The result had pretty much been decided a few months ago as Danny Casper prepared to take his shot at the Olympic Trials in Sioux Falls, S.D. There was going to be a changing of the guard in U.S. men’s curling.

As the rock glided down the ice sheet, Casper and his teammates slowly started to come to grips with the reality of the situation. All the hard work they had put it together was about to pay off.

It became official a few seconds later. Team Casper had upset Team Shuster. The cameras caught Casper hugging John Shuster in the immediate aftermath in what felt like a passing of the torch between the faces of the sport.

Meanwhile, Rich Ruohonen hugged Colin Hufman on the other end of the ice, navigating the joy of victory he was feeling with the agony of defeat his friend was feeling. Never mind that they were opponents at the Olympic Trials. They have built a brotherly bond over the past 25 years with curling at the forefront.

“He’s like a little brother to me,” Ruohonen said. “He told me that the only part that was going to make this OK for him was that I get to go.”

It was strange for Hufman as he reflected on the exchange. He didn’t know he could feel so much happiness for somebody he really cared about while also feeling so much sadness for himself.

“It was a surreal moment,” Hufman said. “I’ll never forget that.”

The solace exists in knowing Ruohonen, 54, was finally on the precipice of getting to represent his country on the highest stage. After prevailing at the trials in dramatic fashion, Team Casper dominated at the Olympic Qualifying Event to secure its spot.

“That was the most stressful time for me,” Ruohonen said. “The only thing that would’ve been worse than losing the Olympic Trials would be winning the Olympic Trials and still not being able to go.”

There’s a chance that Ruohonen doesn’t throw a single rock over the next week and a half at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. Technically, he’s the alternate on Team Casper, so he might not participate in competition.

That won’t take away from the lifetime achievement. After coming up short in the trials a half dozen times, Ruohonen, who graduated from Spring Lake Park and lives in Brooklyn Park, has finally broken through. His perseverance has made him the oldest U.S. Winter Olympian. Ever.

“Just talking about it is giving me goosebumps,” Ruohonen said. “It’s been such a long road for me to get here. There’s been a lot of heartbreak for the past 25 years. This makes it all worth it.”

This is the culmination of a journey for Ruohonen that can be traced back to the St. Paul Curling Club. His introduction into the sport as a little kid came before anybody on Team Casper was born.

“When did I get my start?” Ruohonen said. “Alright, so back in the eighteen hundreds …”

He let out a boisterous laugh as he landed the punchline on the Dad Joke, and it provided some insight into his personality. He doesn’t take himself too seriously, which, in turn, has allowed him to keep going amid so much disappointment.

Maybe the most impressive part about Ruohonen’s continued commitment to curling is how successful he is outside of it; he has established himself as a very successful lawyer in the Twin Cities. You know those TSR Injury Law billboards that can been seen pretty much everywhere? He’s literally the R.

“It would’ve been really easy for him at some point to go, ‘I don’t need something that takes up so much of my time,’ ” Hufman said. “He’s truly somebody who does it for the love of the game.”

That said, Ruohonen has flirted with the idea of retirement a couple of times, most recently after he narrowly missed out on qualifying for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Though he still played competitively from time to time, he didn’t set his sights on the 2026 Games.

Not until Team Casper reached out to him roughly 18 months ago.

After learning that Casper had been diagnosed with Guillain Barré Syndrome, a condition in which the body’s immune system attacks the nerves, Aidan Oldenburg, Ben Richardson and Luc Violette needed somebody with experience that could help them in the interim. It’s exactly what Ruohonen could bring to the table.

He had so much success as a substitute that Team Casper asked him to stick around. They have continued on an upward trajectory ever since.

“I will go to the mat saying that they wouldn’t have been able to beat us if they hadn’t picked him up when they did,” Hufman said. “I think his experience kind of allowed them to move through some steps faster than they would have without him.”

Now that Casper is feeling healthier, Ruohonen has taken on more of supporting role, doing whatever he can possibly do to make life easier for his teammates.

“I’ve heard a lot of jokes like, ‘It looks like some dad is taking his kids to the Olympics,’ ” Ruohonen said. “I own it because I am old. I don’t mind being the dad of the group. I’d like to think of myself more like the crazy older brother.”

He paused.

“I guess I am twice their age,” Ruohonen said. “We can call it what it is.”

Not that affected his ability to fit in.

“His maturity level is probably on par with us,” Oldenburg said. “Maybe even lower.”

The friendly ribbing is rooted in respect.

“He deserves it because he has put in so much hard work to get here,” Oldenburg said. “It would’ve been very easy for him to give up or stop trying as hard as he does. Nope. He puts in the same amount of work as we do.”

As he tried to think about what it would be like at the 2026 Winter Games, Ruohonen made sure to highlight his wife and his kids and how much their support has meant to him. It’s not lost on him how big of a sacrifice the sport has been for them. He couldn’t be more thrilled to share the experience with them along for the ride.

“I can’t believe it,” Ruohonen said. “I retired twice. I thought it was over, and I was OK with that. To have it come full circle where now I’m going to the Olympics is insane.”

Meanwhile, Hufman, who was an alternate at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, will watch with pride from afar, still feeling the full palette of emotions he felt a few months ago when he hugged Ruohonen on the ice.

“I want people to understand the nuance of it, because I think it matters,” Hufman said. “I’m still not over it, and I don’t know when I will be. I’m also so happy that my friend finally gets to experience that. I think I’ll look back on it and be happier knowing we both got that opportunity in our lives.”

U.S. Olympians Luc Violette, Benjamin Richardson, Rich Ruohonen, Daniel Casper and Aidan Oldenburg attend the Team USA Welcome Experience at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics on February 04, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Joe Scarnici/Getty Images)

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By JONEL ALECCIA, AP Health Writer

Federal health officials said Tuesday they will reassess the safety of a chemical called BHA used in foods including potato chips, cereals, frozen meals and meat products.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a new request for information regarding butylated hydroxyanisole, a preservative. The agency’s review “will consider whether BHA is safe under its current conditions of use in food and as a food contact substance,” a statement said.

The move is part of a wider effort by the FDA to review chemical additives in the U.S. food supply. In May, the agency identified BHA as a top priority for review.

“We are taking decisive action to ensure that chemicals in our food supply are not causing harm,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in a statement.

The agency first listed BHA as “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS, in 1958 and approved it as a food additive in 1961. Since 1991, however, BHA has been classified as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen” by the National Toxicology Program.

Health advocacy groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest have long urged consumers to avoid products containing BHA because some studies have indicated that the chemical causes cancer in rats, mice and hamsters. BHA has been listed as a known carcinogen under California’s Proposition 65 since 1990.

Package labeling data indicate that BHA use has declined in recent years, but it remains in many foods, including those marketed to children, the FDA said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Gov. Tim Walz said Tuesday he hopes White House Border Czar Tom Homan will announce this week an end to the surge of federal agents in Minnesota.

“It would be my hope that Mr. Homan goes out before Friday and announces that this thing is done,” and that it will be done in a matter of days, Walz said Tuesday at a press conference discussing the economic impacts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the state. “That would be my expectation.”

Walz said that statement is based on conversations he had with Homan on Monday and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on Tuesday.

“I’m very careful with dealing with this administration,” Walz said. “I’ll let them make the announcements. We have been absolutely clear that they need to reduce these numbers back to the pre-surge level, which has been about 150.”

Homan has said it’s his intention to reach a complete drawdown of the roughly 2,000 federal agents remaining in the state, but that it’s contingent on continued state and local cooperation.

Last week Homan announced the withdrawal of about 700 federal officers — roughly a quarter of the total deployed to Minnesota — after state and local officials agreed to cooperate by turning over arrested immigrants.

Homan has said he thinks the ICE operation in Minnesota has been a success with a number of individuals wanted for violent crimes being taken off the streets. Critics say immigration agents have detained legal residents — in some cases based on racial profiling — and have made the Twin Cities less safe.

Trump’s border czar took over the Minnesota operation in late January after the second fatal shooting by federal officers and amid growing political backlash and questions about how the operation was being run.

Federal officials began an immigration action in the state with thousands of agents. Since then, masked, heavily armed officers have been met by resistance from residents who are upset with their aggressive tactics. Renee Good was fatally shot by a federal agent on Jan. 7. Alex Pretti was killed on Jan. 24.

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CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Sweden’s brother-and-sister team of Isabella and Rasmus Wranå won gold in mixed doubles curling at the Milan Cortina Olympics, beating the United States’ Duluth duo in the final on Tuesday night.

The Wranås won 6-5 over Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin, who became the first Americans to medal in Olympic mixed doubles. Thiesse is the first American woman to medal in Olympic curling.

The Wranå siblings grew up as rivals and were coached by their father, Mats Wranå. They’re Sweden’s first sibling team at the Olympics.

The championship game was agonizingly close, with the Swedes pouncing on an opening left by the Americans in the last end.

Throughout the match, the Wranås enjoyed a somewhat silent camaraderie with their small contingent of fans. The two remained stoic while Dropkin played to the crowd, whipping up the loud American supporters.

The Wranås won the world title in 2024. Dropkin and Thiesse won at worlds a year earlier.

The Swedish duo started their Olympic bid on stumbly legs, losing three games in a row in the round robin. The skid prompted the Swedish media to label their Olympic bid a “Curlingfiasko.”

But they soon managed to turn it around, winning most of their remaining matches.

It was a heartbreaker for the Americans, who enjoyed roaring support. An American curler screamed from the rafters, “Show me your biceps!” Dropkin obliged.

Dropkin and Thiesse are based in Duluth, Minnesota, and have full-time jobs. Thiesse is a lab technician and Dropkin a real estate agent. Dropkin is engaged and Thiesse is married.

They were classmates in college. Dropkin asked Thiesse to be his mixed doubles partner after a failed qualification run for the Beijing 2022 Games. She agreed and they were world champions a year later.

Italy wins bronze

Italy’s Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner won bronze, defeating Britain 5-3.

It was a bittersweet result for the Italians, the defending Olympic champions whose fans packed the stands throughout the round-robin in hopes to see a repeat. And it was devastating for the Brits, Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat, who were expected to make the final after exiting the round-robin with the most wins of any pair.

They faltered against exacting throws from Mosaner and Constantini, who hails from Cortina and has become a darling of this stadium. The British duo walked off the ice dejected.

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