Olympic curler Korey Dropkin brings $20,000 boost to Northland youth sports

Korey Dropkin spent Tuesday afternoon channeling his Olympic success into a direct boost for young athletes in the Northland, with DICK’S Sporting Goods committing $20,000 to a youth sports organization of his choice. The donation doubled after Dropkin and Cory Thiesse won silver in mixed doubles curling at the Milan Cortina Winter Games.

The money came through DICK’S new Team USA Ambassadors program, announced Jan. 28, 2026, when the retailer named nine Olympic and Paralympic athletes to the roster. Each ambassador can direct a $10,000 Sports Matter grant to a youth sports organization, and medalists trigger an additional $10,000 grant. Dropkin was one of the athletes featured in the company’s store send-off celebrations before the Games.

For St. Louis County families, the value of the grant is practical as much as symbolic. Sports Matter says youth sports access is limited by cost, safe-space shortages and limited resources, and the foundation says the average family pays $139 per child per sport season in registration fees. That is the kind of expense that can decide whether a child stays in a program, shifts to a different sport or leaves organized athletics altogether.

Dropkin’s local reach is rooted in Duluth. He began curling at age five, moved to Duluth to chase Olympic goals, graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth and now works as a licensed realtor in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. His mixed doubles partnership with Thiesse also grew out of Duluth, where the two formed their team four years before the Olympics. That homegrown connection gives the donation a local target beyond the bright lights of Milan Cortina.

The broader Sports Matter record shows why the check matters. Since 2014, the program has committed more than $100 million, helped keep more than 3 million kids in sports and funded programs in all 50 states. In a region where hockey, curling and other winter sports shape community identity, a $20,000 grant can help a youth program absorb costs that otherwise fall on parents, coaches and volunteers.

For young athletes in Duluth and across St. Louis County, the donation ties an Olympic podium finish to the cost of getting on the ice, onto the field or into the gym in the first place.