An American lawyer, who publicly criticized the United States’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement policies, made history at the Winter Olympics on Thursday.
Rich Ruohonen from Minnesota became the USA’s oldest Winter Olympian at the age of 54 when he stepped onto the ice for the men’s curling match.
As an alternate for the team, Ruohonen replaced skip Danny Casper in the USA’s 8-3 defeat to Switzerland once it became clear that victory was out of reach.
With the Americans down 8-2, he hurled the corner guard and watched his stone, biting his lip until it arrived safely at the left flank of the house.
‘Yeah, baby! Good shot, Rich!’ Casper, who was born in 2001, making him 30 years younger than Ruohonen, shouted across the ice.
The American fans gathered inside the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium gave Ruohonen a standing ovation as his inaugural shot officially made Olympic history for Team USA.
American curler Rich Ruohonen made history at the Winter Olympics on Thursday
The 54-year-old became the oldest person to represent the USA at the Winter Olympics
Earlier this week, Ruohonen publicly criticized US President Donald Trump’s ICE policies
Since inviting Ruohonen onto their decidedly Gen Z-skewed team as an alternate for Casper, who has Guillain-Barre syndrome, he has become something of an honorary uncle: driving them around, waking them up for morning training and buying them snacks.
All while holding that much-discussed full-time job. By day, Ruohonen is a personal injury lawyer and six-time winner of ‘Minnesota Attorney of the Year’.
‘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 already 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 five in the morning, leave my house by 5:15 in the morning, go drive 30 miles to work out and train,’ Ruohonen told the Associated Press.
He then heads to his law practice and works all day before returning at 6pm 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.
He has two kids with his wife Sherri: Nicholas, 21, and Hannah, 24. He has taught them to curl – as his father taught him – but has said that Nick prefers hockey
With the US already 8-2 down against Switzerland, Ruohonen came on as an alternate
Ruohonen (front, center) is a Minnesota native and decried the activities of ICE officers
Ruohonen’s historic debut came after he issued a blistering takedown of the Donald Trump administration’s ICE policies, particularly the deployment of agents in his native Minnesota.
At a Tuesday press conference, the moderator for USA Curling opened the floor to the athletes. Ruohonen didn’t hold back.
‘I’m proud to be here to represent Team USA, and to represent our country. But we’d be remiss if we didn’t at least mention what’s going on in Minnesota and what a tough time it’s been for everybody. This stuff is happening right, right around where we live,’ Ruohonen said.
‘I am a lawyer, as you know, and we have a constitution,’ Ruohonen continued, ‘and it allows us to (have) freedom of press, freedom of speech, protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures, and makes it that we have to have probable cause to be pulled over.
‘And what’s happening in Minnesota is wrong. There’s no shades of grey. It’s clear.’
He continued: ‘I really love what’s been happening there now with people coming out, showing the love, the compassion, integrity and respect for others that they don’t know, and helping them out. And we love Minnesota for that.
‘And I want to make it clear that we are out here, we love our country. We’re playing for the US. We’re playing for Team USA. And we’re playing for each other, and we’re playing for our family and our friends that sacrificed so much to be here today. And that doesn’t change anything.
‘Because what the Olympics means is excellence, respect, friendship, and we all, I think, exemplify that. And we are playing for the people of Minnesota and the people around the country who share those same values. That compassion, that love and that respect.’
JD Vance urged Team USA’s Winter Olympics to ‘stick to sports’ at the Milan-Cortina Games
Ruohonen hasn’t been alone in his criticism of the president and his immigration policies with skiers Chris Lillis and Hunter Hess and ice skater Amber Glenn also speaking out on the escalating tensions in the US during the games.
However, Vice President JD Vance, who has headed up the American delegation in Milan on behalf of the Trump administration, fired back, telling his nation’s athletes to stick to sport and not ‘pop off about politics’.
The vice president, who was booed during the opening ceremony last Friday, said: ‘Yes, you’re going to have some Olympic athletes who pop off about politics. I feel like that happens every Olympics.
‘My advice to them would be to try to bring the country together, and when you’re representing the country, you’re representing Democrats and Republicans.
‘You’re there to play a sport, and you’re there to represent your country and hopefully win a medal. You’re not there to pop off about politics.’
He added: ‘When Olympic athletes enter the political arena, they should expect some pushback.
‘But most Olympic athletes, whatever their politics, are doing a great job, certainly enjoy the support of the entire country, and I think recognize that the way to bring the country together is not to show up in a foreign country and attack the President of the United States, but it’s to play your sport and to represent the country well.’
