CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — 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.
All while holding that 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 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.
Though his teammates poke fun and make 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 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.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
United States' Luc Violette and Daniel Casper look on, during the men's curling round robin session against Switzerland at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
US supporters watch during the gold medal mixed doubles curling match between USA and Sweden, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico’s governor on Thursday signed a bill that amends a law to recognize a fetus as a human being, a move doctors and legal experts warn will have deep ramifications for the U.S. Caribbean territory.
The amendment was approved without public hearings and amid concerns from opponents who warned it would unleash confusion and affect how doctors and pregnant or potentially pregnant women are treated.
The new law will lead to “defensive health care,” warned Dr. Carlos Díaz Vélez, president of Puerto Rico’s College of Medical Surgeons.
“This will bring complex clinical decisions into the realm of criminal law,” he said in a phone interview.
He said that women with complicated pregnancies will likely be turned away by private doctors and will end up giving birth in the U.S. mainland or at Puerto Rico’s largest public hospital, noting that the island’s crumbling health system isn't prepared.
“This will bring disastrous consequences,” he said.
Díaz noted that the amended law also allows a third person to intervene between a doctor and a pregnant woman, so privacy laws will be violated, adding that new protocols and regulations will have to be implemented.
“The system is not prepared for this,” he said.
Gov. Jenniffer González, a Republican and supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump, said in a brief statement that “the legislation aims to maintain consistency between civil and criminal provisions by recognizing the unborn child as a human being.”
The amendment, in Senate Bill 923, was made to an article within Puerto Rico’s Penal Code that defines murder.
The government noted that the amendment complements a law that among other things, classifies as first-degree murder when a pregnant woman is killed intentionally and knowingly, resulting in the death of the conceived child at any stage of gestation. The law was named after Keishla Rodríguez, who was pregnant when she was killed in April 2021. Her lover, former Puerto Rican boxer Félix Verdejo, received two life sentences after he was found guilty in the killing.
Some cheered the amendment signed into law Thursday, while opponents warned that it opens the door to eventually criminalizing abortions in Puerto Rico, which remain legal.
“A zygote was given legal personality,” said Rosa Seguí Cordero, an attorney and spokesperson for the National Campaign for Free, Safe and Accessible Abortion in Puerto Rico. “We women were stripped of our rights.”
Seguí rattled off potential scenarios, including whether a zygote, or fertilized egg, would have the right to health insurance and whether a woman who loses a fetus would become a murder suspect.
Díaz said doctors could even be considered murder suspects and condemned how public hearings were never held and the medical sector never consulted.
“The problem is that no medical recommendations were followed here,” he said. “This is a serious blow … It puts us in a difficult situation.”
Among those condemning the measure was Annette Martínez Orabona, executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Puerto Rico.
She noted that no broad discussion of the bill was allowed, which she said is critical because the penal code carries the most severe penalties.
"There is no doubt that the measure did not undergo adequate analysis before its approval and leaves an unacceptable space for ambiguity regarding civil rights," she said.
"The legislative leadership failed to fulfill its responsibility to the people, and so did the governor.”
FILE - Jenniffer Gonzalez speaks after she was sworn in as governor outside the Capitol in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo, File)
