(NEXSTAR) - Korey Dropkin is celebrating a silver medal win in curling at the Olympics for Team USA. Dropkin, who describes the achievement as a surreal reality, has spent the days following the event celebrating with his family and supporting other Team USA curlers. The silver medal represents years of hard work and sacrifice for Dropkin. While the team aimed for a different result, Dropkin noted that the achievement is significant for his community in Duluth and his childhood curling club at Broomstones. "And I know it's not quite the shade that we wanted to bring home, but the silver medal means the world to us and to be able to bring it home for the community back in Duluth, back in the U.S.," Dropkin said. Dropkin emphasized that curling has developed into a highly athletic sport over the last decade. He described the physical intensity required to compete, noting that players must maintain precision while performing high-intensity movements. "When you're curling, you're essentially doing extended lunges on ice and trying to be precise, like a golfer on a green," Dropkin said. The physical demand of the sport includes heart rate management during mixed doubles play. Dropkin explained that his heart rate often reaches very high beats per minute during intense sweeping bursts before he must lower it to deliver a shot. "My heart rate gets up to 170 even 180 sometimes and I like to get that back down to below 120 to be able to deliver a productive shot," Dropkin said. "Curlers are athletes, man. And I wanted to be able to showcase that as best as I could here at the Olympics." Dropkin attributed his success to a support system he calls "a village," which includes his parents and his brother. Growing up, Dropkin followed the footsteps of his brother, whom he described as his hero. He also credited his fiancée, Gabby, for making personal sacrifices to support his Olympic goals. The couple became engaged during this Olympic year. "It made it very, very, very special. Be able to celebrate with them after we got the medals," Dropkin said regarding his family's presence in Cortina. Dropkin plans to take a break to reset and relax following the conclusion of the games. He and Gabby are scheduled to be married in August. All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by Nexstar. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by Nexstar staff before being published