CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — It was the last end and the U.S. men were down 8-2 against Switzerland on Thursday in their first match of the men's curling round-robin.

In other words, the stakes were low — and the time ripe — for a 54-year old personal injury lawyer and six-time winner of “Minnesota Attorney of the Year” to make Olympic history.

The team called a substitution and Rich Ruohonen, from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, stepped onto the ice.

He hurled the corner guard and watched his stone, biting his lip, until it made it safely to the house's left flank.

“Yeah baby! Good shot, Rich!" skip Danny Casper — 30 years younger than Ruohonen — shouted across the ice. U.S. fans gave a standing ovation. The lawyer looked wistful.

Ruohonen had just become the oldest person to compete for the U.S. at the Winter Olympics.

“I would have rather done it when we were up 8-2 instead of down 8-2," he said, “but I really appreciate the guys giving me a chance.”

Since inviting Ruohonen onto their team as an alternate for Casper, who has Guillain-Barre syndrome, he has become something of an honorary uncle: transporting teammates around in his truck, waking them up for morning trainings and buying them snacks.

All while holding a much-discussed full-time job.

“We got Rich, uh, he’s a lawyer. I don’t know if you guys knew that,” said Casper at a recent press conference, after that fact had been mentioned four times. Curlers from the US women’s and men’s teams cracked up.

“If you need a lawyer, I think you can call Rich,” Casper said a few minutes later, again to uproarious laughter.

All jokes aside, it's a serious commitment.

“I get up three days a week at 5 in the morning, leave my house by 5:15 in the morning, go drive 30 miles to work out and train," Ruohonen told the AP.

He said he then heads to his law practice and works all day before returning at 6 p.m. before heading to practice again. He spends Thursday through Sunday away at curling tournaments, toting around a collared shirt and a tie so he can handle hearings on Zoom from the road.

Though his teammates poke fun by making him the butt of the occasional Tiktok video, there's clearly a lot of love on both sides.

It's because of the younger teammates that Ruohonen has finally gotten his Olympic moment after falling just short on several occasions. And it's because of Ruohonen that the team has a mentor and a connection to the older generation of the sport, some of whom they defeated to clinch their Olympic qualification.

“I came from the days when guys were smoking cigarettes out on the ice and all we did was throw rocks and think that we could be better,” Ruohonen said while praising his teammates' work ethic.

“Look at these guys,” he added. “Every one of them’s ripped and every one of the sweeps their butt off."

___

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics