Special Gomotopia Winter Olympic Coverage

The 21st Winter Olympic Games begin on February 12th, 2010 in Vancouver and a total of over 80 nations will participate. While many headlines will be written about Germany, the US, Austria, Russia and Canada, all countries with lots of snow and who performed well in 2006, I will begin my coverage on smaller and tropical nations taking part at the Olympics.

The history of random nations at the Winter Olympics begins with Mexico at the 1928 Olympic games in St. Moritz, Switzerland. A four man team participated and finished 11th out of 28. Since then, it took 56 years for Mexico to participate again with the entry of Prince Hubertus of Hohenlohe-Langenburg in 1984. Born in Mexico City, Andy Himalaya is descended from German Royalty and at several times was an Alpine Skier, Photographer, Pop Singer and all-around hustler. He participates again this year in 2010, in his words, upholding the tradition of "exotic skiers." Here's a video documenting his long career, including a visit to Andy Warhol's factory and his "coolest downhill suit" the Desperado in 2006.

This year, together with Mexico, I'll be covering 19 warm or otherwise small countries participating in Vancouver. While the list of attendant nations is still up in the air, Wikipedia reports that Cayman Islands, Colombia, Ghana, Montenegro, Pakistan, Peru and Serbia are competing for the first time. While, Montenegrins and Serbians have participated under different flags, we celebrate these new nations, all sending skiiers.

Following Mexico's example, the fate of a whole nation at the Olympic Games is often placed on the shoulders of one athlete who qualifies over and over. Ethiopia made its Olympic debut in 2006 with Robel Zemichael Teklemariam [link with video], a cross country skiing instructor from Colorado who had to ask his brother to run the 2-man Ethiopian Skiing Association. Be his fan on Facebook.



Other nations chose to concentrate on specific sports. Hong Kong has short-track speed skating and Nepal, a quite snowy country, sends cross-country skiiers.

Brazil, Bermuda, Cyprus, Monaco and Chinese Taipei have participated consistently through the 1980s. South Africa participated once in 1960 and again consistently since the 1990s after its post-Apartheid reentry. Portugal, Morocco, India has participated on and off since 1952 and 1960 and 1964 respectively.

And sadly, while Jamaica is sending a cross-country skiier, its Bobsled team may sit out the Olympic team one more time.