A 54-year-old personal injury lawyer from Minnesota just became the oldest US Winter Olympian

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — 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.

It was the end of the U.S. men's curling match against Switzerland on Thursday and they were down 8-2.

The team called a substitution. Rich Ruohonen, from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, stepped onto the ice. 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!" skip Danny Casper — who was born in 2001, making him 30 years younger than Ruohonen — shouted across the ice.

U.S. fans gave a standing ovation. The lawyer looked wistful. He'd 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 Gen-Z 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 trainings and buying them snacks.

''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 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 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. 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 says Nick prefers hockey.

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 them sweeps their butt off."

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This story has been corrected to show the first name of Ruohonen's son is Nicholas instead of Nicolas.