Ben Richardson (curler)

Last updated

Ben Richardson
Born (1998-10-09) October 9, 1998 (age 27)
Miami, Florida
Team
Curling club Chaska CC,
Chaska, MN [1]
Skip Daniel Casper
Third Luc Violette
Second Ben Richardson
Lead Aidan Oldenburg
Alternate Rich Ruohonen
Mixed doubles
partner
Taylor Anderson-Heide
Curling career Curling pictogram.svg
Member AssociationFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States
Olympic
appearances
1 (2026)
Other appearances Winter Youth Olympics: 1 (2016)
World University Games: 1 (2023)

Benjamin "Ben" Richardson (born October 9, 1998) is an American curler from Miami, Florida. [2] He is a four-time United States Junior Champion, and was a silver medalist at both the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics and the 2017 World Junior Championships. He is currently the second on Team Daniel Casper, and will be representing the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Contents

Curling career

Juniors

Richardson, at the time living in Issaquah, Washington, [3] made his first international appearance at the 2014 U18 Optimist International Curling Championship, representing Washington State on Team Nicholas Connolly, where they would win bronze, beating Nova Scotia 5–4 in the bronze medal game. [1] [4]

During the 2015–16 season, Richardson was named to be the second of the mixed team representing the United States at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics, alongside Luc Violette, Cora Farrell, and Cait Flannery. There, they would win the silver medal, losing in the final to Canada's Mary Fay.

For the 2016–17 season, Richardson would join Team Andrew Stopera as the new second, alongside Violette at third, and Graem Fenson at lead. This line-up won the next three United States Junior Championships from 2017 to 2019. [5] [6] Winning Junior Nationals earned them the chance to represent the United States at the World Junior Championships. [3] At the 2017 Worlds, they earned the silver medal when they lost to Lee Ki-jeong's South Korean team in the final. At the 2018 Worlds they made it to the bronze medal match but lost to Team Switzerland. [7] At the Worlds in 2019, their final as Team Stopera, they finished fifth. [8]

Stopera aged out of juniors after the 2018–19 season. The rest of the team decided to stay together and move up one position, with Richardson now being the new third on Team Violette. Their success at the US Junior Championships continued, winning gold for the fourth year in a row. At the 2020 World Championships they finished in seventh place. [9]

Men's

Once Richardson aged out of juniors after the 2019–20 season, he was selected alongside Luc Violette, Jon Harstad, and Chase Sinnett as the USCA's new men's U-25 national team. The U-25 team program, which stands for under 25 years old, was added in 2020 as a new part of the High Performance Program with the intention of bridging the development gap between juniors and men's curling. [10]

Starting in the 2022–23 season, after Harstad leaving competitive curling, Violette, Richardson, and Sinnnett would add skip Daniel Casper to their new rink. In the team's first event together, they went undefeated to win the Gord Carroll Curling Classic. [11] They also reached the final of their next event, the US Open of Curling, where they lost in an extra end to Korey Dropkin. The team next played in the playdowns for the 2023 Winter World University Games where they won all six of their games to win the event. [12] Back on tour, they had three more playoff appearances, reaching the quarterfinals of the Nufloors Penticton Curling Classic and the finals of both the Curling Stadium Contender Series and the Curl Mesabi Classic. In the new year, the team represented the U.S. on home soil at the 2023 Winter World University Games in Saranac Lake, New York. Through the round robin, Casper led his rink to a 6–3 record, taking the third seed in the playoff bracket. In the semifinals, his rink upset Switzerland's Jan Iseli 6–3 to qualify for the championship game. There, they dropped a 5–1 decision to Great Britain's James Craik, earning the silver medal from the event. [13] Continuing their momentum from the season, Team Casper finished 6–1 through the round robin at the 2023 United States Men's Curling Championship, taking the number one seed in the playoffs. [14] In the 1 vs. 2 game, they faced the reigning US men's champion John Shuster rink where they lost 8–5. [15] This put them in the semifinal where they upset Team Dropkin to advance to the national final. They could not take revenge on Shuster in the final, however, dropping the game 8–3 and settling for the silver medal. [16]

Having had their most successful season to date, Team Casper continued their momentum into the 2023–24 season, finishing runner-up at their first event. A month later, at the US Open of Curling, they defeated Team Dropkin to claim their first tour title of the season. [17] They also won the St. Paul Cash Spiel in October, defeating Rich Ruohonen in the event final. The following week, Team Casper competed in their first Grand Slam of Curling event, which they qualified for with the points they accumulated throughout the past season. [18] Playing in the Tier 2 event of the 2023 Tour Challenge, the team finished 2–2 through the round robin, however, earned a playoff berth with a strong last stone draw total. Qualifying as the eighth seeds, Team Casper upset both Jeong Byeong-jin and Mike McEwen in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds to advance to the final against Yusuke Morozumi. [19] There, the team shot a high 88%, securing a 6–2 victory over the Japanese and a spot in the 2024 Canadian Open in January. [20] Back on tour, the Casper rink went undefeated at the Curl Mesabi Classic until the final where they were stopped by Tanner Horgan. [21] In the new year, they competed in their first Tier 1 Slam, the 2024 Canadian Open where they finished with a 1–3 record. In their lone win, they beat Kevin Koe's Alberta rink in a 9–8 game. [22] The team ended the season at the 2024 United States Men's Curling Championship where they qualified for the playoffs with a 4–3 record. After defeating Wesley Wendling in the 3 vs. 4 game, they lost to the John Shuster rink 7–5 in the semifinal. [23] At the end of the season, Chase Sinnett and Casper announced they would be parting ways, with Aidan Oldenburg joining as their new lead.

Team Casper would again find their success in the 2025–26 curling season, starting the season by finishing second at the 2025 Trentino Curling World Cup, losing to Yannick Schwaller 7–6 in the final. Casper continued their strong start to the season by winning the Grand Slam of Curling Masters Tier 2 event, beating Kevin Koe 4–2 in the final. Their performance over the past two seasons qualified the team for the 2025 United States Olympic Curling Trials. At the Trials, Team Casper would go 4–2 in the round robin and beat the rink led by 2018 Olympic Champion and 5-time Olympian John Shuster in the best-of-three final series, winning the deciding Game 3 by a score of 7–5 after the two sides split the first two games. [24] This win qualified the Casper rink to represent the United States at the 2025 Olympic Qualification Event. The team would go on to win the Qualification Event, finishing 6–1 after round robin play and beating China's Xu Xiaoming 9–4, qualifying for the 2026 Winter Olympics. [25]

Mixed doubles

Richardson has also competed in mixed doubles with Taylor Anderson-Heide, notably winning a bronze medal at the 2021 United States Mixed Doubles Curling Championship. Anderson-Heide and Richardson also competed at the 2025 United States Olympic mixed doubles curling trials, where they would qualify for the playoffs after finishing round-robin play with a 5–4 record. However, they would then be eliminated after losing to Madison Bear and Aidan Oldenburg in the 3v4 game.

Personal life

Richardson's parents were musicians in Miami, and his grandmother who was from Canada encouraged him to get into curling. [2] Richardson is also an accomplished cellist and a graduate from the Cleveland Institute of Music. [2]

He is also known on social media as "curlingcelloguy", in which he posts mainly about three of his favorite things: curling, fitness, or playing the cello. [2]

Teams

Men's

[26]

SeasonSkipThirdSecondLeadAlternateCoachEvents
2013–14 Nicholas Connolly Luc Violette Kyle LorvickBen RichardsonBlake Sweet2014 U18 Optimist International Bronze medal icon.svg
2014–15Nicholas ConnollyKent SuslavichKyle LorvickBen Richardson
2015–16Nicholas ConnollyAaron CarlsonBen RichardsonJack Frank
2016–17 Andrew Stopera Luc VioletteBen Richardson Graem Fenson Nicholas Connolly (WJCC) Mark Lazar 2017 USJCC Gold medal icon.svg
2017 WJCC Silver medal icon.svg
2017–18Andrew StoperaLuc VioletteBen RichardsonGraem FensonCaleb ClawsonMark Lazar2018 USJCC Gold medal icon.svg
2018 WJCC (4th)
2018–19Andrew StoperaLuc VioletteBen RichardsonGraem FensonRiley FensonMark Lazar2019 USJCC Gold medal icon.svg
2019 WJCC (5th)
2019–20Luc VioletteRiley FensonBen RichardsonGraem FensonJon Harstad2020 USJCC Gold medal icon.svg
Luc VioletteBen RichardsonJon HarstadGraem FensonKevin Tuma Tyler George 2020 WJCC (7th)
2020–21Luc VioletteChase SinnettBen RichardsonJon Harstad Tyler George
Jordan Moulton
USMCC 2021 Bronze medal icon.svg
2021–22Luc VioletteChase SinnettBen RichardsonJon Harstad
2022–23 Daniel Casper Luc VioletteBen RichardsonChase Sinnett USMCC 2023 Silver medal icon.svg
2023–24Daniel CasperLuc VioletteBen RichardsonChase Sinnett USMCC 2024 Bronze medal icon.svg
2024–25Daniel CasperLuc VioletteBen Richardson Aidan Oldenburg Rich Ruohonen USMCC 2025 Silver medal icon.svg
2025–26Daniel CasperLuc VioletteBen RichardsonAidan OldenburgRich Ruohonen 2025 USOCT Gold medal icon.svg

Mixed

SeasonSkipThirdSecondLeadAlternateCoachEvents
2015–16 Luc Violette Cora Farrell Ben Richardson Cait Flannery Tom Violette 2016 WYOG Silver medal icon.svg

References

  1. 1 2 "USA Curling National Team Athletes". USA Curling. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Ben Richardson". Team USA. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  3. 1 2 Patterson, Nick (February 12, 2017). "Local youth ushers in start of USA curling nationals in Everett". HeraldNet.com. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  4. Hering, Christy (June 2014). "Connecticut Boys Record Historical Win". USA Curling. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  5. Jung, Tristan (March 15, 2019). "High-level curlers face thin margins, tough travel schedule". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  6. Haggerty, Nancy (February 1, 2019). "Curling: Briarcliff's Stopera leads his team to third straight U.S. Junior National title". lohud.com. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  7. Monteith, Austin (March 10, 2018). "CURLING: Sinclair, Persinger teams win Nationals". The Jamestown Sun. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  8. "World Junior Curling Championships 2019". World Curling Federation. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  9. "World Junior Curling Championships 2020". World Curling Federation. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  10. "U-25 NATIONAL TEAM PROGRAM". Team USA. June 24, 2020. Archived from the original on July 17, 2020. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  11. "2022 Gord Carroll Curling Classic". CurlingZone. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  12. "2023 United States World University Games Playdown". CurlingZone. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  13. "Great Britain men and China women win FISU World University Games". World Curling Federation. January 22, 2023. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  14. "Playoffs set at 2023 USA Curling men's and women's national championships". USA Curling. February 10, 2022. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  15. "Team Casper from Chaska tops round-robin, advances in U.S. Curling nationals". The Minnesota Star Tribune. February 10, 2023. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  16. "2023 USA Curling men's national champions crowned". USA Curling. February 11, 2023. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  17. "2023 CURVE US Open of Curling – Championships". CurlingZone. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  18. "64 teams set for HearingLife Tour Challenge in Niagara Falls". Grand Slam of Curling. September 27, 2023. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  19. Jonathan Brazeau (October 21, 2023). "Lawes, Jones to meet in HearingLife Tour Challenge women's final". Grand Slam of Curling. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  20. Jonathan Brazeau (October 22, 2023). "Retornaz beats Bottcher in extra end to win HearingLife Tour Challenge men's title". Grand Slam of Curling. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  21. "Homan, Koe capture Red Deer Classic with dominating performances". TSN. November 20, 2023. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  22. Jonathan Brazeau (January 18, 2024). "Dunstone gets back on track at Co-op Canadian Open with win over Retornaz". Grand Slam of Curling. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  23. "Peterson, Shuster defend national titles". USA Curling. February 5, 2024. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  24. "Casper ends Shuster's memorable run by defeating 2018 Olympic gold medalist in USA Curling Trials final". TSN. November 17, 2025. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  25. Stern, Macklin (December 11, 2025). "Team Casper (USA) defeats Team Xu (China) to qualify for 2026 Winter Olympics". NBC News. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  26. "Ben Richardson: Teams". CurlingZone. Retrieved December 11, 2025.