| Christopher Plys | |
| Birth Date: | 13 August 1987 |
| Birth Place: | Duluth, Minnesota |
| Curling Club: | Duluth CC, Duluth, MN[1] |
| Skip: | John Shuster |
| Third: | Chris Plys |
| Second: | Colin Hufman |
| Lead: | John Landsteiner |
| Alternate: | Matt Hamilton |
| World Championship Appearances: | 6 |
| Olympic Appearances: | 2 (2010, 2022) |
Christopher Plys (; 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.
Plys 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]
Plys is self-employed. As of 2021, he is engaged.[10]
| Season | Skip | Third | Second | Lead | Alternate | Coach | Events | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002–03 | Jesse Gates | Jeff Thune | Kevin Johnson | Chris Plys | Larry Barott | |||
| 2003–04 | Chris Plys | 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 | 2006 USJCC (9th) | |||
| 2006–07 | Chris Plys | Aanders Brorson | Joel Cooper | 2007 USJCC (5th) | ||||
| 2007–08 | Chris Plys | Aanders Brorson | Matt Perushek | 2008 USJCC | ||||
| Chris Plys | Shane McKinlay | (6th) | ||||||
| 2008–09 | Chris Plys | Aanders Brorson | Matt Perushek | Matt Hamilton | 2009 USJCC 2009 USOCT (8th) | |||
| John Shuster | Jason Smith | Jeff Isaacson | Chris Plys | Brian Simonson | (5th) | |||
| 2009–10 | John Shuster | Jason Smith | Jeff Isaacson | John Benton | Chris Plys | 2010 OG (10th) | ||
| 2010–11 | Chris Plys | |||||||
| 2011–12 | Tyler George | Chris Plys | Rich Ruohonen | (8th) | ||||
| 2012–13 | Chris Plys (Fourth) | Tyler George (Skip) | Rich Ruohonen | Colin Hufman | ||||
| 2013–14 | Chris Plys (Fourth) | Tyler George (Skip) | Rich Ruohonen | Colin Hufman | 2013 USOCT (4th) | |||
| Chris Plys | Rich Ruohonen | Colin Hufman | ||||||
| 2014–15 | Heath McCormick | Chris Plys | Colin Hufman | |||||
| 2015–16 | Chris Plys (Fourth) | Pete Fenson (Skip) | Joe Polo | Jason Smith | (7th) | |||
| 2016–17 | Heath McCormick | Chris Plys | (6th) | |||||
| 2017–18 | Heath McCormick | Chris Plys | Korey Dropkin | Tom Howell | Rich Ruohonen (USOCT) | 2017 USOCT | ||
| Greg Persinger (Fourth) | Rich Ruohonen (Skip) | Colin Hufman | Chris Plys | Phill Drobnick | (6th) | |||
| 2018–19 | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Matt Hamilton | (5th) | ||||
| 2019–20 | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | ||||
| 2020–21[11] | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Colin Hufman | Sean Beighton | (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 (8th) | |
| 2023–24 | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Colin Hufman | Matt Hamilton | John Landsteiner | Theran Michaelis | (6th) | |
| 2024–25 | John Shuster | Chris Plys | Colin Hufman | John Landsteiner | Matt Hamilton |
| Season | Female | Male | Events | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016–17 | Chris Plys | (12th) | ||
| 2017–18[12] | Aileen Geving | Chris Plys | ||
| 2018–19 | Chris Plys | |||
| 2019–20 | Vicky Persinger | Chris Plys | (5th) | |
| 2020–21[13] | Vicky Persinger | Chris Plys | ||
| 2021–22 | Vicky Persinger | Chris Plys | 2021 USMDOT 2022 OG (8th) | |
| 2022–23 | Vicky Persinger | Chris Plys |