Minnesota’s Team Casper aims for Olympic men’s curling medal

Danny Casper moved to Minnesota from New York to “curl with a side of college.”

Aidan Oldenburg is an environmental scientist and juggles machetes and flaming torches.

Ben Richardson can juggle as well, but he also plays the cello.

Luc Violette is an engineer and son of two-time national champion Tom Violette.

Team Casper is an eclectic group of fellows, aged 24 to 27, who are the young bucks of the U.S. curling scene. They are cerebral, unselfish, big-picture oriented and great at throwing rocks at a house.

All currently live in Minnesota, with Casper and Richardson sharing a place in Richfield. Oldenburg is also in Richfield and Violette lives in Eagan.

After cheering from the stands at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium as the USA mixed doubles team of Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin made their run to a silver medal, Casper’s rink gets its chance to follow. The group opens pool play on Wednesday, Feb. 11, against the Czech Republic.

To win a tournament with those experienced big shooters says something about the talents of Team Casper.

So, who are these guys?

Richardson, 27, was born in Miami and is the son of musicians. He learned how to play the cello at age 3. “It was a really small cello,” he said. He graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music but ended up moving to the Seattle area, where he met Violette, a civil design engineer. Which suggests Violette, 26, knows angles.

“Luc and I kind of feel like brothers in a way because we’ve played together for so long,” Richardson said. “Whenever Luc and I sweep a rock together, I feel like we are always on the same page. Like there’s that telepathic, brother type of thing going on with us.”

Looking at Casper and Oldenburg before a practice at the Frogtown Curling Club in St. Paul, Richardson joked, “These guys, not so much.”

“And that’s when we called up Danny,” Richardson said. “He was just coming out of juniors. He seemed like a good player and a good fit for the team, so we asked him to play.”

Casper, 24, had moved to Minnesota to immerse himself in curling country. The University of Minnesota graduate is one of 16 Gophers in the Winter Olympics.

“And then a couple years after that, it was a similar situation with Aidan,” Richardson said. “We had a player step away, and then we called him up and then that’s how we got the squad formed.”

Oldenburg, 24, is a graduate of Minnesota State with a degree in ecology. He is from the same hometown — Mapleton in south-central Minnesota — as John Landsteiner, who won gold with Shuster in 2018. Oldenburg began curling at age 10, once juggled flaming torches at the Minnesota State Fair and will juggle between matches as a relaxation exercise. His trademark headband is worn by fans of Team Casper.

He was making pancakes for dinner when Richardson called him to join the team.

The next hurdle was to figure out who was going to skip the team. They had all skipped before, and knew they had to settle on a structure quickly. So they played and just watched who would emerge. Casper stepped forward after a few matches.

“He’s just a natural leader,” Richardson said. “His presence on the ice is very strong. His leadership as a skip was something we were looking for.”

Oldenburg is the lead. Richardson is the second and a powerful sweeper. Violette is the third. Casper is the skip. Violette and Casper have different ways of looking at the game and different strategies. But the team makes it a superpower, allowing them to consider all shot options on the ice.

Rich Ruohonen, 54 and a personal injury attorney from Brooklyn Park, is the alternate. He was needed a few times as Casper dealt with Guillain-Barré Syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that manifests itself through numbness, weakness in the muscles, pain and cardiovascular problems.

Casper’s condition has improved over the past year, but if he or any other team member goes down, Ruohonen would play and become the oldest American to participate in a Winter Olympics.

Casper has a mentor and friend in Shuster, who has looked out for him since he came out of junior curling. Before the Olympic Qualifying Event, Shuster sent Casper a list of three things his rink needed to do to have a successful week. Shuster planned on doing the same thing before Team Casper’s Olympic quest begins. Shuster believes Casper has the intangibles that can help a team reach the podium.