC 2019 WMCC (5th) | ||
| 2019–20 | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Sean Beighton | 2020 USMCC
| |
| 2020–21[11] | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Colin Hufman | Sean Beighton | 2021 WMCC (5th) |
| 2021–22 | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Colin Hufman | 2021 USOCT 2022 OG (4th) | |
| 2022–23 | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Colin Hufman | Phil Drobnick | 2023 USMCC 2023 WMCC (8th) |
| 2023–24 | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Colin Hufman | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Theran Michaelis | 2024 USMCC 2024 WMCC (6th) |
| 2024–25 | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Colin Hufman | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Theran Michaelis | 2024 PCCC
|
Mixed doubles
edit| Season | Female | Male | Events |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016–17 | Aileen Geving | Chris Plys | 2017 USMDCC (12th) |
| 2017–18[12] | Aileen Geving | Chris Plys | |
| 2018–19 | Vicky Persinger | Chris Plys | 2019 USMDCC
|
| 2019–20 | Vicky Persinger | Chris Plys | 2020 USMDCC (5th) |
| 2020–21[13] | Vicky Persinger | Chris Plys | 2021 USMDCC
|
| 2021–22 | Vicky Persinger | Chris Plys | 2021 USMDOT 2022 OG (8th) |
| 2022–23 | Vicky Persinger | Chris Plys | 2023 USMDCC
|
References
edit- ^ "USA Curling National Team Athletes". USA Curling. Retrieved May 17, 2024.
- ^ Blount, Rachel (January 14, 2009). "New face in curling already a mainstay". Star Tribune. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
- ^ "Curling: Duluth-based team wins world championship". Duluth News Tribune. March 10, 2008. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
- ^ Schneider, Angela (February 15, 2020). "John Shuster caps unbeaten run through USA Curling Nationals with win over Rich Ruohonen in final". The Spokesman-Review. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
- ^ "Ruohonen Joins Shuster in Top Page Game". USA Curling. February 12, 2020. Archived from the original on February 13, 2020. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
- ^ "Canadian curling continues to get hammered by novel coronavirus cancellations". The Star. March 14, 2020. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
- ^ "Canada eliminated from men's curling worlds with tense loss to Scotland". CBC. March 14, 2021. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
- ^ @chrisplys (April 12, 2021). "Unbelievable that I learn for sure that my test was a false positive via Twitter" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Michael Burns (April 11, 2021). "Scotland and Switzerland advance to semi-finals". World Curling Federation. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
- ^ "2021 BKT Tires-OK Tires World Men's Curling Championship Media Guide" (PDF). Curling Canada. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
- ^ "Team Shuster Returns". USA Curling. May 13, 2020. Archived from the original on June 22, 2020. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
- ^ "Geving/Plys reach 2017 Twin Ports Mixed Doubles Classic Semifinals". CurlingZone. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
- ^ "Mixed Doubles Teams Announced". USA Curling. May 22, 2020. Archived from the original on June 22, 2020. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
External links
edit- Chris Plys at World Curling
- Chris Plys at Team USA (archive November 19, 2022)
- Chris Plys at Olympedia
- Christopher Plys at Olympics.com
- Christopher Plys at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics (archived)
- "The Concierge Questionnaire-Chris Plys Interview". ConciergeQuestionnaire.com. October 1, 2009. Retrieved January 31, 2010.[dead link]
- Chris Plys on Instagram
