By Ben Hoppe, U.S. curling writer
It was the final end of the final game of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, and all Danny Casper had to do was make the lone Team Shuster rock go away. Normally, front-end players stand between the hog lines when the other team is throwing, but Team Shuster’s Colin Hufman had abandoned his post. Hufman was watching his Olympic dreams come to an end with found family, his close friend Rich Ruohonen, whose Olympic dreams were being realized. The two embraced while Casper’s shot cruised down the ice and secured Ruohonen’s team the right to be Team USA.
"(Colin) said, 'The only thing that’s going to make this tolerable or acceptable for me is that you get to go finally, and you deserve it,'" Ruohonen recollected.
The tight bond between the former teammates goes back years. Their bond is so tight that Ruohonen’s dog, Paxson, is named after the lake in Alaska near where Hufman grew up. While the two were teammates, Ruohonen opened his home to Hufman. When COVID made travel difficult for Hufman, a Seattle resident, Ruohonen went one step further and welcomed his teammate into his home full-time. Hufman basically became a big brother to the Ruohonen kids.
This is what Ruohonen does. He is who he needs to be for the people in his life.
In 2024, as Team Casper shuffled lineups constantly while skip Danny Casper dealt with the onset of Guillain–Barré Syndrome, Ruohonen became what he needed to be for the young team. He became the reliable stability for a team navigating a challenging path. When Casper was able to play, Ruohonen assumed a spot on the bench. When Casper needed a break, the two-time national champion stepped in to call the game and throw lead rocks while everyone else moved up a spot.
With Casper making significant progress in dealing with Guillain–Barré, Ruohonen’s role has generally become more focused on coaching, scouting, and rock-matching, but he is ready whenever he’s needed. When Team Shuster asked Casper to be their alternate at the Pan Continental Curling Championships, Ruohonen and the rest of Team Casper went to Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. In one of the strongest fields outside of the Grand Slams, the Ruohonen-skipped team won the event, beating Team Retornaz in the final.
FOREVER SECOND
When Ruohonen joined Casper, he brought with him a reputation for finishing high in championships but just short of where he would want to be.
“He guarantees us silver at every event,” quipped lead Aidan Oldenburg.
Sure enough, in Ruohonen's first year with Team Casper, they finished with the silver medal at the United States Men’s National Championship in Duluth, Minn. It was the seventh silver medal at men’s nationals for the 54-year-old. He also finished as the runner-up in the 2017 men’s team trials, defeating John Shuster in Game 1 and losing the next two in the best-of-three final. He finished second at the 2021 Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials with Jamie Sinclair, losing on the last shot to Vicky Persinger and Chris Plys. For good measure, Ruohonen added a silver medal from the 2024 World Senior Curling Championships to his collection.
He has won two men’s nationals, 2008 and 2018, but silver has been the predominant colour in the trophy case to this point in his long career on the pebbled ice. Ruohonen had felt like he’d tried anything and everything over the years to get over that silver hump.
"Let’s go out and walk around the park. Let’s sleep in. Let’s watch Miracle," he explained.
But Team Casper didn’t have to try anything different. They just needed to lean on each other’s strengths and experiences.
Ruohonen again became what the team needed after Casper won Game 1 of their best-of-three series at the Olympic Trials. Even after they dropped the second game, he kept the team focused.
"I said, 'Guys, I’ve been here. We won on Friday night, so we could be here on Sunday,'" he recalled.
Together, they got over the hump. While he was able to support the team through the experience, Ruohonen still had to battle his own mind, knowing the team still had to qualify the country for Milano Cortina at the Olympic Qualifying Event.
“The worst thing would be to win, and then not go,” Ruohonen thought. “It’s just crazy to think of, and so I tried to keep it out of my mind.”
Thankfully, for Ruohonen, his team is skipped by a 24-year-old who has the cool, calm mentality that Ruohonen wished he had when he was younger.
"I was a little tougher on myself as a skip and a little bit more high-strung," he said. "(They) have what I don’t think I had, and that’s probably half the reason I got nine silver medals.”
Ruohonen has brought the experience, Casper brought the mentality, and together, they are bringing each other to Italy.
THE TEAM DAD
For the uninformed viewer of curling at the 2026 Winter Olympics, it will be easy to assume that Ruohonen is the coach or a long-time advisor of the team. He knows it, too. He will, after all, be the oldest American to compete at the Winter Olympics.
Ruohonen joked, "I was thinking about getting a shirt that says, 'I’m not the dad, and I’m not the coach.'"
That doesn’t mean he doesn’t still embrace a dad-like role on the team.
"He brings a lot of dad jokes," Oldenburg shared.
A partner at a personal injury law firm, Ruohonen makes sure he fills the gaps the team needs, whether that is saying what someone needs to hear, making breakfast for the team, or just being there if someone needs to go through rocks.
“Aidan works so damn hard,” Ruohonen said. “He’s always in the gym, always wants to throw rocks, and he wears me out because sometimes he wants to throw rocks and nobody else does, and I’ve got to go with him, and I do. That mentorship role, I hope it’s been helpful on the team.”
It’s undeniable that he has made a difference. His teammates’ parents have told him as much, and his teammates also acknowledge that he knows what to bring to the team and when to bring it.
“We’ll come off of a game where we played horribly, and he’ll say, ‘Yeah, you guys sucked,’” second Ben Richardson said. “But that’s exactly what we need to hear.”
Oldenburg shared that not only does Ruohonen say what they might need, but he also pumps them up when they need it too.
“He is our entertainment on the team. He brings a lot of energy. A lot of us can be more mellow on the ice, but we get out of our shell a little bit because of him," Oldenburg said.
Although Ruohonen fills a dad-like role, he is still just one of the guys. He’s a key member of the team and fits right in. As expected for a team that doesn’t take itself too seriously, the players have plenty of banter and inside jokes. Ruohonen often drives the team, and he thinks he has impressed his teammates half his age with his wide range of musical tastes, including newer songs. While most of the team noted that his only “playlist” was a sports-betting podcast he listens to every day, Casper mostly agreed that Ruohonen's musical taste was solid.
“I think it’s pretty good,” Casper said. “But we’re definitely going to tell him it’s bad.”
“The maturity level goes down the older you are,” Richardson added. “He may be twice my age, but the maturity level is comparable. He has no problem fitting in with our team.”
The team jokes, but they know Ruohonen has their back, and he’ll be there when they need him. Even if they don’t know they need him, Ruohonen makes sure he provides his teammates with what they need.
Just as he did with Hufman, Ruohonen opened his house again to Casper.
“He has really taken me into his family,” Casper said. “My family lives out in New York, and I’ve already spent a few holidays over at their house. I don’t really have anybody out in Minnesota that I can drive to, so I just spend time at Rich’s, and that’s really meant a lot to me.”
THE OLDEST OLYMPIAN
Ruohonen will throw third and sweep all the rocks on Team Farbelow at this week’s USA Curling Senior National Championships. Should they manage to win their third consecutive senior title, Ruohonen believes he may be one of the only, if not the sole, curler to ever go to the Winter Olympics and Senior World Championships in the same year.
While the preparation at the Senior National Championships will help him be ready to throw rocks if called upon in Cortina, he will join a bench with coach Jordan Moulton. The two have sorted out a good system to work together.
“We’ve got a really strong bench, and it makes a difference,” vice skip Luc Violette said.
Ruohonen will match the rocks at night and keep his eyes on the rocks across the various sheets during draws. He provides that information to Moulton, who tracks all the data the team needs, leveraging Moulton’s analytics expertise. While the team expressed their appreciation for Ruohonen's bluntness, he acknowledges that Moulton is much better at communicating with the team in the way that’s most effective for them in that moment.
And where Moulton provides technical guidance to the team, the strategy aspect falls more in Ruohonen’s lap. He will typically handle timeouts, but the two are in constant communication on the bench to make sure they’re on the same page.
The two will no doubt have their hands full on the biggest stage in the sport, but that doesn’t mean Ruohonen will let the experience pass him by. He knows they have to take their time in Cortina seriously, but when time allows, he will be out ensuring he gets the full Olympic experience. Whoever on the team wants to join him will be welcome, and whoever needs a little bit of a break from Ruohonen can take one.
He told his team, “If I’m too in your face, just tell me to go away, and I’ll go away. I want to go see some bobsled. I want to go see downhill skiing. I want to be out and meet these athletes.”
Ruohonen knows the pressure of the Olympics can be massive. As he always has been, he’s just going to be whatever he needs to be for the people around him.
“I’m going to embrace that old guy role, and I’m going to help them however I can,” he said.
