With the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics underway, the U.S. men's curling team, led by skip Danny Casper, is on the hunt for a gold medal after enduring considerable difficulties.
The last two years have been a roller-coaster of emotions for Casper. In 2024, he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a rare condition that affects nerves in the body.
His symptoms impacted his hands and legs, sidelining him from curling for much of last year.
"It's been a very challenging two years, I think it's been I got diagnosed with Guillain Barre, which is when your immune system attacks and destroys your nerves. It's been really hard," Casper said.
Thanks to physical therapy and medication, Casper returned to competition last year.
"It's still hard now. I still don't feel good, but I feel a lot better than I did. And I definitely won't be at 100 percent at the Olympics, but that's not going to be a reason why we succeed or don't succeed," he said.
With Olympic qualification on the line, the team had to compete at times without their captain. This meant that 54-year-old Rich Ruohonen would fill in when Casper couldn't play.
He then stayed on the team as an alternate and is now in line to become the oldest American to ever compete at the Winter Olympics.
"To be able to still play at this level at 54 and really help out in any way I can is phenomenal. It was my dream. It's everything I've worked for 30 years," said Ruohonen.
Despite the challenges, the team determined not to settle for anything less than the top place on the Olympic stage.
"We want to medal. We are going there to medal. We're not going to just be happy to be there," said Ruohonen.
"Every single day, in the shower, in the car, laying in bed, all I think about is winning the Olympics," said Casper.
US men's curling team overcomes challenges, chases gold at Winter Olympics
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lowered its global economic growth forecasts for 2026 to 3.1 percent in the World Economic Outlook (WEO) report published on Tuesday, while keeping its projection for 2027 at 3.2 percent.
This marks a deceleration from the estimated 3.4 percent growth achieved in 2025. Before the outbreak of the Middle East conflict, the bottom-up forecasts for global growth would have been 3.4 percent in 2026 and 3.2 percent in 2027.
The forecast incorporates the impact of the war and assumes that it will be limited in duration, intensity and scope, with disruptions fading by mid-2026.
Under the reference forecast, global headline inflation is expected to increase to 4.4 percent in 2026 and decline to 3.7 percent in 2027.
If the conflict and the ensuing spike in oil prices last longer, global economic growth in 2026 will fall to 2.5 percent, while global inflation will climb to 5.4 percent, according to the report.
In extreme cases, global economic growth in 2026 could drop to two percent, the report warned.
To be specific, the U.S. economy is projected to grow by 2.3 percent in 2026 and 2.1 percent in 2027, although higher trade barriers introduced since April 2025 are expected to continue to weigh on activity.
In the euro area, growth is projected to decline from 1.4 percent in 2025 to 1.1 percent in 2026 before edging up to 1.2 percent in 2027. The forecasts for 2026 and 2027 are each 0.2 percentage point lower than those compared in the January 2026 WEO Update.
The 2026 growth forecast for emerging market and developing economies is revised down by 0.3 percentage point, to 3.9 percent, while the outlook for advanced economies remains broadly unchanged. With risks still tilted to the downside since the January 2026 WEO Update, the IMF suggested a comprehensive policy package combining domestic measures with coordinated international actions to strengthen resilience and foster adaptability.
It also stated in the report that "trade restrictions play a limited role in correcting imbalances but can worsen output," and urged countries to cooperate and take coordinated actions to restore stability to international economic relations.
IMF lowers global growth forecast for 2026 to 3.1 pct
