Inside the Making of a 50-Plus Olympian: AARP Checks In With Rich Ruohonen

What it takes to go for gold

It wasn’t without a lot of prep.

“I work out three to four days a week with a trainer for about 80 minutes of cardio and weights, leaving my house at 5:15 a.m. on those mornings to drive 30 miles to get to work out by 6 a.m. and still make it to work by 8,” Ruohonen tells AARP.

Team Casper traveled and played at least two weekends a month. When they weren’t out of town curling, Ruohonen practiced two nights a week and usually most weekends for a few hours. When he wants to exercise at home, he hops on a stationary bike and walks his dogs for a couple of miles when it’s not too cold, he says.

Todd Birr, director of operations at the Four Seasons Curling Center in Blaine, Minnesota, has known Ruohonen since the 1980s. They’ve played together and competed against one another.

“It is so good to see a player from my generation that gets the opportunity [to play in the Olympics],” Birr told AARP. “Rich is a stand-up guy. He’s always been a class act.”

Training for a tournament or for the U.S. Olympic trials isn’t easy; it takes a “tremendous amount of cardiovascular endurance,” Birr explains. Ahead of the Games this year, the U.S. curling team athletes worked out at the Minnesota Vikings training facility in Eagan, Minnesota.

But before they’re Olympic contenders, curlers typically work out and practice at local curling centers. Training typically ramps up in the early fall, ahead of tournament season and, for prospective Olympians, the trials.

Birr’s facility draws many competitive curlers, including high-level athletes who play in the center’s leagues. Recreational players can find themselves “curling right alongside Olympians,” Birr says.

Starting a sport when you’re over 50

Curling is growing in popularity, says Birr, who opened his arena in 2013 when there was just one other curling facility in the Twin Cities region. There are now five dedicated curling centers in the area, which is a testament to how much the sport has thrived. 

Though most people at Birr’s curling facility are over 40, there are also youth leagues. Children can start curling as young as 8, and the center sees players in their 80s still enjoying the sport. Some leagues have three generations of players, Birr adds. “Curling is really expanding,” he says.

Inspired to take up a sport in midlife? Mallory Fox, a National Academy of Sports Medicine master trainer from Scottsdale, Arizona, says shifting from general exercising to playing a sport when you’re over the age of 50 is a transition from “general maintenance to purposeful performance.”

Fox says, “While general exercise focuses on cardiovascular health and weight management, training for a sport — whether it’s curling, pickleball or tennis — requires preparing the body for unpredictable, multiplanar movements.”

Her tips for people 50 and older who are trying out a new sport include:

• Train for the “stop and start”: Most sports involve deceleration and change of direction, which are often missing from a standard gym routine. Incorporate movements in all planes of motion (like multiplanar lunges) and stability work to protect your joints against the specific rigors of your chosen sport, Fox says.
• Prioritize “prehab” over rehab: As an older adult, recovery takes longer, so focusing on your conditioning before you work out is key. “Don’t just warm up; perform a dynamic movement prep that mimics your sport,” Fox advises. For curling, that means focusing on hip mobility and single-leg balance before you ever step onto the ice, she adds.
• Incorporate rotational exercises: In the gym, we often move in straight lines — for example, you run forward on a treadmill and lift up and down with a chest press. Sport happens in rotation, Fox says. “Integrating core rotational exercises ensures that your body can handle the torque required by sports without risking injury to the lower back or shoulders,” she adds.

“The goal isn’t just to be fit; it’s to be durable,” Fox says. “Training like an athlete, even recreationally, provides a mental and physical edge that standard workouts often miss.”

After the Winter Games, Ruohonen says he's headed to Geneva in April for the Senior World Curling Championships. “Guaranteed that I will be the only person to have played in the Olympics and the Senior World Championships in the same year,” he says.