Thomas Ulsrud


Thomas Ulsrud is a Norwegian curler 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.

Career

Ulsrud has curled since 1983. 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.
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.
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.
At the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Team Ulsrud attracted worldwide attention, not only for introducing Loudmouth Golf's colourful harlequin pants to the arena, but also for winning the silver medal after the final game against Canada's Team Kevin Martin.
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 and won the silver medal.
Team Ulsrud began the 2010-11 curling season by winning their first European Curling Championship gold medal in Champéry, Switzerland. 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. 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.

Personal life

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

Teams

Grand Slam record

Event2006–072007–082008–092009–102010–112011–122012–132013–142014–152015–162016–172017–18
Tour ChallengeN/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/ADNPSFDNP
MastersDNPDNPQSFQQQQQQDNPQ
The NationalQDNPDNPDNPDNPQFQDNPDNPQFDNPDNP
Canadian OpenQDNPQFSFQDNPDNPQDNPDNPDNPQ
Players' ChampionshipsDNPDNPDNPDNPDNPDNPQFDNPDNPDNPDNPDNP