Thomas Ulsrud

Thomas Ulsrud (21 October 1971 – 24 May 2022) was a Norwegian curler from Oslo. He won a silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics, one World Curling Championship, two European Curling Championships, and fourteen Norwegian titles (Norwegian Men's Curling Championship and Oslo Cup). He was also known for being the skip of the team that competed while wearing colourful harlequin trousers at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Team Ulsrud's combined showmanship and sportsmanship became iconic and contributed to reviving worldwide interest in curling since then. In 2024, he was posthumously inducted into the World Curling Hall of Fame.

Ulsrud began competing from 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 and 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 (10–1 score) 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.