Rich Ruohonen

Richard Ruohonen (/ˈruːənɪn/ ROO-ə-nin; born March 31, 1971) is an American curler from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. He is a two-time national champion and as such represented the United States at the 2008 and 2018 World Men's Curling Championships.

Career

Ruohonen made his first appearance at the United States Men's Championship in 1998. He won his first national championship in 2008, playing third for skip Craig Brown. As Team United States at the 2008 World Men's Championship, they finished the round-robin with 5–6 record, missing the playoffs and ending the tournament in seventh place.

Ruohonen would lose the US Nationals final three times, in 2011, 2013, and 2017, before again earning the gold medal in 2018. His 2018 gold medal team included Greg Persinger, Colin Hufman, and Philip Tilker. At the World Championship they finished in sixth place when they lost their first playoff game to Brad Gushue's Team Canada.

In 2019 when Ruohonen returned to the national championship to attempt to defend his title, he brought along Jared Allen, retired NFL player, as an alternate. Ruohonen's team lost to John Shuster in the final, with a score of 8–4.

At the 2020 United States Men's Championship Ruohonen made it to the finals for the fourth year in a row, facing John Shuster for the third time out of those four years and, as happened in 2017 and 2019, Shuster prevailed to win the championship.

Ruohonen would later notably join the Daniel Casper rink as an alternate for the 2025–26 curling season, where they would qualify for the 2025 United States Olympic Curling Trials. At the Trials, Team Casper would go 4–2 in the round robin and beat the rink led by 2018 Olympic Champion and 5-time Olympian John Shuster in the best-of-three final series, winning the deciding Game 3 by a score of 7–5 after the two sides split the first two games. This win qualified the Casper rink to represent the United States at the 2025 Olympic Qualification Event. The team would go on to win the Qualification Event, finishing 6–1 after round robin play and beating China's Xu Xiaoming 9–4, qualifying for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Ruohonen made his Olympic debut on February 12, 2026, substituting in for the eighth end of the United States's 8–3 loss to Switzerland in Round Robin play. He is the oldest person to play for the United States in the Winter Olympics.

Personal life

Ruohonen is an American personal injury lawyer and a partner at the TSR Injury Law firm. He attended the Hamline University School of Law. In 2001 he was fellow curler Jason Larway's attorney when they filed a grievance with the United States Olympic Committee and the United States Curling Association over Larway's eligibility to compete at the 2001 United States Olympic Curling Trials.

He is married to Sherry, with two children. He started curling in 1981.

Teams

Grand Slam record

Notes

External links

• at World Curling
• at Team USA ()
• at Olympedia
• at Olympics.com
• at InterSportStats
• on Facebook