Chris Plys

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 five-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.

Career

Plys started curling in 1998 at the age of eleven.^[3] 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.^[4] 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.^[5] The national title would have earned Team Shuster a spot at the final Grand Slam of the season, the Champions Cup,^[6] 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.^[7]

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.^[8] They played Switzerland in the playoffs, in a game which was delayed a day due to some curlers initially testing positive (including Plys himself)^[9] 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.^[10]

Personal life

Plys is the owner of Plys Superior Consulting. As of 2025, he is engaged.^[11]

Teams

Men's

Mixed doubles

References

1. ^ "Chris Plys". Archived December 3, 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
2. ^ "USA Curling National Team Athletes". USA Curling. Retrieved May 17, 2024.
3. ^ Blount, Rachel (January 14, 2009). "New face in curling already a mainstay". Star Tribune. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
4. ^ "Curling: Duluth-based team wins world championship". Duluth News Tribune. March 10, 2008. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
5. ^ 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.
6. ^ "Ruohonen Joins Shuster in Top Page Game". USA Curling. February 12, 2020. Archived from the original on February 13, 2020. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
7. ^ "Canadian curling continues to get hammered by novel coronavirus cancellations". The Star. March 14, 2020. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
8. ^ "Canada eliminated from men's curling worlds with tense loss to Scotland". CBC. March 14, 2021. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
9. ^ "Unbelievable that I learn for sure that my test was a false positive via Twitter.". No. 1381756235431677954. April 12, 2021.
10. ^ Michael Burns (April 11, 2021). "Scotland and Switzerland advance to semi-finals". World Curling Federation. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
11. ^ "2025 World Men's Curling Championship Media Guide". Curling Canada. Retrieved 24 March 2025.
12. ^ "Team Shuster Returns". USA Curling. May 13, 2020. Archived from the original on June 22, 2020. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
13. ^ "Geving/Plys reach 2017 Twin Ports Mixed Doubles Classic Semifinals". CurlingZone. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
14. ^ "Mixed Doubles Teams Announced". USA Curling. May 22, 2020. Archived from the original on June 22, 2020. Retrieved May 22, 2020.

External links

• Christopher Plys at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics (archived)
• "The Concierge Questionnaire-Chris Plys Interview". ConciergeQuestionnaire.com. October 1, 2009. Archived from the original on February 27, 2010. Retrieved January 31, 2010.