Many kids dream of representing their country in the Olympics. For Skyline alum Ben Richardson, that dream is a reality, as is the brutal truth of what it takes to get there.
Richardson, who attended Skyline High School from 2013 to 2017, competed for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics as part of Team Casper, the sixth-ranked men’s curling team in the world and the highest-ranked U.S. men’s curling team in history. The team finished fifth overall, narrowly missing the playoffs.
Richardson’s introduction to the sport came from his grandmother, a competitive curler in Saskatchewan in the 1960s who encouraged his family to try the sport. At age 13, Richardson took his first learn-to-curl session at the Granite Curling Club in Seattle.
“I was a little late to the sport compared to some of my other teammates… they started when they were five years old,” Richardson said during an interview with The Spartan Forum. To make up for this lost time, he woke up at 4 or 4:30 a.m. most mornings to work out at Klahanie Fitness before catching the bus to Skyline.
“The fact that I could run to my gym, the gym itself… I think was a huge influence,” Richardson said on how growing up in Issaquah impacted his passion for curling.
After school, he drove 30 to 40 minutes to the Granite Curling Club in North Seattle, where he practiced for an hour before competing in evening league games. As for homework, Richardson said, “I just kind of created this mentality that I needed to get the work done. I always got it done.”
Without a curling team at Skyline, Richardson found other ways to stay competitive and active on campus. He used the school track for sprint workouts and joined the Ultimate Frisbee Club, which he credited as an important form of cardio training.
Several teachers accommodated his competition schedule once he demonstrated he could keep his grades up. He specifically thanked French teacher Madame Riggleman, who wrote his college recommendation letter, and freshman social studies teacher Mr. Blagg, who told him to make the Olympics one day. “I’ll never forget him saying that,” Richardson said.
Richardson enrolled in Running Start his junior and senior years, taking a majority of his coursework online through Bellevue College. Orchestra at Skyline was his only on-campus class. The Running Start program, which remains available to current students, gave him flexibility to increase his training hours.
Some credits from college courses transferred to the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he later earned a music degree. When he’s not on ice, Richardson now serves as associate principal cellist for the Mankato Symphony in Minnesota.
The road to Milan went through Sioux Falls, where Team Casper defeated five-time Olympian John Shuster at the U.S. Olympic Trials last November. Richardson had once woken up at 3 a.m. in his college dorm to watch Shuster win gold at the 2018 PyeongChang Games.
“It almost felt like this impossible task,” Richardson said of beating him. “Then when we did it, it was like, wow, we actually did it.”
Richardson said he hopes to compete in the 2030 and 2034 Olympic Games. For Skyline students chasing their own goals and dreams, his advice is direct. “Just give it your all. Even if the results don’t come right away, eventually the work pays off.”
